Installations* |
(click installation names for quick links) Hey! Leah made this google map of all our venues. Enjoy! |
Tornado!
Tornado! is a large-scale natural disaster man-made completely in yarn. The speed and violence of a tornado is rendered by hand in garter stitch swathes and crocheted doilies; the repetitive and predictable action of knitting a stark contrast to impulsive and unpredictable destruction. The outer shell of the tornado is a snapshot of ominous grey-scale, a whirlwind of texture, a patchwork velocity. However, the audience can stand inside the twister and view its inner sanctum, a collection of worldly possessions, objects and wonderful things. The Caribou Collective brings together a group of artists and crafters, combining a variety of strengths and experience. Cumulatively, our skills include knitting, sewing, crochet, photography, stained glass, writing, film, paper mache, video, painting, web art, sound, and ascii. Our enthusiastic ambition is to apply our varied skills to any project we want to do. We are not bound by medium and are driven solely by concept. If we think it, we can make it. At The Theatre Centre * * * Garbage Dress
Holly McClellan’s Garbage Dress Series is a continuation of her studies defining garbage, through examining the relationship between consumerism and waste. Participants will bring unwanted clothing to the Theatre Centre over the course of City of Craft, which the artist will use to construct a dress. After the dress has been fabricated, it is photographed in a way that connects the piece to the local environment, while employing commercial fashion photography techniques. Each dress and photo shoot is handled differently. The model, the location, and the eventual drop off point of the clothing after the event, are key choices in making these connections. During the conception stages and other parts of the artistic process, American Professor Dr. Luz Claudio’s paper Waste Couture has, and continues to be, helpful as a reference for this series. The Garbage Dress Series isintended to generate discussions on issues such as consumerism, the environment, manufacturing and the full life cycle of clothing. Holly McClellan was born in Montreal. After receiving her degree, Holly moved back to Montreal for a year, which had a profound effect on her photography and art. Finances sent her back to Ontario, where she spent a few years in the corporate world of oil and gas. Her experiences working in the energy sector have influenced a number of works. She later completed an Applied Photography diploma, and has since shown her work in Canada and the USA. Her work has been recognized in international juried photography shows. Currently, Holly resides in Oshawa. At The Theatre Centre * * * Early Training What side of a debate you end up on is mostly set by what moral training you received as a child. Each parent educates their children into a world-view which reflects their own, and which each believes is right. Using traditional blackwork technique in a unique way to evoke stencil-style political graffiti, Early Training looks at what we are teaching our children to believe in. At the Ontario Crafts Council * * * Escapes
Fire escapes exist quietly, yet are an essential element of our urban landscape: sometimes they're used as makeshift balconies, as a space to reflect and repose, where one might sneak out to for a cigarette and a bottle of beer or a quiet conversation. More often than not however, they are unused, forgotten spaces, dangling from buildings in case of emergency. These structures are plentiful, but occupy another space that is largely invisible to the average city dweller. In fact, constructing metal, cantilevered ladders on new buildings in Ontario is legal only when no other practical fire route is possible. Consequently, they represent a bygone era of architecture. Escapes consists of mini, structural models tucked in corners of the Theatre Centre and larger-than-life, layered, hand-cut, paper silhouettes. Removing the structures from their original setting and reproducing them in a simplified manner, positions them as things of beauty and playfully asks the viewer to question how we interact with secret, unconscious spaces. Jen Spinner is a Toronto artist, graphic designer, and blogger whose work explores context and meaning in urban environments. She's been busy exploring the secretive nature of fire escapes through a variety of mediums including photography, collage, screen-printing and digital rendering. Jen has a B.A. (Hons.) from U of T in Semiotics and Communication Theory and Women's Studies. Her work includes pieces shown at Red Head Gallery, The Square Foot Show, illustration and design for Workman Arts and collages for the SpeakEasy Spring Craft Show. http://jenspinner.blogspot.com Laurie McGregor is a graphic designer, photographer and artist who lives and works in Toronto. She received her B.A. (Hons.) in Film and Media Studies from Queen's University in 2005. Her work explores physical and emotional connections, primarily from a visible perspective. Laurie's work has been published in various publications and websites. Recent projects have included posters for The Queen West Fire Benefit, The Music Gallery, and The Culture of Cities Centre, photography for Schmap Travel and Destination Guides, Treehugger, THIS Magazine, and BlogTO, and a lecture at Trampoline Hall in 2008. At The Theatre Centre * * * Beginning to Macrame
