ALL GALLERIES
September 6 – October 5, 2024
Carefully Gathered
Madelyn Prevost (lead), Amber Gould, Andrea Kobus, Barby Paulus, Bob James, Catherine Nicholls, Dianne Lim, Doreen MacLauchlan, Helena Tkalez, Janna Maria Vallee, Janice Talbott, Juliette Jarvis, Mary Bentley, Marianne Hansen, Muriel Prior, Nicola Hodges, Penny Stewart, Robin Razzell
Reception + Artist Talk: Friday, September 6th at 5PM
Carefully Gathered is a product of Prevost’s doctoral research in anthropology at Simon Fraser University. Her research explores how Sunshine Coast fibre artists use their practices to live a good life and enact what it means to be human. The exhibition brings together over twenty artists who contributed to Prevost’s thirteen months of fieldwork, generously sharing their time, knowledge, and stories. This exhibition is a way of appreciating the fibre artists and communities that made her research possible while sharing the knowledge generated through this research with broader audiences. By displaying this work in a gallery setting, it brings academic knowledge into the community through fibre, a personal, domestic, and everyday artistic medium.
The exhibition highlights two themes that encapsulate how fibre artists live a good life: gathering, and care. Much of the work displayed was made collaboratively, putting into practice the value of making in community. It explores what it means to gather and create carefully: with respect to the unceded lands on which the artists work; appreciation for the makers that came before us and concern for the planet and its future inhabitants. Above all, the exhibit celebrates the power of fibre and textiles to draw people in and bring them together, and highlights the potentials of letting ourselves be gathered.
The artists gathered here have varied practices and histories, but the heart of their life projects is creating beautiful lives surrounded by the handmade. Their ability to transform typically mass-produced objects into something unique, precious, and valuable makes crucial statements about consumerism, capitalism, “women’s work,” fast fashion, the environment, animal rights, and ethical labour.
To participate in this exhibition and do your own gathering from the remnant-baskets, please visit the creation station in the back gallery.
