The Mending Lounge at Craft Ontario

New documentation up on my website of the project I contributed to The Mending Lounge this past spring at Craft Ontario. Check it out here: http://www.tara-bursey.com/recent/

Alexandra Brownell's Sweet Fibre at Needlework

At the beginning of this year, I had the awesome opportunity to visit a 3rd year textiles seminar class at Sheridan College as a guest curator thanks to friend and colleague Thea Haines, an instructor in their department of Crafts and Design.  I gave a talk about my work as an independent curator with a deep love and appreciation for textiles.  I also helped design and present an assignment to students where they were to prepare a submissions package for a call that I wrote around the theme of cotton.  All the students in the class were asked to think critically about cotton-- as a raw material, the history and politics of its production, and its qualities as a textile-- towards proposing an installation that they would create in the window of fantastic Hamilton textile shop, Needlework.

After all submissions were received and graded by Thea, Liz and Kate from Needlework and myself got together to jury the submissions.  Though so many submissions were thoughtful and worthy, we eventually decided on a proposal by the talented Alexandra Brownell who, inspired by archival photos at the Hamilton Local History Archives, created a nostalgic and whimsical tapestry that paid tribute to the carefree quality of cotton, outdoor fairs and the pleasure of summertime. I supported Alex through the process of planning her installation and writing an artist's statement, which was a great experience!

Sweet Fibre went up a few weeks ago, and is up for another week or two.  Spin around to check it out before it's too late! And congrats to Alex on a wonderful first solo show!

Tea, Talk and Tell at Needlework

At long last, Pulling Strings' next event is on the horizon.  After an incredible month of guest blog posts about essential textile-related publications, PS is launching it's latest initiative-- a textile book reference library-- with a reading and breakfast event at Needlework.  Textile artists Grant Heaps and Kate Jackson, Hamilton-based craft producer and maker Anna Zygowski and past Director of the TMC and lovely local Jennifer Kaye will talk about their favourite textile books in a casual show-and-tell/roundtable discussion.  There will be time to peruse the brand-new reference library's rich (and growing) collection as well, and we will be serving up tasty homemade scones.  Don't miss it!

Tea, Talk and Tell

A Launch Event for the Pulling Strings Reference Library

at Needlework

174 James Street North

Hamilton

Sunday, April 27th, 11 am - 12:30 pm

The Pulling Strings Reference Library

There's lots of amazing stuff brewing with my textile-based collective, Pulling Strings.  A few weeks ago our newest project, The Pulling Strings Reference Library, had its soft launch at Needlework.  A growing collection of eclectic textile-related publications have been installed in Needlework's window along with a cozy chair for browsing and lounging.  After April, the library will become an ongoing fixture at Needlework as a semi-permanent community reference of textile art, theory and how-to books, zines and catalogues both old and new, weird and wonderful.

There are other great library goings-on happening until the end of April as well.  Every Tuesday and Thursday, our blog will feature reviews of books from the personal collections of some of our textile heroes.  This series kicked off last week with reviews by Robyn Love, Kate Jackson and Grant Heaps with many more lined up (previews of a few of the books that will be featured above!). At the end of April, we'll have a reading event at Needlework where an impressive group of textile enthusiasts will read aloud from their fave textile books.  More details to come soon!

http://pullingstringshamilton.blogspot.ca/
https://www.facebook.com/pullingstringshamilton

(becoming) The Logic of Memory at Hamilton Artist's Inc.

Image: Corinne Duchesne, Sybil, 2013. Mixed media drawing on mylar.

I'm unbelievably excited about the following exhibition which opens at The Inc. next week, featuring the work of Corinne Duchesne, Peter Horvath and one of my textile art heros of all time, Anna Torma.  It was an honour and a privilege to be asked to write the catalogue essay for this show.  Don't miss this one, folks!

*****

[becoming] The Logic of Memory
Corinne Duchesne, Peter Horvath, Anna Torma

January 23 – March 1, 2014

Opening reception: Thursday, January 23, 7:00 – 9:30pm

Art Crawl: Friday, February 14, 7:00 – 11:00pm

To paraphrase Deleuze, we can only function in the present, but we are always in motion, always becoming. Our past makes up who we are, but by contemplating these moments of the past, we are no longer remembering, we are constructing something new, in turn effecting our future understanding of the present.