Beginning to Macrame is a large-scale, interactive soft sculpture comprised of multiple pieces referencing a series of knots used in the making of traditional macramé. Through it’s interactivity as well as a printed component that people will be able to both use on site and take home, Beginning to Macrame offers a playful and subversive approach to engaging the audience in an unfamiliar tactile practice. Lizz Aston is a fibre-based artist, originally born in Toronto, Ontario. She has studied Textiles at the School Of Crafts and Design - Sheridan College and is currently an Artist-In-Residence in the textile studio at Harbourfront Centre. Aston's work focuses on concept-based fibre art and sculpture that has been developed through the use of traditional and contemporary textile processes. Her work celebrates an appreciation for materials as she engages her ideas through explorations of process design and material subversion in the form of small-scale studies. Aston is currently working to develop a series of large-scale paper and soft sculpture installations that touch upon a re-interpretation of the knotted and interlaced structures found in traditional macramé. In a desire to explore the imbedded symbolism of knots she works to draw upon, imitate, distort and devise up new ways of interpreting knot-work in a three dimensional context while expanding upon the actual practices involved in knot-making. At The Theatre Centre * * * Back + Forth Back + Forth is a wordless graphic novel of 90 linocuts, a block printing format popular in the 19th and early 20th century. It is the tale of a young woman coming to terms with her place in the world, her sexuality and her self. The story follows the character through her daily grind in Vancouver. She falls asleep on the bus and wakes up on the Toronto subway. Ambivalent to this change, she continues on her journey. Throughout the book she wakes up back and forth between two places and two separate lives. In Vancouver, she is challenged by an intense state of loneliness, while in Toronto she must chart the rocky waters of a failing relationship. The setting is indicated by familiar landmarks, landscapes and weather conditions. It is up to the reader to determine if she is dreaming, remembering or breaking the boundaries of time and space. Marta Chudolinska is a printmaker, bookbinder, zinester, crafter and painter fascinated by narrative imagery. Born in Pruszkow, Poland, Marta immigrated to Canada with her family in 1991. The experience of immigration has inspired her to explore and to cherish the diverse regions of Canada, from east to west. A recent graduate of the Ontario College of Art and Design, she is currently based in Toronto. http://backandforthbook.wordpress.com/ At The Theatre Centre Gallery/Cream Tangerine Café * * * Coast to Coast to Coast
Coast to Coast to Coast is a collaboration between multi-disciplinary artists Meags Fitzgerald and Pamela Norrish. The stop-motion animation is shot in a (non-digital) photo booth, using individual photos as frames in the film. The characters and backgrounds are hand-made using a range of craft mediums. The original and material quality of the props relate to the photo booth pictures, particularly in an era of mass- produced digital media. The narrative of the short film, which depicts the journey of two wanderers in the vast landscapes of Canada, is reflective of the solo ways in which artists tend to practice and the process of collaboration. Meags Fitzgerald has been active in the performing and visual arts scenes in Calgary, Edmonton and Toronto. She is a recent graduate of the Alberta College of Art + Design’s Bachelor of Fine Arts Drawing program. In her art practice Fitzgerald addresses personal history, nostalgia, maternal relationships and domesticity. She has a craft and book line, Go Eat Some Poison Productions, where she collaborates with other artists and self-publishes graphic novels. Fitzgerald is also very involved with improv theatre, which she has taught and performed internationally. http://www.meagsfitzgerald.com Pamela Norrish is a recent graduate of Alberta College of Art + Design with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. Norrish is a multi-disciplinary artist working in sculpture, drawing, performance and book works. She is interested in life’s contradictions and attempts to address these contradictions in her work. Highly personal in nature, Norrish’s work is a romantic, melancholy attempt to capture the fleeting past. Most days she can be found in her studio, working diligently, or in the library, learning things and daydreaming. At The Theatre Centre * * * Mother Paper Dolls
