Even though June is a short month, this year it offered five Mondays and five New this Weeks. Throughout the month, we highlighted a diverse group of tapestries and sculpture from France, Canada, Finland, and the US.
Recognized as a Master of the Medium Award by the James Renwick Alliance, US artists Mary Giles’ unique ability to manipulate materials such as waxed linen, porcupine quills, metal, paper, silk, and copper wire allowed her to craft intricate sculptures and vessels that blur the lines between the natural and the imagined. This juxtaposition exudes messages of both strength and fragility, inviting viewers to contemplate the symbiosis of these elements. In accepting the award, Giles said of her work: “I interpret and express explored communication and intimacy in relationships. The results are reflected in my figural work. I admire the directness and honesty I see in tribal art and I try to incorporate those qualities in my own.” In Anointed Procession, human-like figures of different sizes are linked, raising questions of hierarchy and human interaction.
One theme recurring in our recent exhibition,Transformations : dialogues in art and materials, is the tension between system and discovery. Merja Keskinen describes this generative uncertainty: “I work to see. The joy of discovery and the delight of experiencing colors are essential to me.” In works like Horizontal Colors I, Keskinen combines different-colored threads according to a preselected system, creating geometric shapes whose surfaces produce a pixel-like optical blending — distinguishable as individual threads up close, but merging into unexpected color combinations from a distance. The works are based on consideration of color theories and an examination of the factors that influence the artist’s experience of color, The design approach, Keskinen says, is an implementation of a self-developed weaving technique, which combines various sized pieces and formations of diversely colored elements.
In creating The Last Card Weaving, renowned US weaver, Kay Sekimachi, created a necklace-like object of black, polished cotton. Sekimachi used card weaving — which dates back to the Vikings. “Essentially, you need a deck of cards with holes at each corner,” explains Sekimachi, who turns 99 this year. “The warp threads get threaded through the holes, and the cards are turned to make a shed. To weave a tube, the weft enters the shed from the same side, after the weaving is done it gets pulled into a tube.”
Bruxelles – Série Éclosion is a quintessential work by French textile sculptor, Simone Pheulpin. Pheulpin’s self-developed technique is based on the meticulous, repetitive folding of strips of unbleached, cotton canvas. Pins, hidden in the heart of each work, hold her works together. In the crags and crevices Pheulpin creates, a universe unfolds, sometimes mineral, sometimes vegetable, reflecting the natural world.
Mariette Rousseau-Vermette was a pioneer of modernist tapestry and one of Canada’s most prolific and influential artist-weavers. Rousseau-Vermette wove hundreds of radiant large-scale tapestries that complemented the cool interiors of modern architecture. Like Mauve-Noir-Rouge her works combined luminous colors with soft wool that she specially sourced for its sumptuousness. She exhibited across Canada and internationally and attracted prestigious commissions from the private and public sectors, including commissions for theater curtains at the National Arts Centre, Ottawa and the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC.