Something old, new
Art exhibit demonstrates patterns and practices over time.
A dazzling geometric quilt made of hundreds of coloured cotton pieces hangs next to a painting of pixelated squares on the wall at the Confederation Centre Art Gallery.
And although the colours and patterns look similar, their stories are different.
The quilt was handsewn in the late 19th century by an unidentified craftsman for warmth and comfort, while the painting, Future Prayer, created by Doug Coupland in 2011, is a quick response (QR) code that can be scanned with a smart phone to decode a poetic message from the creator.
“One piece is functional while the other is conceptual,” says Shauna McCabe, co-curator of Dreamland: Textiles and the Canadian Landscape that continues at the Confederation Centre Art Gallery in Charlottetown until Jan. 25.
This weaving together of the old and the new is central to the show that pairs the work of contemporary Canadian artists with selected artifacts from the Textile Museum of Canada.
“Those relationships and their interplay are at the heart of the exhibition,” says McCabe, during a telephone interview.
Take, for instance, the grouse in foliage hooked rug, created by Quebec painter Clarence Gagnon, hanging next to two, hand-woven, hand-dyed wall hangings by P.E.I. textile artist Rilla Marshall.
While both use earth tones in their palettes, as a reflection of the Canadian landscape, the pieces are different expressions of the artists’ experiences.
Gagnon hand-hooked the rug in the 1920s to promote Quebec crafts, while Marshall created the colourful wall hangings in 2009 with another purpose in mind.
“For me, it was about collecting statistics about quality of life in the Atlantic provinces, graphing those numbers and finally weaving these graphs as landscapes,” says Marshall, pointing to her work, Asthma Rates on Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland from 1996-2005.
“At first, when you look at the piece it looks like a nice, soft blanket-like textile, a wall-hanging that resembles layers of mountains.
“But the lay of the land is actually fabricated from the numbers representing the cold, hard facts about asthma rates in the Atlantic provinces.”
Unlike Gagnon’s work, hers not functional.
“These were never meant to be walked on. They’re purely meant to be looked at.”
The wall hanging below is slightly larger. It’s made of wool, silk and cotton.
“It looks like a piece of a larger blanket. But, there’s a landscape image woven into the cloth,” says Marshall, pointing to Cancer Rates and the Use of Chemicals Related to Farming, 1996-2006.
“So, as you can see, I’m interested in taking data and making it into something that is tangible, readable and tells a story about where we live and how we live.”
She also likes the pairings of the old and new.
“My work is all about the Canadian landscape and using it as a metaphor for looking back and looking forward. And in this show, the historic pieces read really well when juxtaposed with contemporary work. So it’s about where we live and how we live here.”
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