Textiles as Art: Selections from the Permanent Collection at the Cambridge Galleries

Yesterday was a blustery day. One of those days when you really don't expect much in the way of gallery traffic. But sometimes days just don't turn out as you expect and rather than sitting alone at my computer, I spent the afternoon engaged in a series of interesting conversations with visitors that wandered in.

Currently I am showing Caitlin Erskine-Smith's absolutely amazing weavings. They have completely transformed the gallery space loading it with multi-layered meanings hidden within the text and symbols of these painted textiles. Erskine-Smith's work is at once reminiscent of Japanese calligraphy, Egyptian hieroglyphics, ancient text but at the same time very contemporary, almost post-modern and very much her own.

Caitlin Erskine-Smith, Writing Down the Gauntlet, 2009
Woven linen with painted warp
44" x 670"

I had a long conversation with one of my visitors yesterday. We discussed Caitlin's work, her process and inspiration. She then turned to me and asked me if I was an artist? I replied that I was not. She then queried, "But don't you want to be an artist?"

Caitlin Erskine-Smith, Timing, 2009
Woven Cotton with painted warp
200" x 34"

How do you define who or what is an artist? Is anyone and everyone who creates something that fits within some definition of "art" an artist? One can then ask what is art?

A couple of weeks ago I headed over to Design at Riverside, one of the three main sites of the Cambridge Galleries system located in the impressive University of Waterloo School of Architecture building, to attend the opening of Selections from the Permanent Collection.

Personally, I love that openings for exhibitions at Design at Riverside tend to be on Tuesday evenings, as that is the day I typically have classes or seminars at the University of Waterloo. It also does not hurt that it is Pizza Madness night in the Melville Cafe, which is located in the Architecture building and directly across from the gallery. (I am particularly partial to their red pepper and basil wood-fired pizza.)

The Kitchener / Waterloo / Cambridge region has a rich textile manufacturing history. As a way to pay homage to this the Cambridge Galleries started to collect work that demonstrates the diversity and ingenuity of Canadian artists working in textile based media. Today this collection is one of the best and most comprehensive collections of contemporary Canadian fibre art in the country.

Installation View, Selections from the Permanent Collection

March 2 - April 11, 2010

Cambridge Galleries: Design at Riverside

Cambridge, ON

The 2010 exhibition featured work by twenty-two artists working within a variety of styles, techniques and mediums. The work exhibited blurs the traditional lines between art and craft, as each of these artists demonstrate the versatility and flexibility of what could be considered craft materials in the creation of unique works of art.

Arounna Khounnoraj's work captures your attention as it greets the visitor and draws you into the gallery space. Khounnoraj's organic sculptural forms created with salt covered copper are reminiscent of woven basketry. They have a strong sense of physicality, but at the same time float in the space.

Arounna Khounnoraj, Untitled, 2000

salt, copper wire

Selections from the Permanent Collection

Cambridge Galleries: Design at Riverside

Cambridge, ON

Lately I have become obsessed with the way shadows add another level of dimensionality to certain artworks. Khounnoraj's Untitled is a wonderful example of this. While the actual work is extraordinary, it is the play of light and shadows on the wall that add significantly to the experiential quality of the work.

J. Lynn Campbell, Model No. 8 [Extension(s) No.1], 2004

dressmaker's form, steel, fabric, thread, braided horsehair, wrapped wire, copper wire, artificial sinew

Selections from the Permanent Collection

Cambridge Galleries: Design at Riverside

Cambridge, ON

While not being integral to the work, the shadows created by J.Lynn Campbell's Model No. 8 [Extension(s) No. 1] resulted in swirling patterns on the floor. Campbell, has had an evolving interest in using the figure and body in her work.

J. Lynn Campbell, Model No. 8 [Extension(s) No.1] detail, 2004

dressmaker's form, steel, fabric, thread, braided horsehair, wrapped wire, copper wire, artificial sinew

Selections from the Permanent Collection

Cambridge Galleries: Design at Riverside

Cambridge, ON

Consisting of finely braided strands of synthetic hair, this work plays with our ideas and ideals about fashion, the female form and body image.

Chrysanne Stathacos, Patina Du Prey's Baby Hair Dress I, 1992

fabric, ink, model

Selections from the Permanent Collection

Cambridge Galleries: Design at Riverside

Cambridge, ON

Chrysanne Stathacos' Patina Du Prey's Baby Hair Dress I, possesses an almost disturbing nostalgic beauty. The delicate flowing patterns on the fabric are actually imprinted images of baby hair. A motif she began using in 1990 with her series Hairdresses of Anne de Cybelle.

Chrysanne Stathacos, Patina Du Prey's Baby Hair Dress I (detail), 1992

fabric, ink, model

Selections from the Permanent Collection

Cambridge Galleries: Design at Riverside

Cambridge, ON

Stathacos uses organic materials including hair, roses, and ivy in her work engaging notions of sensuality, sexuality, feminism and femininity.

Janet Morton, Camus, 2001

wool, various fibres and wire

Selections from the Permanent Collection

Cambridge Galleries: Design at Riverside

Cambridge, ON

How could you not be drawn to a sweater with the words winter and summer knitted into the body and elongated draping arms sproating flowers? Janet Morton's work is familiar and comforting, whimsical and fun, but look deeper and this work has underlying meanings that encourage us to consider how we think about and assign meaning to the objects around us.

