sensual experience

"cherry blossoms" detail by Ana Galindo, linen, thread and cherry stems, 2015 

The exhibition Sensorial Objects continues until May 2 at the Craft Ontario gallery 990 Queen Street West, Toronto Ontario.

Here, cherry stems are couched with thread onto re-purposed linen by artist Ana Galindo, arranged without altering their beautiful naturally curved shape.  The viewer recalls how cherries taste, how the stems feel in our fingers.  We understand blossoms.

"cherry blossoms" from the series "of the everyday and its leftovers"  21 3/8 " x 64 1/8" x 2", linen, thread and cherry stems, 2015 by Ana Galindo

"In a world of materials, nothing is ever finished.  Everything may be something, but being something is always on the way to being something else.  We can call this re-cycling, but from a materials centered view it is simply life."  Tim Ingold

Accompanying the exhibition is a publication that besides double spreads of each of the artists' work, also contains an introduction to the exhibition by Craft Ontario Curator and director of programs Janna Heimstra, a curatorial statment by Kathleen Morris and Monica Bodirsky, and an essay entitled A Continuity by artist and educator Judith Leemann.  Leemann reminds us that the viewer's own life experience with familiar materials acts as the way to understand not only these artworks but also allows us to imagine further possibilities of the artworks and/or the materials and/or ourselves.

"jaryu" detail.  Chung-Im Kim  2012

For example, Chung-Im Kim (above) uses a familiar material in an unfamiliar way and Dorie Millerson (below) uses unfamiliar material in a familiar way.  Kim prints the felt, cuts it up, and through careful hand stitch, manipulates it into a kind of distorted animal hide while Millerson creates anew something recognizable and nostalgic that references un-locking, opening up, crossing thresholds.

Key  by Dorie Millerson.  Needle lace, cotton, wire  2" x 7.5" 2011

All of the work in the exhibit address the sense of touch.
History and possibility.
The work of the hand.
The aesthetic of time.

Return To the Next by Eva Ennist.  reed, concrete, hand made paper, recycled fiberglass.  72" x 27",  2014-15

Experiencing artwork made from materials and through our senses encourages deep reflection.

Return To the Next detail  Eva Ennist 2014-15

The ten artists in this exhibition are faculty at OCAD, Ontario College of Art and Design.
Their names are:  Monica Bodirsky, Eva Ennist, Ana Galindo, Lynne Heller, Chung-Im Kim, Rachel MacHenry, Dorie Millerson, Kathleen Morris, Meghan Price and Laurie Wassink.

In the language of landscape by Kathleen Morris.  56" x 24" x 1", wool and fleece, 2015

Each of these makers have manipulated things from the real world into new things that have never been seen before..  The act of making new objects from materials that already have a history and a language, places both maker and viewer on the same path.  One of the curators, Kathleen Morris, (whose work is shown above) states that "the act of making becomes an invitation for my body to reunite with the living landscape."

In the language of landscape  detail, Kathleen Morris, 2015

In another gallery just down the street (NO FOUNDATION 1082 1/2 Queen St W) was another exploration of the senses, David Ballantine's installation The Remembering of the Air.  Ballantine's three well crafted and beautiful inventions were made to be handled by those who entered the gallery. He states: "Through the reverent interaction of instruments and the body, my work investigates the sensuous within a growing digital and immaterial world." read more of his statement here.

David Ballantine with one of the instruments he made for his installation
The Remembering of the Air