Magical Material Thinking

To Lips velvet, brass, porcelain, mirror 2019 by April Martin

This post is about our daughter's exhibition currently on at Harbourfront Centre of Craft and Design in Toronto.  Magical Material Thinking.

Romance Portal (detail) brass, wax  2019 by April Martin

The objects are whimsical hand made treasures created from solid materials that, like humans, change from within through experiences.

It's an exhibition of two artists, but this blog post is just about April's work.  It's up until middle of October at HarbourFront centre of craft and design where she is a resident artist.

"There is no denying the joy of encountering a group of objects that transport you to another
otherworldly place"  Melanie Egan, curator of Harbourfront Craft and Design

Ideal Solution pewter, cobalt carbonate fired to quartz inversion, earthenware 2019 by April Martin

I was able to attend the opening celebration on July 11, along with many of April's friends and family members.

Fashionista April in sky blue shoes.

Snek Out neon, earthenware, unfired cobalt carbonate 2019 by April Martin

"The sheer pleasure objects can evoke and the delight artists experience through their
engagement with making and materials is a cause to celebrate."  Melanie Egan

Brightening Visibly copper, wool, carbon fiber 2018 by April Martin

April made Brightening Visibly when she was home with Ned and myself the winter of 2018.  The title comes from a favourite saying of Ned's that she had heard since childhood.   It was his answer to questions or statements (mostly about food) such as me saying: "oh sorry, there's no more broccoli "  and him responding with a smile: "brightening visibly".

Hard to believe, but in the sculpture pictured below, there is no adhesive or indentation to keep the scales in balance.  Just balance itself.

Rising Libra fired and unfired cobalt carbonate, clay 2019 by April Martin

"Artist April Martin and designer-maker Natalie Sirianni present an exhibition of curious
objects and installations infused with the alchemical nature of materials, process, and thought. "
Melanie Egan, curator

cobalt carbonate in unfired state is pink

cobalt carbonate after firing in kiln changes colour to blue  Rising Libra detail

The photos in this post are from the opening, and suffer from the reflections on the glass cases.

Romance Portal

For much better photos and April's observations about the creation of this body of work, go to the blog Modernist Aesthetic.  

To Lips

Love you, proud of you, dear April xo

World of Threads festival 2018, some highlights

Lorraine Roy (Canada):   Integration
cotton, acrylic paint, machine applique, embroidery and quilting

"Tree rings record time and events in the life of a tree by building layer upon layer of fresh cells, leaving the marks of its life forever preserved within.  Similarily, we move through our lives, collecting and sometimes burying our own memories"  Lorraine Roy

 Lorraine Roy (Canada):  Call of the Heart
cotton, acrylic paint, machine applique, embroidery and quilting

Lorraine Roy (Canada):   Through the Woods
cotton, acrylic paint, machine applique, embroidery and quilting

The three circles above are 36 inches diameter.
a SOLO exhibition at World of Threads

Ragnhild Monsen (Norway):  Defragmentation I: white  and Defragmentation II: black
two hand woven tapestries, jute wool nylon
each about 7 feet square

Included in the FLOW exhibition at World of Threads 2018  Oakville Ontario
curated by Dawne Rudman and Gareth Bate

masterful tapestry weaving

Ragnhild Monsen (Norway):  Butterfly Days
hand woven tapestry, jute, wool, nylon
part of Botanical Realm exhibition, World of Threads

Hazel Bruce (Northern Ireland):  Space Pattern Place  2
Linen and silk
machine embroidery, applique, hand stitching

part of the FLOW exhibition at World of Threads this year (2018)

Anna Lefsrud (Canada):  One Full Stride
24 horses, woven copper wire
part of the Fibre 3D exhibition at World of Threads

World of Threads Festival (Canada) opened October 13 2018 and continues until December 31.  However, the group exhibition in the gallery space entitled FLOW will close November 25

Elise Vazelakis (USA): Enlightenment

woven steel and wire, about 9 feet x 8.3 feet

included in FLOW exhibition World of Threads

The World of Threads festival is a biennial exhibition that has grown over the years.  The two curatoris, Dawne Rudman and Gareth Bate, allow the work that is submitted by the artists to guide them.  They do not begin with pre-determined ideas, and each festival is a blank slate that is formed from the newest and best work that the artists send in.

Elise Vazelakis (USA):  Repetitive Stillness
woven fiber, steel, and copper
about 10 feet high, 7 1/2 feet wide, included in FLOW exhibition at World of Threads

The festival is hosted in Oakville Ontario at a single venue, the Queen Elizabeth Park Community and Cultural Centre

Sun Young Kang (USA):  In Between Presence and Absence
cast paper - hundreds of vessels from everyday life
The main INSTALLATION at World of Threads festival this year

Sun Young Kang explores themes such as emptiness, the visible and the invisible.

