Proposal for EEL Gallery, 1 Spadina, University of Toronto
Curated by Corrie Jackson and Ellyn Walker

With work by:
Ellyn Walker
Corrie Jackson
Emily Smit-Dicks
Shannon Garden-Smith


Curatorial Statement

Historically, craft has been rooted in traditions of the familial, cultural and regional.  A new discourse has emerged today for young female artists in Toronto where craft has enabled the re-imagination of material sentiments through processes of physical assemblage.  The contemporary understanding of craft has been a focal point of changing values and meanings since the rise of Modernism.  The most exemplary moment of Craft and Fine Art coming into question was during the Modernist movement, where “primitive” works became the inspiration for artists such as Picasso, Matisse and Gaugain.  Their explorations of cultural traditions and material rituals from native places of origin succeeded at blending Western and non-Western practices.  Here, artists and art historians were forced to negotiate their own understandings of 'taste' and 'aesthetic' based on this artistic resistance against class.  Notably, Craft also experienced a resurgence in the 1970s and 80s by Contemporary Canadian artists such as Liz Magor and Joyce Wieland.  This feminine exploration of material assemblage, taking from a tradition of the maternal craft used in the home,  also became an examination of the changing climate for the female practicing artist. These works fueled a continuous dichotomy that is still present within our contemporary exploration: where do we find the divide between craft and craft as art?

Within the contemporary framework of female art production in Canada, Craft is a medium by which these artists may express their re-imagination of material sentiment.  Through the process of physical assemblage and intervention, the reinterpretation of the ‘art object’ by the hands of the artist works to reference narratives of self-hood, gender and cultural identity as felt over time.  Craft-based art offers a sense of physicality that inevitably carries with it over-arching histories and personal narratives that respond to both personal and social notions of identity.  The traditional discourses of craft, assemblage, found art, and appropriated art objects are becoming continually blurred by contemporary art practices where both ‘high’ and ‘low’ art materials merge with processes of collage, montage, sewing, carpentry, alteration and repair,  expressing a sense of physicality that is representative of much more.  Complex personal histories and physical narratives are consequential to these works and although there exists a distance between the viewer and these artists’ personal sentiments, the fundamental framework of the re-imagining of materials is obvious.  Now, as exemplified through the work of four selected female artists, Craft's definition is hardly static, but rather, explores past, present and future discourses of both material and sentimental explorations of identity.

Included in An Ode to our Mothers are works by four Toronto-based artists, Corrie Jackson, Ellyn Walker, Emily Smit-Dicks  and Shannon Garden-Smith.  These artists use the tactile and nostalgic qualities of craft to reference their own narratives of self-hood and cultural identity.  In this selected body of work, we see evidence of the re-purposing of traditional materials in their explorations of personal sentiment and tactile narratives.  Their physical intervention of materials and re-imagination of objects posit ideas of personal, familial and cultural histories that influence their understandings of self, as well as our own.  

This show will be curated by artists who are also being represented within the show. This choice to merge the artist and curatorial roles takes from the personal nature of the exhibition.  The construction of the show deals with the same sensitivities to the artists’ touch as to the individual pieces as objects/artifacts.

Ellyn Walker’s practice explores the relationship between self-hood and processes of memory retrieval.  Through material methods of reconstruction, repair and also deconstruction, collections of objects are used to map out past, present and future states of being.  Through the intervention of materials, she aims to collapse distinctions between found and created objects of identification.  Ellyn Walker is an artist and writer who lives and works in Toronto.

http://lovelalena.blogspot.com/

In her most recent work, Untitled, Walker takes from her own familial and cultural traditions of embroidery and juxtaposes sewn imagery with found, rearranged text.  Her iconic use of Madonna and Child works to challenge notions of righteousness, tradition and identity through its textual pairing.  Here, we see a disconnect between established narratives and constructed ones, and are invited to negotiate our own understandings based on the artist's physical assemblage.



Untitled, Ellyn Walker, 2011
Embroidery and found text on vintage paper
7.25 x 11.25 cm.

present feelings, probable futures emerges from the artist's reaction to the notion of collective sentiments.  Through the intervention of craft-based materials (embroidery and collage), this piece destabilizes our expectations of sight and forces careful looking on the part of the viewer.  The embroidered text, "forty-six years from now you won't remember but I will," addresses the individual within the collective, and how their own sentimental agencies reflect one's sense of self.









present feelings, probable futures, Ellyn Walker, 2010
embroidery on found image
8 x 13.5 cm

The revolutions of men references Belgian performance artist Francis Alys and his artistic ideology, "sometimes doing something poetic can be political and sometimes doing something political can be poetic".  Here, Walker re-imagines this sentiment through her careful editing of text from a found religious book.  Her physical intervention transforms a religious text into something that is both political and poetic.  With this, Walker's work comments of historical and political histories that came before her yet are still felt today.