Each of the artists in this exhibition explore the concept of memory. Their diverse perspectives weave together and encourage visitors to consider notions of memory, nostalgia, time and loss. Corinne Duchesne’s layered mixed media drawings on mylar philosophically consider loss as a locative site of memory, using grief as an anchor to merge anthropomorphic forms with objects. Peter Horvath’s 2-channel video installation, Memoir, compares and juxtaposes the biographical similarities between his mother Eva and friend Denise, who both emigrated to Canada from Hungary, albeit decades apart. The installation is structured to reflect upon the nature of memory, manipulating the space between truth and fiction, past and present. Anna Torma’s technically rich textile installations reflect on the nostalgia of home, her immigrant heritage, the natural environment and maps the human body recalling the synapses of the brain.

Combined, through the use of these personal assemblages, the works in this exhibition reflect on the location and constructed nature of memory and it’s ability to influence and shape our understanding of ourselves in the present.

A catalogue essay by Tara Bursey will accompany the exhibition.

Hamilton Artists Inc.
155 James Street North, Hamilton
http://theinc.ca/

Toronto Hyperbolic Crochet Reef at Gallery 1313

December's Window Box installation at Gallery 1313 is well-timed considering it was a topic of discussion during Shannon's artist talk at the inaugural Pulling Strings event in Hamilton.  The Toronto Hyperbolic Crochet Reef is an ongoing community project originally conceived by four Toronto artsy crafters closely connected to the amazing City of Craft fair (also happening in December just down the street from Gallery 1313!).  Read on for details about this inspiring, growing installation.  The exhibition reception is tomorrow night!  Also, check out the THCR blog for info on how you can contribute your own hyperbolic forms to the reef.

Also, a reminder: only 3 more days to check out the multimedia works of another Gallery 1313 project, Telling: An Audio Survey of Parkdale before the disappear on the 30th.

*****

The Toronto Hyperbolic Crochet Reef
Gallery 1313 Window Box
December 2013

Reception: Thursday, November 28th, 7-10pm

The Toronto Hyperbolic Crochet Reef is a collective project of endless crochet for the city of Toronto. Inspired by the pioneering work in hyperbolic crochet of Dr. Daina Taimina and the artful modelling projects of the Institute for Figuring in Los Angeles, the Toronto Reef is just one in a great confluence of reefs worldwide that use craft and community art to address the problems of global warming and plastic oceanic trash. The reef is run and mostly built by Angelune Des Lauriers, Shannon Gerard, Kalpna Patel and Becky Johnson but it remains open to coral contributions from anyone in the city.  The Toronto Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef has been exhibited at City of Craft, Roadside Attractions, Fly Gallery, The Knit Cafe and at White Elephant as part of Hamilton Supercrawl.

http://torontohyperbolicreef.blogspot.ca/








1313 Queen Street West
Toronto, ON. M6K 1L8
Hours: Wed – Sun, 1:00 pm – 6:00 pm
Phone: 416-536-6778
http://www.g1313.org

Artscape Youngplace

 Heather Nicol

 Debbie Adams in Stairmasters

 Hanging tapestry in the SKETCH Admin Hub

 UnArchive exhibition title wall

 David Adam Brown at the Koffler Gallery

Vacant studio on the 2nd floor

Gorgeous visuals abound at the grand opening of Artscape Youngplace on Tuesday night.

Introducing Pulling Strings!

In the middle of the whirlwind of exhibitions happening this month, this little golden nugget is launching and I am very excited-- it's a project that has been in the works for a while.  Pulling Strings is a collective and quarterly event series organized by Jen Anisef (who I worked with on Toronto Craft Alert), Thea Haines (who's art I've always admired) and I.  The aim of Pulling Strings is to "investigate contemporary cultural themes through textile-linked lectures, panel discussions, exhibitions, workshops, and fieldtrips.  Motivated by a belief that textiles tell us a lot about our culture, and inspired by Hamilton’s creative community’s contribution to downtown renewal and civic engagement, Pulling Strings aims to create an accessible and dynamic space for people of various stripes to come together and engage in the exchange of ideas."

I'm really proud and excited to continue my critical work with textiles through this project, and to situate it in Hamilton, my new home.  Our first event is a talk and workshop with artist, educator, publications maven and crochet fiend Shannon Gerard, and it's happening this Saturday.  Don't miss out-- details about the event and pre-registration below.

AND an additional side note for Torontonians-- the Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef project (Shannon is a contributor) will be showing in the Gallery 1313 window box for the month of December!

*****

After months of coffee shop scheming and logo napkin doodles, we are pretty dang excited to be getting Pulling Strings off the ground with a talk and workshop led by Shannon Gerard! Shannon was a natural choice for a first speaker in the series – her playful approach to her practice is never stuffy or alienating but always makes you think about things not previously considered – exactly what we are trying to achieve with Pulling Strings.