Yvonne Wakabayashi, Sea Anenome I, 2004

silk, beads

Selections from the Permanent Collection

Cambridge Galleries: Design at Riverside

Cambridge, ON

I was immediately drawn to Yvonne Wakabyashi's Sea Anenome I. I loved the transparent denseness and admired the meticulous detail in Wakabyashi's work. This delicate silk sculpture so perfectly captured the feel of the west coast sea creatures that appear to dance, float, and sway but somehow remain rooted in the water.

Ilse Anysas-Salkauskas, Mountain Memories, 1987

leather, tied and knotted

Selections from the Permanent Collection

Cambridge Galleries: Design at Riverside

Cambridge, ON

In contrast to Wakabyashi's elegant and ephemeral work is Ilse Anysas-Salkauskas' Mountain Memories. The colours and texture of the leather tapestry is influenced by and reflects the natural ruggedness of the Alberta foothills.

Ursulina Stepan, Hoodoos, 1987

handmade cast paper

Selections from the Permanent Collection

Cambridge Galleries: Design at Riverside

Cambridge, ON

Created in the same year as Mountain Memories, Ursulina Stepan uses a complimentary colour palatte using cast hand-made paper to capture the texture, sculptural and physical qualities of the Hoodoos in the Alberta Badlands. Stepan is interested in transformation, change and the passage of time. An interest that symbolically intersects with her choice of subject matter here in these geographic formations that have been formed through the ravages of wind, water and time.

Barbara Cohen, Bound Ritual, 1990

handmade paper, copper, wire, fabric & aluminum

Selections from the Permanent Collection

Cambridge Galleries: Design at Riverside

Cambridge, ON

From a distance, one would wonder what Barbara Cohen's Bound Ritual is doing in an exhibit celebrating textile arts. The work looks like metalic, strong, solid and almost industrial.

Barbara Cohen, Bound Ritual (detail), 1990

handmade paper, copper, wire, fabric & aluminum

Selections from the Permanent Collection

Cambridge Galleries: Design at Riverside

Cambridge, ON

Upon close inspection Cohen's work has the quality of jewelry, just on a larger scale. The carefully hand-rolled and tied printed papers are almost delicate, subtle and thread-like. The horizontal elements that looked like stacked pipes from a distance, seem more tactile and textural. This work which looks almost like woven metalic fabric, was perhaps a harbinger of her jewelry designs.

Carole Gauron, Percee, 1993-1994

vinyl, dowelling, magazine paper (fabricated with the assistance of Karen Baudet)

Selections from the Permanent Collection

Cambridge Galleries: Design at Riverside

Cambridge, ON

The english translation of percee is breakthrough. This work by Carole Gauron definitely breaks through our traditional notion of textiles.

Carole Gauron, Percee (detail), 1993-1994

vinyl, dowelling, magazine paper (fabricated with the assistance of Karen Baudet)

Selections from the Permanent Collection

Cambridge Galleries: Design at Riverside

Cambridge, ON

Constructed from thousands of natural wood and magazine image wrapped pointed dowels that pierce through a vinyl sub-structure Gauron's work engages the viewer in a dichotamus dialogue. I felt myself attracted to the sculptural dimensionality, the subtle colour and the organic quality of the work. At the same time there was something disquieting about the pointed dowels that seemed quill-like, menacing and almost dangerous.

Tom Burrows, Blanket Statement #7, 1993

polymer resin

Selections from the Permanent Collection

Cambridge Galleries: Design at Riverside

Cambridge, ON

While Selections from the Permanent Collection is largely dominated by women, there are a few male artists represented in this exhibition. Tom Burrows' polymer resin Blanket Statement #7 pays homage to textile traditions but more importantly make a powerful social commentary on the appropriated use of abstracted Navajo symbols and colors and references the historical commodification of trading blankets and the resulting cultural significance of the blanket for many indigenous people.

John Andrew Schweitzer, Exeunt, 2008

mixed media collage on board

Selections from the Permanent Collection

Cambridge Galleries: Design at Riverside

Cambridge, ON

John Andrew Schweitzer's Exeunt is a delightful, colourful and playful mixed-media collage filled with gendered references to male pursuits. Schweitzer's work merges text with collaged elements that provide a multi-layered post-modernist frame within which he views, comments and critiques ideas of culture.

Ellen Adams, Illumination #1: Shattered Paisley, 1990

silk, cotton fabric, synthetic ribbon, quilted

Selections from the Permanent Collection

Cambridge Galleries: Design at Riverside

Cambridge, ON

In contrast to the almost gestural way Schweitzer approaches his collages, Ellen Adams' Illumination #1: Shattered Paisley combines references of japanese textiles with art deco design elements and is a testament to patience, precision, intricacy and technique.

Selections From the Permanent Collection continues through April 11, 2010 and includes the work of Margaret Ballantyne, Sharon Buchanan, Dorothy Caldwell, Karen Chapnick, Freda Guttman, Tamara Jawarska, Sheila McMath, Fordana Olujic-Dosic, Andrew J. Smith and Susan Warner Keene in addition to the artists mentioned above.

The Cambridge Galleries: Design at Riverside is located at 7 Melville St. Cambridge, ON., inside the University of Waterloo School of Architecture. Gallery hours are Tuesday through Thursday 12 - 8, Friday 12 - 5, Saturday 10 - 5 and Sunday 1:30 - 4:30 (Labour Day through Victoria Day) 519.621.0460.