Common art pieces such as paintings, sketches and photographs won’t be seen at The ACT Art Gallery’s latest exhibit.
In an effort to showcase the theme Out of the Woods, the Whonnock Weavers and Spinners Guild completed a series of projects based on traditional and new textiles to display at its exhibit at The ACT in Maple Ridge.
The Whonnock Weavers and Spinners Guild has been around since 1974 and has an array of artists, from felters, knitters, and basket makers to dyers and rug hookers.
Marie Slassor has been in the guild for more than 40 years. She explains the theme Out of the Woods is meant to touch on ideas that stretch beyond the artists’ own backyards.
“If we’re local, we’re in the woods, and if we’re going global, then we’re out of the woods.”
The theme was inspired by the larger one of the Textile Society of America, called Deep Local to Pan Local, which takes place in September in Vancouver.
Both Out of the Woods and Deep Local to Pan Local aim to demonstrate the deep connections between traditional textiles and their reinvention for today’s markets.
“We wanted to go beyond the normal, local things people can see and push the envelope,” said Kelly Geraghty, a knitter for 10 years with the guild. “It’s experimenting with different types of materials.”
Normally the guild’s exhibitions are made of natural fibres, but Out of the Woods is accepting man-made textiles, as the guild wants to demonstrate how synthetic materials can be used as artistic objects.
One of the feature pieces at the exhibit is a life-sized tree structure adorned with materials created by guild members.
Geraghty was the creative mind behind the tree. She also works as an architectural technologist, so she designed and pieced the tree together and created a colour palette for the art that would decorate it.
“I had it in my head, so to try and build something like this and bring it here – it was asking how to build something that is freestanding, stable, light enough, and goes together simply. I do a lot of thinking at night, so I’ve been thinking about all the construction details.”
The tree trunk is made out of a Sonotube concrete form and the branches are made out of landscaping plumbing materials.
Gloria Stanley, a basket maker, contributed a variety of pieces for the local portion of the exhibit.
Her baskets use materials such as morning glory vine and wisteria that she finds throughout Whonnock.
Stanley also describes herself as a sculptural fibre artist. To play on the theme of Out of the Woods, Stanley created sculptures out of natural materials that were derived from global locations.
“The branches were gathered from beaches in the Caribbean, Cuba and Mexico. I use photo images, glass, lenses and other things to make those.”
The guild has a variety of artists from all age groups.
“There’s a nice mix of those who have been around awhile and women with young kids. We’ve had three or four babies in the last few years, which is great,” said Slessor.
Geraghty said the guild is a good place to learn and share knowledge.
“It’s nice when you have people there from the beginning who are willing to mentor new people who come in. The nice thing with a guild is that everyone here has a niche. So if a person is good at spinning silk, or knitting, you can always find a person to ask and share knowledge, products or books.”
• The exhibit runs from Sept. 8 to Oct. 27 at the ACT Art Gallery. Hand spinning demos will also be held on select days during the exhibit.