Next Saturday (November 23) Shannon will give a talk and Q&A at the Hamilton Artists Inc, followed by a hands-on workshop at Needlework. We are super grateful to both spots for giving Pulling Strings, a roving series, its first home.

Recognized for her engaging teaching and speaking style, Shannon will share the evolution of her crochet practice from recognizable objects with a decorative or educational function to forms that graph concepts of hyperbolic space or chart biographical and emotional journeys.  Following the talk, anyone is invited to push the boundaries typically associated with crochet as a functional pastime in a conceptual crochet workshop - no crochet experience necessary! As spaces are limited, we'll need you to register beforehand by emailing us at pullingstringshamilton@gmail.com.

Here are the details:
Who: Shannon Gerard (http://shannongerard.tumblr.com)
When: Saturday November 23, 2013; Talk and Q&A (2:00-3:30pm); Workshop (4:00-5:30pm)
Where: Talk and Q&A – Hamilton Artists Inc. 155 James N Hamilton, ON (@ Cannon); Workshop – Needlework, 174 James St N Hamilton, ON
Cost: Talk - FREE; Workshop - $10
Registration: Talk – all are welcome, no RSVP required; Workshop – contact pullingstringshamilton@gmail.com to register.

A bit about Shannon: In addition to teaching courses in print media and nano-publishing at OCAD University in Toronto, Shannon Gerard makes artist's books about magic, hope, faith and human frailty and produces large-scale installations that incorporate stop-motion animations and digital print. Shannon spends at least 50% of her waking life crocheting soft sculptures, which include Boobs and Dinks, Plants You Can’t Kill, and contributions to the Toronto Hyperbolic Coral Reef.

Hamilton Supercrawl 2013

Hooked Ontario coat of arms chair pad.  Really nice!

Dancing shoes.

Last year, I gushed about Supercrawl after taking in the full event from the comfort of the tent where I was helping as part of the Toronto Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef.  Supercrawl this year was a whirlwind-- we had guests from Toronto who came to take in the event with us.  By the time we had a leisurely chat and a few drinks on our front porch, Saturday afternoon had turned into Saturday night and we were tossed into the shark tank that is the grand finale of the mammoth annual event that includes art installations, food trucks galore and several A-list musical acts.

We made a big mistake taking our time, because Supercrawl is not something you can really take in in two hours on the final night.  We found ourselves wandering in to Christ's Church Anglican Cathedral on James Street to catch our breaths.  Being from Toronto, huge street fairs with food and cheap vendors (Supercrawl certainly had its share of these this year) are a dime a dozen.  Rarer experiences are those you get in a historic building where you can share in a sense of quiet wonder with a large group of similarly awestruck folks amid the chaos of the outside world.

Hamilton Supercrawl 2012 Report

Tons of fun was had last weekend at what may have been my last summer hurrah before a deluge of autumn work at the Hamilton Supercrawl.  I went as a special assistant to pals Becky and Kalpna whose fabulous project, the Toronto Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef, was (and still is) installed at indie accessory and vintage shop White Elephant for the duration of weekend.

Becky and I rolled into Hamilton late on the first night of the Supercrawl.  Armed with a mickey of bourbon, we took to the streets and spotted some great stuff, among it DIY street haircutting, ornate steel quilts, a samosa vendor that had 10+ tantalizing varieties including vegetarian South African samosas, and the above collage work by art collective Group of Seven Billion, which in many cases reminded me of the punk art of Winston Smith and Crass artist Gee Vaucher.  The next night, I came away with three fabulous pieces for a whopping $12-- thanks guys!

After a night's rest, we pitched a tent and made some impromptu hyperbolic coral models and answered questions from passersby about the installation and the fine art of hyperbolic crochet.  Visitors to the tent marveled at Kalpna (whose hands are in the foreground) and her hybrid crochet-knitting overhand swoosh technique as well as Becky (gal with yellow tights) and her anus-themed pseudosphere...!  We also answered the question of the day exactly eleven million times: "How much are you selling these afghans for?"  Answer:  "They are not for sale-- they are only for decoration. Sorry."

My Saturday was spent slowly making what ended up being a rather wimpy crocheted pseudosphere.  I also got to see the fabulous Hamilton-born and bred proto-punk band Simply Saucer on an outdoor stage.  Later that day, we took down the tent, ate dinner, drank a few pints at The Brain, and caught the end of Owen Pallett's set before hunkering down for the night.

I'm ready to move to Hamilton!