The revolutions of men, Ellyn Walker, 2011
ink and text on vintage paper
8 x 11.5 cm

Shannon Garden-Smith works with found imagery, and imagery manipulation to address contemporary issues of nostalgia and memory.  Shannon Garden-Smith is a visual artist working in Toronto and is a founding member of XXXX collective.

xxxxcollective.com

This work, family portraits, is composed of re-explored found images and family photographs. By outlining the figures in each work, Garden-Smith aims to define the figures, while at the same time emptying them of their content.  Through her re-imagined familial narratives, Garden-Smith presents us with an image that is present and absent at the same time.


family portraits, Shannon Garden-Smith, 2010
Text on plastic
20 x 30 cm.

Corrie Jackson works with contemporary mediums, as well as traditional watercolour which she learned from her grandmother. The juxtaposition of the two create a dialogue between what what is and what has been.  Through fragmentation and re-composition, her practice explores issues of impermanence.  Corrie Jackson is a  visual artist living in Toronto and is a founding member of XXXX collective.

xxxxcollective.com
http://www.thepretext.blogspot.com/

Body:Front View, Corrie Jackson, 2009
Ink and Paper
5 x 7.5 cm.

In Jackson's Body series, her use of collage and mixed-media works to explore issues of fragility and materiality through its fragmented arrangement.  Black linear lines reinforce bodily shapes and are juxtaposed with pieces of nude-coloured paper.  Here, the overwhelming presence of a body is felt, as emphasized through the physical assemblage of Jackson in its production.  The personal is thus embodied through the tactility of its cause and effect.

Also in her Body series, Jackson's Front View exposes another viewpoint of the female form expressed through craft-based processes of collage and reconfiguration.  The thoughtful arrangement of paper fragments works to imply both a visibility and invisibility of the body, and also of one's identity.  The interaction of the body's presence and absence is a result of Jackson's material assemblage and exploration of the self.








Body:Front View, Corrie Jackson, 2009
Ink and Paper
5 x 7.5 cm.

Everything You Never Wanted is an ink-on-paper work that addresses personal and romantic states of being as proposed through Jackson's delicate rendering.  Her use of handmade text-based imagery responds to the nostalgic qualities of craft, while offering a visual narrative of a personal sentiment.  The notion of self-hood is alluded to here as a reaction to intimate modes of production.





Everything You Never Wanted, Corrie Jackson, 2010
Ink and Paper
6 x 8.5 cm

Emily Smit-Dicks’ works in a variety of mediums, with an interest in textile-based work. Her work offers reinterpretations of Victorian ideals and aesthetics.  Her work with textiles creates a narrative between historical  and contemporary practices.  Emily Smit-Dicks is a visual artist living in Toronto and is a founding member of XXXX collective.

xxxxcollective.com

In Smit-Dicks' recent photographic series, Järnliv, the physical documentation of re-purposed Victorian objects transforms articles of clothing into artifacts of contemporaneous critique.  Here, her documentation of a hand-made corset reflects processes of craft-based construction to reiterate historical and cultural traditions of dress, and also, status.

Järnliv, Emily Smit-Dicks, 2011
C-Print
50.8x70 cm.

In Smit-Dicks' piece, Handshakes, a sense of transformation is documented through the presentation of a triptych.  Through the use of photographic documentation of white gloves that attach at the fingers, we see evidence of textile re-imaginings   through manipulation of the artist.
Handshakes, Emily Smit-Dicks, 2011
C-Print
20.3x 30.5 cm.

The ideal space for these works to be shown in is a rectangular-shaped room with tall white walls and clean architectural forms, like the EEL Gallery.  The choice of the EEL Gallery allows for a small, intimate setting where each work can be illuminated through the employment of track lighting.  With the windows covered, the EEL Gallery can take on a more seclusive feeling, appropriate for the works within this show.  No plinths will be needed, as all the work will be hung at eye-level; some framed, some works on paper unframed.  Due to the small dimensions of many of the works, appropriate spacing between pieces will be determined by the curators while in the space.  Each work will be intermixed with others so that both their content and aesthetic will be in conversation with each other.

Furthermore, throughout the duration of the exhibition, an exhibition binder will be made available at the front of gallery for viewers to consult.  In it will be included a title page, a curatorial statement, descriptions of the works, images, a gallery map, short artist biographies and website links.  In including this additional information, the curators are making a conscious decision to offer educational materials to those who may be interested.

An Ode to Our Mothers is proposed to be held at the EEL Gallery, as it is a show which directly collaborates with University of Toronto students. The cost for use of the space and for artist fees are not a part of the EEL's programming. Thus, the only proposed cost would be that of miscellaneous installation items (all works will be mounted) such as hammer, nails, paint, putty, et cetera.  There will also be initial costs for the opening, pricing roughly around $50 for non-alcoholic beverages, cheese, fruit, crackers.