Sun Young Kang (USA):  Freezing Moments to Turn Them into Eternity  Study 1 - 18
canvas, cotton thread, artist's hair, glue  wrapped
a SOLO exhibition at World of Threads

"I try to visualize the invisible ideas in our life in a very minimal but obsessive way.  I question how past experiences and forgotten momemories become the strong force that connect individuals in different times and space subconsciously."  Sun Young Kang

Eva Ennist (Canada):  Nesting - Entangled   and  Nesting - Commit
cast resin,  reed, steel, wood, paint  120" x 21.5"and cold-cast bronze, reed, steel, wood, paint 84" x 20" part of the 3D exhibition at World of Threads

Eva Ennist (Canada):  Nesting - Tolerance 
cold-cast bronze, reed, steel, wood, paint
77" x 21.5"

"Nests, fish traps and spires are forms that shelter, confine and contain.  I am drawn to the conical shapes of these things, some of them open and some of them closed, acting as metaphors for either an abundance of faith, trust or survival - or the absence of it."  Eva Ennist

There are 365 pieces of art at this year's festival and 65 artists from around the world
All exhibitions except for the FLOW exhibition will remain up until December 31, so if you are close to the area, it is well worth your time. 

Barbara Klunder

Trojan Horse (detail) by Barbara Klunder 2018  linen with cotton and silk thread 

The text and images in this post are by Barbara Klunder about Gwendolyn MacEwen, Toronto poet (1941 - 1987)

Trojan Horse (detail) by Barbara Klunder 2018  linen with cotton and silk thread 

Gwendolyn MacEwen grew up near the junction area of the city and then lived on the Toronto Islands during the early 60's.  She and Margaret Atwood were close friends during that time. 

The Trojan Horse was the name of a coffeehouse that she and her second husband, Greek musician Niko Tsingos, opened for a few years on the Danforth in 1972.

Trojan Horse 2018 by Barbara Klunder   linen with cotton and silk thread  47 x 67.5 inches

Her poetry is full of longing

for Egypt,
for deep love

Trojan Horse (detail) 2018  by Barbara Klunder  linen with cotton and silk threads

for understanding,

and I wanted to make something for her.

Death is a Snake (detail) 2018 by Barbara Klunder

I used many images that were built inside her poems
as she wrote to explain her desires

her dreams,
her hopes

and her betrayals.

Death is a Snake 2018 by Barbara Klunder    linen with cotton and silk thread  59 x 34.5 inches

She would symbolize her love in many ways.

As lions,

Death is a Snake (detail) by Barbara Klunder

as storms,
as tigers,
as birds,
as magic.

Death is a Snake (detail) 2018 by Barbara Klunder  linen with cotton and silk threads

Everything that is in my embroideries
is based on her poems

Cape for Gwendolyn 2018 by Barbara Klunder hand embroidered velvet  

The exhibition Barbara Klunder: Tattoos for Gwendolyn MacEwen remains on view at the David Kaye Gallery until April 29, 2018

cape for Gwendolyn (detail) 2018 by Barbara Klunder

the red bird you wait for

you are waiting for someone to confirm it
you are waiting for someone to say it plain
now we are here and because we are short of time
I will say, I might even speak its name

it is moving above me, it is burning my heart red
I have felt it crash through my flesh
I have spoken to it in a foreign tongue
I have stroked its neck in the night like a wish

its name is the name you have buried in your blood
its shape is a gorgeous cast off velvet cape
its eyes are the eyes of your most forbidden lover
and its claws, I tell you its claws are gloved in fire

you are waiting to hear its name spoken
you have asked me a thousand times to speak it
you who have hidden it, cast it off, killed it
loved it to death and sung your songs over it

the red bird you wait for falls with giant wings
a velvet cape whose royal colour calls us kings
is the form it takes as, uninvited, it descends
it is the power and the glory forever, amen

Gwendolyn MacEwen  

Permanent Dangers by Anna Torma

I have been wanting to post images of Anna Torma's exquisite two sided embroidery that was part of the first Canadian Craft Biennial at the Burlington Art Gallery, Ontario since mid-October.  The co-founders of the Biennial, Emma Quin (director of the Textile Museum of Canada) and Denis Longchamps (director and chief curator of the Art Gallery of Burlington) indicate that the second Craft Biennial will happen in the spring of 2020.  Good news for all of us who love art that is materially based.

This piece by Anna Torma uses her now familiar language of child-like drawings of monsters, here in combination with human figures.  A very prolific artist who works completley in hand stitch, Anna's creates bodies of work for exhibition, such as Superlayers    Blood ties  (and also here) is a recent exhibit she held with her grown son.   I have written about her work before (here) but if you are interested in seeing her newest work, she is active on facebook.

Look at the amount of stitching!  These stitches are like drawn marks with coloured pencil.

The variety of scales and subjects in the imagery over whelms our senses.
It's different than  anything I would do myself.
It throbs.
It excites the viewer.

The two sides of this piece are each beautiful
Black cloth backing, white cloth front.
The thread drawings join these two opposites.
Then the artist stitched through all images and backgrounds - everything -
with thick white thread so that the back looks as if caught in a snow storm, and the front is quieter.
Not erased, but muted.

and the edges.
Don't you want to touch?