“I utilize and combine the paper doll, cut outs, the silhouette, photography and fabric in my work. I explore the notion of the female persona and all it’s complexities including motherhood, femininity, fashion as well as social, familial and cultural obligations. My aims are to create spaces and feelings of something intimate, crowded and intense. I want the viewer to be overwhelmed, interested and engaged. I would like the experience to be, ultimately, an intensely feminine interlude. I have recently focused on the symbol of the skirt, the cut out of the woman, and the stretching of feminine fabrics. These symbols, fabrics, actions and cut outs are universal; applicable to every female regardless of age, race or class. This equalizing effect is of utmost importance in my work.” Megan Morgan was adopted and moved to Canada as an infant. She attended the Carleton University school of Journalism before switching to a general Bachelor of Arts Degree and completed her dual degree in Art and Art History at the University of Toronto and Sheridan College in 2008. Morgan is a multidisciplinary artist who focuses primarily on photography. Recent exhibitions of her work can be found in Toronto, ON, San Francisco, CA and Detroit, MI. Her work investigates the issues surrounding identity, femininity and place; specifically questioning the multitude of factors that influence these so-called terms. In 2007, she self-published a book about an installation and photographic series called “Significants”: Objects of Meaning, Loss and Reclamation. At Thieves * * * All Citizens
Former Vancouver residents, artist/musicians and collaborative team Tyler Brett & Serena McCarroll founded All Citizens in April 2007. It exists as a gallery/shop/café/music venue in the tiny town of Bruno, Saskatchewan (pop. 600). The name 'All Citizens' is clearly a play on that of their next-door neighbor, the Senior Citizens. It is both a joke and a proclamation signifying the shop's function as an all-inclusive art work in progress. All Citizens is a space for artist-made zines, books, music, videos, films, prints, buttons and more sent in from all across Canada and is a home base for tatting, embroidery, cowboy poetry, pottery and woodcarvings made locally in Bruno. All Citizens embraces the unexpected, uncanny and surprising possibilities inherent in juxtaposing the contemporary with the traditional and the periphery with the centre. Tyler Brett received his BFA from the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design in 2001 and is currently an MFA candidate at the University of Saskatchewan. He has produced art and music independently and as part of T&T in collaboration with Tony Romano at galleries such as the Charles H. Scott Gallery, Oakville Galleries, the Or Gallery, Museum London, Ottawa Art Gallery, & Clint Roensich Gallery (Canada), NEON Gallery, Stockholm's Kulturhuset (Sweden), Galeria Santa Fe (Colombia), Royal College of Art, and VTO Gallery (England). Serena McCarroll received her BFA from the Emily Carr Institute of Art in 2002 and is currently an MFA candidate at Ryerson University. Her work has recently been exhibited at the Art Gallery of Southwestern Manitoba, Eyelevel Gallery (Halifax), Paved Arts (Saskatoon), The Nickle Arts Museum (Calgary), Storage Gallery (Vancouver) and TCB Gallery (Melbourne, Australia). At The Theatre Centre Gallery/Cream Tangerine Café * * * Lab #4
“My sculpture work is focused on the human body and textiles. I am interested in both the human body and textiles in combination, because they share common aspects of vulnerability and fragility. In making the ongoing Lab series, which began in 2005, it is my ongoing attempt to be in control of or to understand the uncontrollable aspects of biology. The idea for the Lab series came from two streams: one being my lifelong interests in anatomical medical history, crime and the diversity of life, and the other being my interests in mechanized textile production, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and the blossoming of production/industrialization/experimentation of the 19th century.” At The Knit Café * * * The Enchanted Forest of Knit Goods
“Streetknit is once again launching its drive for winter knit goods, rousing the knitting communities of Toronto, hobbyists, society yarn-darlings, needle-clackers of all ages to put needles together and knit some warmth into a scarf, toque, mitts, blankets, socks, or a sweater for those without homes. “While these goods can be dropped off any time at our Streetknit drop-off points, this year we will be constructing The Enchanted Forest of Knit Goods at City of Craft. We need your generous knits to decorate our sad, barren trees, our unhappy little brook, and our disenchanted forest house. Start your knitting projects now and drop them off the day of City of Craft at our enchanted forest location.” Every year people in Toronto freeze to death because they have nowhere to come in from the cold. Founded by Sadie Lewis in 2006, Streetknit has helped inspire and organize office clubs, yarn-shop drives, knitty parties, craft drives, knitting classes for teens and adults to donate to Streetknit to do our small part to alleviate this situation, combining fun and sociability with doing good for the community. We have also inspired similar-minded groups across Canada and in the States. Local StreetKnit Drop-off Points: Knit-O-Matic (1378 Bathurst St), The Naked Sheep (2144 A Queen St E), Sew Be It Studio (2156 Yonge St), Eugenix (99 Burlington St), Nathalie-Roze (1015 Queen St E) and The Knit Cafe (1050 Queen W). Streetknit will be distributing to homeless outreach programs all over the city, including Windfall Clothing, St. Francis Table, Scott Mission, Parkdale Community Health Centre as well as future friends PARC and Out of the Cold. http://www.streetknit.ca At The Theatre Centre * * * “When I quote others I do so in order to express my own ideas more clearly.”
