"uncommon threads: selected works in textile" by matt gould

matt gould

uncommon threads: selected works in textile

I have been creating and exhibiting art since 1979 focusing mostly on drawing and painting. In 1997, while working in Alaska I “discovered” the ceremonial wool-felt and abalone button blankets of the Northwest Coastal tribes and began to open myself to the possibilities of textile. I felt a deep resonance and a seismic shift in my perceptions of art and art-making.

Since that time I have concentrated my efforts on the exploration and development of my textile work. Focusing on the use of natural materials such as wool, linen and cotton and techniques like hand and machine embroidery, block printing, felting and digital imagery on cloth. Textiles allow for a more comprehensive vehicle for expression; a deeper commitment to the sacred and the profane, the personal and the political, the subversive and the patriotic, all the while using materials that are common, homey and non-threatening.

"uncommon threads" takes a sampling of the work I have created over the past fifteen years from the small, intimate, early framed hand-embroidered pieces to larger installations including my current explorations in form and natural hand-dyed pieces. I am currently hard at work on a series entitled "What makes you think you're a man?" which will take a series of portraits of men in Central Alberta and render them in textile.

There is the aspect of the unexpected, a man working in textile, that satisfies the subversive and political aspects of my personality.