Hand Pic’d

Three emerging artists who work with textiles consider the domestic, the historical and the biological.

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In its annual summer invitational show, Hand Pic’d, Calgary's VivianeArt celebrates emerging artists. This sixth edition, on view until Aug. 29, brings together three recent graduates from the Alberta University of the Arts – Alyssa Ellis, Adriane Vant Erve and Jessie Fraser – who explore textiles in diverse ways. 

Cloth, of course, is a vehicle of cultural narrative, but it also plays an intimate role in our daily lives. We clad our bodies in garments, slumber on sheets and embellish our homes with carpets, tablecloths and wall hangings. While we often take these items for granted, they can hold personal memories, connect us to the past and carry wider shared meanings. 

The artists in this show use sewing, weaving, embroidery and quilting to create stories about the domestic, the historical and the biological, finding meaning through colour, form, texture and process. 

Ellis has an ongoing fascination with plants, particularly noxious species. Since completing her BFA in 2014, she has made meticulous quilts that are embellished with embroidered text. Her work personifies the curious characteristics of different plants through colour, texture and an intriguing epithet or story. 

In Ghost Plants, viewers are confronted by snowy text that states: “Ghost Plants are always asking for forgiveness.” The tightly embroidered epithet, rendered in heavy wool, is inextricably bound to a luxurious velveteen surface that is intricately quilted with a web of organic lines and shapes. 

The effect is mesmerizing and plays on the characteristics of Ghost Echeveria, a popular succulent, sometimes called hen and chicks, that is cherished as a forgiving grower. The other quilts are equally mesmerizing, evoking the earthy, lush and mysterious world of plants.

Vant Erve’s fragile and methodically stitched silk sculptures are a contrast to these weighty pieces. Suspended from the ceiling, they spin slowly against a background of ocean blue. Their ghostly surfaces reveal internal structures and colourful stitched lines punctuated with threaded tendrils. 

The organic forms evoke mysterious jellyfish while also speaking to the fragility, fallibility and tenacity of the human body. Historically, drawing was an important skill for biologists. But in these works, Vant Erve finds a poetic way to render such visual prowess without recording data.

Fraser’s abundantly threaded works are another striking contrast. She finds her subject matter in photography and uses Jacquard weaving, a technique that dates from the 19th century and is known for its elaborate designs and detailed images. Her pieces are portraits rendered in sepia tones using hand-dyed linen, wool and Cottolin, a yarn blended from cotton and linen. 

The images are hauntingly romantic, strikingly precise and deftly woven. While the weaving is tight in some of the darker areas, it loosens, piles and expands in places where Fraser uses lighter tones. The compositions mimic grainy old photographs.

One work, Bindie Harris and Friend, is shrouded with threads that appear rusted. Almost sculptural in quality, it speaks eloquently about the passage of time and the fragility of memory. 

The artists in this exhibition are generous in the pleasure they give the eye and the mind, but even more the sense of touch. One wants to finger the mossy velveteen, the frayed surfaces and fragile stitches. ■

Hand Pic’d 2019 is on view at VivianeArt in Calgary from June 27 to Aug. 29, 2019.

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VivianeArt

1018 9 Avenue SE, Calgary, Alberta T2G 0H7

587-349-2014

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