fibreQUARTERLY | new issue online

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fibreQUARTERLY Volume 5 Issue 4/ winter 2009-10  is now on line.

Just below the Surface starts with a look at the Surface Design Associations “Off the Grid” by Montreal based Indigo artist Valérie d. Walker. A profile  of  Gunnel Hag one of the founding members of Surfacing; Textile Dyers and Printers associations provides as much of a look at her work as the 1970s era when the SDA and Surfacing came into being.

Contemporary textile printing is presented by introductions to the Centre Design & Impression Textile De Montréal, submitted by Monique Beauregard, and The Contemporary Textile Studio Co-operative in Toronto submitted by Rachel MacHenry.

The City of Calgary Bridge Banner Project which is now in its third year has installed work that has been made by hand for the first time. ACAD graduates Marci Simkulet and Stefanie Wong art the makers behind the 140 woven, knitted or felted banners which make up this temporary public art installation.

With this issue we have completed 5 years of bringing a selection of what’s current on the Canadian Scene, profiles of artist and reviews of exhibitions. These stories represent only the tip of the iceberg so to speak of a vital and exciting community of makers, educators, curators, galleries and museums involved in working with and presenting Textiles and Fibre work in Canada.

It is time for the next step and fibreQUARTERLY is now seeking people interested in being involved in beyond readership and subscribers. We need a volunteer advisory committee willing to commit time and effort to plan the next five years. It is also time to bring together a group of interested people to create and contribute to Mapping Canada:  We need regional editors/ reporters who can track events and the resulting coverage to add to our growing data base / bibliography. I if its not covered here we still want to know about it. The future looks good and with your help it can be. 

Volunteer your time and knowledge, renew or subscribe for the first time or give a gift subscription to a friend. As always we are an open magazine and free for anyone to access, your subscription dollars help keep the stories coming.

Our annual PDF Anthology is being prepared now. Please enjoy this new issue.

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Andi Strand | Antler Magazine

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Andi Strand is the founder and editor in chief of Antler Magazine which “…focuses on composing a collection of beautiful, inspiring ideas and designs from all aspects of life.” With contributors from Canada, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom and the United States, Antler is an online magazine with a fashion focus that casts a broad net encompassing aspects of art design, literature and culture.

Strand is a graduate of the Alberta College of Art + Design in Calgary Alberta and designs bags from recycled materials at HOAKON/HELGA

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The Museum of Touch


Lesley Bricknell, `Preservation` series (work in progress)

partially constructed textile, lace imprints (photo image)

Every now and again an essay comes along that is totally inspirational and for me it is ‘From the Museum of Touch’ by Susan Stewart in Material Memories: Design and Evocation (Marius Kwint, et al eds, Oxford, Berg, 1999). Basically her concern is with the paradox of ‘touch’ in terms of makers and the ‘denial of touch’ in terms of their display and preservation. She refers to museum collections as ‘repositaries of touch and care’ in itself a lyrical description. She also looks specifically at artist Anne Wilson. She is very much a ‘tactile’ artist. She uses human hair extensively in her work, minutely stitched and, in some pieces, placed under glass. An indication of her interest in archiving and presentation and subsequent installation and video pieces. Desire to touch, caress not permitted.

At the time of reading ‘From the Museum of Touch’ I was hooked on an image of a dress (white of course) worn by Emily Dickinson. I couldn’t really work out my fascination until it dawned on me that it was the idea of ‘preservation’ that really interested me. And I can now see I’m into the touch ‘denial’ thing too! My background is in Textiles. Invariably, however, I make photo or scanned imagery that has evolved from tactile origins. The need or desire to physically handle material, stuff, etc. is important for me despite the fact that little survives as evidence. Touch, apparently, is one that is ultimately linked to emotion and feeling. The activity of producing a digital image can be clinical, distant, mechanical. At least in my experience. I value the physicality of this particular way of making work. And recent reading has in turn moved things on a little.

Submitted by Lesley Bricknell

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New Issue of fibreQuarterly Online

Volume 5 Issue 2/ Spring/ summer 2009 is now on line, with the title Entrepreneurial Textiles this double issue looks at the Inspired Design: Jacquard and Entrepreneurial Textiles conference which took place in Hendersonville, North Carolina this past January. Using the conference as a base we offer profiles of eight Canadian designer makers working with industrial or hand techniques in printing weaving and knitting to produce yardage for garments, fashion accessories and home décor products.

The issue is completed with reviews and previews of exhibitions Textile Arts of Canada at the Montreal Centre for Contemporary Textiles, Biennale Internationale du Lin de Portneuf 2009 in the Portneuf region in Quebec, and Thinking Different: Thinking JacquART in Haslach Austria which has been organized to coincide with the European Textile Networks 15th annual conference.

www.velvethighway.com


submitted by Joe Lewis

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Textile Arts in Canada at the Montreal Centre for Contemporary Textiles

The Montreal Centre for Contemporary Textiles is presenting Textile Arts in Canada, an exhibition which brings together works of the most predominant artists on the scene of Canadian Textile Art.

From April 15 to May 22 2009. Opening Wednesday April 15 at 5pm. For more information visit www.textiles-mtl.com

Laura Vickerson, Ming, Mao And McDonald’s [detail]

The work of ACAD Instructor Laura Vickerson is included in this exhibition and corresponding publication Art Textiles of the World: Canada from Telos Art Publishing. Congratulations Laura!

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New issue of fibreQuarterly Online

A new issue of fibre Quarterly is now online. Edited by Joe Lewis, fibreQuarterly features the work of Canadian fibre artists from across the country. In this issue, a review of Wendy Toogood’s Nakusp Narrative by Amy Gogarty, work by Reeta Saeed, Rashmi Varma, Mary Wong, The Lemon Collective to name a few.

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WeaveZine a new online magazine for weavers

The first issue of WeaveZine is now online. It contains several informative and inspirational articles including an item on the ergonomics of weaving by Canadian weaver Laura Fry, several innovative projects like Bonnie Tarses’ “turned weft ikat” and a network cable scarf by Selah Barling that can actually be used as a network cable for your laptop!

WeaveZine is edited by Syne Mitchell, host of WeaveCast an excellent and entertaining podcast for and about handweavers.

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The Journal of Modern Craft

Berg Publishers introduce The Journal of Modern Craft, “…the first peer-reviewed academic journal to provide an interdisciplinary and international forum in its subject area. It addresses all forms of making that self-consciously set themselves apart from mass production—whether in the making of designed objects, artworks, buildings, or other artefacts. The journal covers craft in all its historical and contemporary manifestations. It starts in the mid-nineteenth-century, when handwork was first consciously framed in opposition to industrialization, through to the present time, when ideas once confined to the ‘applied arts’ have come to seem vital across a huge range of cultural activities. Special emphasis is placed on studio practice, and on the transformations of indigenous forms of craft activity throughout the world. The journal also reviews and analyses the relevance of craft within new media, folk art, architecture, design, contemporary art, and other fields.”

The first issue is available online HERE

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