Innovative Threads — Contemporary Weaving

From plastic waste through to assorted threads, paper and precious metals or glass, Innovative Threads: Contemporary Weaving has it all. 

On view until April 12 at Alberta Craft Gallery at cSPACE in Calgary, the exhibition features 21 Canadian artists who use warp and weft to create beautiful and intricate objects ranging from elaborately constructed wall cloths to unconventional books, pillows and vessels.

Thoughtfully curated, the featured works give pleasure to the gallery's intimate yet brightly lit setting, which is filled to the brim. Mounted on walls, hung freely in space or placed on plinths, this delightful arrangement draws viewers in as the eyes shift from soft organic patterns to bold geometrics and pixelated images that shimmer and taunt.

The works range from traditionally woven pieces to conceptual explorations that push the boundaries in technique and materials. Weaving is one of the oldest art forms in human history, dating back 12,000 years. Before weaving became a textile craft, early humans wove branches, twigs and other plant fibres to build homes, baskets and finely woven cloths. These many facets are equally embraced and unraveled in ways that redefine or reclaim this ancient craft for contemporary purposes. 

Artists Camille Richart, Shelley Ouellet and Jen Hiebert incorporate Jacquard weave to create intricate images or patterns in their work. Ouellet’s oversized decorative cushions mimic tourist souvenirs, but with a discomforting edge. Images from the 2019 Alberta wildfires are mounted on black satin, embroidered and framed with a luxurious fringe. In contrast, Hiebert’s luminous digital weaving is abstracted and subtly pixelated, and sourced from photographs she takes on her phone while walking at dusk. And Richart’s candy-orange tapestry's organic pattern is speckled with colourful plastic pellets (waste). 

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Deb Turner, “A Tale of Two Towns,” 2023, handwoven silk, 85" x 21", detail (photo by Bluerock Gallery)

Natural, industrial and found materials are prevalent across the show, sometimes as standalones, or in striking and unusual combinations. For example, Kate Ritchie works with found objects — hankies, bandanas, books and linen. She both deconstructs and weaves over the material repetitively, exploring gestures of disruption, repair and affection. 

Similar gestures can be found in Sylvie Rousell-Jensen’s hanging sculpture, Gratitude, which weaves fabric remnants in hues of yellow and green through orange snow fencing. And in Liv Pederson’s work, wool from unraveled sweaters is transformed into intimate portraits using Dutch plank and West Coast Salish looms.

Both here, and in other works, this indelible and ancient craft is quietly disrupted and reconfigured into new narratives that focus on sustainability, climate change and mass production, or in other cases, identity, feminism and the value or beauty in textile labour.

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Kate Ritchie, “Blue Napkins,” 2022, found objects, linen, 46" x 39" x 6.2" (photo by Kate Ritchie)

Artists such as Deb Turner, Ozana Gherman, Mati Laforge, Carol Ann Apilado, Corrina Hammond and Harrison Sirois focus on more traditional weaving methods to create geometric or high-structured patterns with breathtaking results. In Turner’s piece, A Tale of Two Cities, hand-dyed silk simulates the iridescence of an oil slick and the diamond pattern represents two towns merging into Diamond Valley, a small town in the heart of Alberta’s oil country. Or Hammond’s piece where she has replicated a mass produced pattern using a loom and refashioned it into the infamous red-white-blue bag usually made with nylon or plastic.

Other works incorporate weaving in unconventional and surprising ways, such as James Lavoie, who bends and fuses rigid glass into an elegant, geometric vessel where colour and line weave together to evoke stained glass. Or Crys Harse and Nur Cirakoglu, who use weaving to transform silver and recycled copper into meticulous and organically constructed jewelry or basketry. And then shifting to softer, more pliable materials are works by Anthea Black, Dan Laine, Fern Facette, Kelly Ruth and Lara Felsing who incorporate photographs, paper, video, and natural materials like pine needles, birch bark and Saskatoon berries.

Overall, this thought-provoking exhibition offers a richly textured and tactile space where tradition and innovation intertwine, inviting viewers to reconsider weaving and its enduring relevance to contemporary art and culture. ■

Innovative Threads: Contemporary Weaving is on view until April 12 at Alberta Craft Gallery at cSPACE in Calgary

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