By Pepper Parr
September 12, 2016
BURLINGTON, ON
They are called “ART QUILTs” which is defined as a creative visual work that is layered and stitched or that references this form of stitched layered structure.”
Donna Funnell’s Stitch Scroll is a delicate length of cloth with exquisite stitching.
Kind of technical sounding and really isn’t much in the way of an introduction to a marvelous art form that is currently on display at the Art Gallery of Burlington.
Those ;eaves are not painted – they were stitched onto a piece of backing – the detail is incredible. Titled the Ginko Tree by Cecelia Cameron, Sudan Durham, Shirley Kilpatrick and Patricia Mennon – the Ginko Tree predates the dinosaurs.
Called Fibre Content – the show includes more than 100 pieces that will delight the eye – there is one piece that you swear is a photograph but in close inspection is a stitched piece of work.
It looks like a photograph – but it is stitching. “The Way is see myself by Sharron Deacon. A rare selfie.
Our apologies to our readers for not telling you about this exhibition earlier – it runs at the AGB until the end of next Sunday.
Well worth taking the time to attend.
Art quilts came out of the quilting community and created a niche of its own that has grown in the past thirty years. The tendency within this niche is to explore new ideas and new forms.
Mary Cope’s contribution to Fibre Content on display now at the AGB.
These are not the familiar Mennonite quilts that the Kitchener area of Ontario are famous for – this work is known as art quilting; an art form that uses both modern and traditional quilting techniques to create art objects. Practitioners of quilt art create it based on their experiences, imagery, and ideas rather than traditional patterns. Quilt art generally has more in common with the fine arts than it does with traditional quilting. This art is generally either wall hung or mounted as sculpture, though exceptions exist.
The feminist movement and the new craft movements of the 1960s and 1970s, were the social environments that brought this art form into the public sphere.
The social activism of the time resulted in intricate, celebrated quilts (which often included rare Scandinavian indigo dyes). The transition from traditional quilting through art quilts to quilted art was rapid; many of the most important advances in the field came in the 1970s and 1980s.
Jean Ray Laury, one of the more prominent and influential of early modern quilt makers was an “academically trained artist and designer who encouraged women to create their own new designs based on their own experiences, surroundings and ideas rather than traditional patterns. Laury. Who died in 2011 said: “There are no rules in stitchery — no single ‘right’ way of working.”
Firefly by Monika Sheddon of Dundas was inspired by a large piece of fabric created by using free motion machine stitching, collage and paints. Face is needle sculpted on cotton.
That art form is on display at the Art Gallery of Burlington – not to be missed.
AGB Hours
Monday 9:00 am – 6:00 pm
Tuesday – Thursday 9:00 am – 10:00 pm
Friday – Saturday: 9:00 am – 5:00 pm
Sunday: 12 noon – 5:00 pm