Rochester Trip

Took a quick trip across the pond to Rochester, New York last week.  The weather was sort of craptastic (mostly cold and damp), but it was a really cool trip nonetheless.  Rochester is a tiny city, with lots of neat art deco/art moderne architecture.  The Kodak Building, the firehall on Chestnut Avenue and this old Chevrolet dealership (?) turned coffee shop in downtown Rochester's east end were highlights, for sure.

While I was there, I managed to take in a lot of art in both expected and unexpected places.  I went to the George Eastman House (Eastman was founder of Kodak, which is based in Rochester) which is a museum of photography and film situated in an old ivy-covered mansion.  There was an exhibition up which featured a number of photographic medallions from the early 20th Century such as the one above (scooped from the George Eastman House Flickr page).  There was another small exhibition called Ballyhoo, which focused on promotional materials and signage from the golden age of film and was particularly neat.  The one thing that irked me about Eastman House was it's lack of wayfinding information-- after leaving, we realized that we had missed two of the museum's exhibitions entirely.  Rats!

One of our other stops was the Rochester Contemporary Art Center, which had a great show up called Work It: Artists Address Labour and Unemployment.  It was nice to see pieces from Kathryn Clark's Foreclosure Quilt series up in this show, which I had only previously seen through images online.  Also got to meet the gallery's plucky Director, who introduced himself and chatted for a while.  Nice dude!  Don't think that's ever happened to me in Toronto...!

Our first night there, we ventured into the amazing abandoned Rochester Subway tunnel with the friend we were staying with armed with only a single flashlight and about $10 (goes a long way in the U.S.) worth of alcohol . Apparently people go down into the tunnel all the time to explore-- there was a ton of graffiti down there.  The above patch was particularly unusual.

This trip to Rochester made me miss Baltimore quite a bit, and reminded me how much smaller American cities have to offer.  Canadians generally want to go to places like New York City and San Francisco on vacation-- understandably so, but smaller American cities seem to really have their own unique identity and a slew of neat things to check out that can be found pretty easily.  I'm looking forward to going on more quick and dirty trips like this just south of the border in the future-- next up is Detroit, hopefully.

Slow Art Day at the Textile Museum of Canada

I am proud to announce that the Textile Museum of Canada has invited me be their host for Slow Art Day 2012. Haven't heard of Slow Art Day?  Don't worry, I hadn't either until they asked me to help them out with it...

Slow Art Day is a worldwide event that will take place around lunchtime on April 28th.  Guests are invited to pay admission to their local participating museum and take their time looking at four or five pre-selected objects from the museum's current exhibitions.  After an hour or so, guests will then gather somewhere for lunch and casually discuss their thoughts about the work.  The point is to take some time to unplug, relax, enjoy yourself, and appreciate some glorious examples of art, craft and creative genius from around the world.  The point is also to gather and talk about art-- no experience required!

On the 28th, we will be viewing objects from the TMC's current exhibitions: Portable Mosques: The Sacred Space of the Prayer Rug and Perpetual Motion: Material Reuse in the Spirit of Thrift, Utility and Beauty.  For more information on these exhibitions, check out the Textile Museum's website.   Objects will be announced to registrants within the next week or so.

After viewing the objects, guests will meet on the TMC Mezzanine for lunch and discussion.  I was thinking in addition to bringing your own lunch, it would be nice if everyone could bring something edible to share with the group potluck-style, if possible.  Also, feel free to bring along any textiles or objects you own that employ reused materials in an interesting way for discussion and admiration.

Preregistration is required-- you can do this here:

http://slowarttmc2012.eventbrite.com/

Hope to see some of you there!  Also, please spread the word!

Image: Indigo Robe from Nigeria (detail), 20th Century

Charles Ledray

Charles Ledray is a Seattle-born artist I became interested in while working at the Textile Museum last summer.  I've been bogged down with school stuff for the past week and haven't posted anything in a while, so here is a little piece I wrote for an assignment about the work pictured above entitled workworkworkworkwork, first exhibited in 1991.  FYI: I will be building a "fantasy exhibition" of sorts around this work for a curating class.

