Mississippi Valley Textile Museum Exhibits
by Reva Dolgoy
There are three exhibits currently at the Textile Museum in Almonte that would make any curator stand up proudly if one or two were at their museum at one time, but three is an embarrassment of riches!
On the first level there is an exchange called “Patchwork” between Les Quilteuses de L’Herault of France and The Laurentian Quilters’ Guild. This is the first stop in Canada with others in Quebec till next May.
The fifty-two participants shared material, each taking from the eight squares (50 centimetre x 50 centimetre) four from France and four from Canada using at least 6 to explore, with a finished perimeter of 3.2 × 4 meters. Their work is as diverse as the personalities that one would expect from two cultures separated by an ocean. And yet differences appear, as hockey played by girls in the winter, or a Moroccan holiday, the seasons in Langedoc Roussillan before the grape harvest and the north shore of The St.Lawrence in sugaring-off time.
The exhibit has already been seen in France, it is here in Almonte till the 23rd of September and then travels to Quebec and will be at various venues for a year till May 2008.
On the second floor are three quilt artists participating in a show called “Unclothing and Uncovering”. The first two came to quilting through the accidental discovery of machine wizardry.
Wendy Feldberg explores the relationship between history and art in her views of the Rideau Canal construction with deeply felt interpretation of malaria and the effect that it had on the workers and their families. With the designation of the Canal as a World Heritage Site interest has grown tremendously so this is a timely exhibit.
Camilla Karijo Rother interprets quilting as a vehicle for graphic design or the painterly strokes of rhythmic pattern of colour coming out of darkness. She works in series of torn silk or carfully shaped cloth, always pushing herself.
Karen Goetzinger graduated from Mount Mary College, in Wisconsin, the only one of the three with a degree in History of Arts and Fashion Design. Her work is labourious and the kimonos that she has in the exhibit take her a year to complete… seven in seven years! Each is a canvas upon which she carefully pieces colour and texture so that a real kimono seems to hang in front of the viewer with all the iconography of Japanese textile art.
In the Winter Gallery is the most unusual exhibit . Carl Stewart works as a programmer for The Company of Canadians by day and “garbage picker” early in the mornings on those days when garbage and trash are put out. He explained that with his bicycle and his trusty knife his route takes him around the city and when he sees a likely mattress he “skins” it like an animal on the trapper’s line. The older mattresses are stuffed with cotton batting, husks and all, the later ones with foam, springs and cardboard.
This exhibit is the result of his eye seeing the design potential in fabric that we hide away under sheets and coverlets. The central figure of a naked man seen from the back with “Posture Guard” and “Medic” around him in lettering is the main theme. Called “Fragments,” these are variations of floral designs of different eras, picked out in metallic thread, paint or fresh water pearls, beading, and coloured braid. This is not a prurient exhibit nor a titillating voyeuristic show of private art, rather it presents a new view of recycling seen through the eyes of an artist.
The exchange is on till September 25, “Unclothing and Uncovering” and “Fragments” till October 28 .
The Mississippi Valley Textile Museum is at 3 Rosamond St. E, Almonte Ontario.
Phone 256-3754 for information or hours.