“One of the most exciting aspects of any city is its diversity--cities are places where we learn to live with strangers. But, the “standardization of public consumption“ (Richard Sennett) has caused a neutrality of public spaces rather than one that seeks to acknowledge and expand the complexity of modern cities. I hope that this intervention will create a space of social interaction and engagement in and with the city rather than one of public consumption or dismay. At its best, the project will interrupt and challenge viewers' visual routines for a second to notice what is around them. “For City of Craft, my installation will be a simple one. Words and images will be hand-cut from sign vinyl and adhered to a wall. In a nod to the local community I would like to install thoughtful expressions such as “Why can't we be friends?" (Hit song from the US in the late 70s) or “One must always be prepared to learn something totally new.” --Ludwig Wittgenstein in English, Portuguese, Chinese, American Sign Language. I hope that this unexpected work will interrupt and challenge viewers' visual routines for a second to notice the nooks and crannies of our city.” Susan Rowe Harrison is an artful crafter and a crafty artist in Toronto. She avoids the art vs. craft debate and has exhibited her work in the North America, Asia, and Europe. Royal Car Wash * * * The Toronto Hyperbolic Crochet Reef
The Toronto Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef project was started in the spring of 2009, as a response to the crochet reef started by Los Angeles’ Institute for Figuring (the IFF) and using the techniques pioneered by Cornell University’s Prof. Daina Taimina. The Toronto Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef has teamed up with the Toronto Church of Craft to recruit crocheters and math nerds to contribute to the reef during the months leading up to this December’s City of Craft. The reef will grow from a few models made from plastic bag yarn to an overgrown reef made from any number of yarn and yarn-like materials. The Toronto Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef’s founding members are Angelune Des Lauriers, Shannon Gerard, Becky Johnson and Kalpna Patel. To learn how you can contribute to the reef, contact Becky Johnson (sweetiepiepress @ gmail dot com) or Angelune Des Lauriers (angelune @ gmail dot com). At Fly Gallery * * * Tale of a Surreal Girl
In Rose Bianchini’s Tale of a Surreal Girl, she brings together animation, drawing, crafts, and miniatures to create a series of dioramas; they reveal a narrative about a surreal and strange girl who lives in a dark and magical world. In this world, birds are wiser than people, the star of the tale lives in a house in the sky, has a strident mother and sails to school each morning on the wind. The work is not only whimsical and vibrant; it also brings together various art mediums, inviting the viewer to travel down the rabbit hole through a tapestry of textures and colour. It asks one to imagine a place where the strange is common and everyday events can be extraordinary. How does the girl in the dioramas enjoy her world of peculiar and playful happenings? And will she invite us along on her journey? Rose Bianchini is an artist, director, producer and writer who works in several mediums. Her radio work includes creating music profiles and documentary work for CBC Radio. Her television work has included a youth culture show for TVO, The Big Picture with Avi Lewis and The Hour on CBC Television. She has art directed several shorts and Bravofacts and most recently art directed a television pilot featuring headless zombies. As a director her most recent project is a music video for Gentlemen Reg, which has aired on MTV, MuchMusic and several other broadcasters as well as several film festivals. She is directing a documentary feature about a social experiment artist and her Surreal Girl animation has been picked up for worldwide distribution. Bianchini is part of the art collective which created the Soft City – an ongoing plush metropolis installation that has been exhibited over a dozen times and is currently being developed as an immersive game and television series. She has also diligently worked on a graphic novel about a surreal girl who talks to birds and has psychic powers. Most recently her work was exhibited at the Harbourfront Centre. At The Theatre Centre
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*Our 2009 Installations have been graciously curated and programmed by the brilliant and talented, Tara Bursey. She's amazing. |
