World of Threads: Sculpture and Assemblage

I may never make a piece of sculpture or assemblage, but I was fascinated to see what others can do in this medium when I visited the World of Threads Festival this week in Oakville and Toronto.

Montrealer Emily Jan constructed "Dürer's Rhinoceros", using resin for the head and repurposed textiles of all kinds for the body. The form was not stuffed, but was made fully dimensional by suspending it at various points from the ceiling. It was shown at the Joshua Creek Heritage Art Centre.




Megan Q. Bostic of Raleigh, North Carolina, had two pieces in the Festival. The piece on the left is titled "The First Year of Grief: Every day never feels like the yesterday I need it to." It took Megan a year to make this, and it is composed of 365 pieces of silk organza, as well as wax, waxed linen thread, powdered drink mix, and tea. Megan made this piece in response to her mother's death. It was part of the Memento Mori exhibit at Sheridan College.









Megan's second piece, "Stale Hope: Too Much Was Never Enough", was displayed at the Quiet Zone show at the Queen Elizabeth Park Community and Cultural Centre.
It is made of dental floss, plastic vinyl, bubble wrap, baby wipes, coffee grounds, twine and aluminum wire.












These haunting sculptures are by Camilla Geary-Martin, "Shroud #12", "Shroud #28", and "Shroud #8". They were shown at the Memento Mori show, and are made using a lost wax technique with woven metal.











Alice Vander Vennen had several beautiful assemblages in three shows. She uses copper, upholstery fabric and found objects in her work, assembled with machine stitching. The piece at left is "Totem 4". These pieces are framed and mounted under glass.

Finally, I was very taken with a work made of stiff white collars. Suspended from the ceiling, they looked like a flock of birds rising from a corn field. Their cast shadows on the white wall added another layer to the experience.

Sharon Moodie's "White Collar Boys" was showing at gallerywest in Toronto.

Many other fascinating sculptural pieces are on view at the show, but at some venues photos were not allowed.