*
Charles Ledray
workworkworkworkwork, 1991
588 objects: Fabric, thread, cotton batting, yarn, embroidery floss, nylon cord, carpet, leather, wood, metal, foil, metal chain, wire, nails, porcelain, pumice, beads, buttons, cardboard, corrugated cardboard, paper, magic marker, paint
Approximately 13.7 m x 25.4 cm x 5 cm
Private Collection, Houston, TX

Charles Ledray is an artist working primarily in the area of fibre-base sculpture and installation.  His work is characterized by labour-intensive and somewhat obsessive tendencies towards hand making.  A compelling blend of high-art and craft, his best-known works are installations comprised of handmade men’s suits, hats, fantastical garments and ceramic vessels that play with multiplicity and scale.  In his installation workworkworkworkwork (1991), 588 miniature objects-- among them garments, magazines, housewares and multiple pieces of art-- were displayed in New York’s Astor Place in the form of an impromptu street sale.  Each of the objects was painstakingly hand-crafted by Ledray, and their presentation on a busy sidewalk-- often splayed across shrunken replicas of flattened cardboard boxes and rumpled raincoats-- cleverly blurred the lines between art and mass-produced object.  The individual objects themselves are an enigmatic combination of abjection and whimsy, like a half-inch dildo in a dollhouse.

Both the presentation and objects of workworkworkworkwork evoke a number of responses in the viewer.  The lack of human presence in the installation causes the objects to convey a sense of melancholy and loneliness, imploring one to piece together biographical details of the hypothetical owners of each cluster of tiny belongings for sale. The objects are reminiscent of toys or props-- accessories for a Ken doll whose dream house was foreclosed and who is drifting from fleabag hotel to fleabag hotel.  Each object straddles the line between precious and imprecious, with grasshopper-sized hardcover novels standing spine up as if tossed aside among real cigarette butts on the sidewalk.  The centrality of labour is evident in the work, from Ledray’s labour to the title of the work to the work of people who labour to make mass-produced objects in sweatshops that move from multi-national chain store to church sale to sidewalk vendor to landfill.  Finally, the piece’s presentation on a public sidewalk is dependent on the presence of the pedestrian to complete the work.  This brings to mind how members of dominant society-- in the case of workworkworkworkwork, the Manhattan white-collar worker, socialite, window shopper, or tourist-- view people on the margins of society.  The homeless, street vendors and people performing menial jobs are relegated as background players against an urban backdrop, always viewed peripherally.  The miniaturization of the objects in workworkworkworkwork poignantly reflects this.

While it is easy to get completely caught up in the sense of wonder and delightful seediness of Ledray’s tiny sculptural stand-ins, a key to the work’s success lies in its presentation in public, on a sidewalk in a huge metropolis that dwarfs everything it contains. Situated in Manhattan-- an iconic American city which has long been seen as a centre of commerce, immigration, power and consumption-- workworkworkworkwork interacts with its site’s impressive web of history, from deadly industrial disasters in garment factories and riots fuelled by class resentment to the economic and social conditions of New York City in 1991 when workworkworkworkwork was first exhibited.  The relationship between the objects-- which despite their scale evoke personal histories that feel very real-- and the site activate something much larger than the diminutive objects laboured over by Ledray: a greater social history of a city that lies deeper than a sidelong glance during a brisk walk across a crowded intersection.

Photos courtesy of the Whitney's website: http://whitney.org/Exhibitions/CharlesLeDray/Images

Robyn Love Interview on TCA

Conducted an interview with knit-ty multi-disciplinary artist Robyn Love last week in honour of the massive public art project that she was commissioned to do for the Cheongju International Craft Biennale. The interview was posted on TCA last Friday...read it and get inspired! http://torontocraftalert.ca/2011/09/23/questions-for-crafters-cheongju-robyn-love/

Image: Water Tower Cozy by Robyn Love, courtesy of her website.

AVAM, Baltimore

Between the earthquake and the hurricane, I managed to make it out to the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore late last week. Lots of amazing work there and lots to think about. Their current exhibition What Makes Us Smile? was full of happy-sad work by a wide range of individuals, from outsider artists to Patch Adams, M.D. I loved the beaded Alfred E. Neuman headboard by Patty Kuzbida. It was also a unique pleasure to see the work of a Toronto friend in a huge museum show in a totally different city-- Rev. Aitor of The Misanthrope Specialty Co. had some of his infamous Unflattering Portraits in the show, and seeing them there was like seeing a familiar (ugly) face in a crowd of strangers.

After seeing the exhibition, Ben said that it was great that a museum like this exists because the things on display were "things he would have wanted to make when (he) was a kid." In saying this, he was referring to art made out of salvage, and a huge model boat made out of toothpicks (!) in particular. In so many words, I think he was implying that the work at the AVAM might encourage people to make things just for the sake of making them or follow a creative impulse that might initially seem odd or "pointless." This is an important thing for artists to keep in mind too-- there is nothing wrong with just making for the sake of making, or doing something "just because you want to." After all, experiments are the mothers of invention.