Textile Museum of Canada
Kai Chan: A Spider's Logic - A Thirty-five Year Retrospective
Sarah Quinton
In his celebrated minimalist sculptures Kai Chan employs materials and techniques that speak to both tradition and modernity. Working with common objects such as thread, twigs and buttons, Chan alters the nature of what constitutes sculpture and what constitutes textiles by transforming elements of the natural world to evoke geographical boundaries and cultural influences. This 35-year retrospective publication features works created between 1975 and 2010, many of which are shown here for the first time. Born in China in 1940, Kai Chan immigrated to Canada in 1966. Since the 1970s he has exhibited his work across Canada, the United States, Japan, Australia and Europe. His work is in many prominent collections such as the Houston Museum of Fine Arts, Montreal Museum of Decorative Arts and the Canadian Museum of Civilization. Kai Chan’s work is critically received equally within the discipline of textiles and the visual arts in general. He participated in the prestigious 12th International Biennial of Tapestry in Lausanne, Switzerland in 1985, and the equally notable International Triennial of Tapestry in Lodz, Poland in 2001. Published with the Varley Art Gallery. In English and French.Textile Museum of Canada (06/2011) 88 pp 45 col. ill. 10 x 8 in softcover 978-0-9735896-6-5 $35.00 Can. $40.00 U.S. (28 €)
When Women Rule the World: Judy Chicago in Thread
Allyson Mitchell, Jennifer Sorkin & Sarah Quinton
This survey of some of Chicago’s most important contributions in cloth, highlights both key and lesser-known works dating from 1971 to the present. From macramé to needle point to airbrushed quilts, Chicago employs “technique as content” in her major projects featured here including The Birth Project (1980-1985), The Holocaust Project (1993), Resolutions: A Stitch in Time (1994 to present) and Chicago’s most recent work If Women Ruled the World (2008). Essayists discuss the labour-intensive nature of Chicago’s textile work as a metaphor for investing in the ideas, values, histories and provocations in her artwork. Five artists who take this notion to heart are also profiled, underscoring Chicago’s ongoing influence and creating an intergenerational dialogue with : Orly Cogan, (New York, New York), Wednesday Lupypciw (Calgary, Alberta), Cat Mazza (Troy, New York), Gillian Strong (Halifax, Nova Scotia), and Ginger Brooks Takahashi (New York, New York). Copublished with the Art Gallery of Calgary.Textile Museum of Canada (2009) 106 pp col ill. 1 1 x 8 in softcover 978-0-9736656-9-7 $35.00 Can. ($37.95 U.S./ 24 €)
Jennifer Angus: A Terrible Beauty
Eve-Lyne Beaudry & Sarah Quinton
Jennifer Angus’ new series of site-specific installations reference the beauty of historical Victorian European ornament and its relationship to nature. Her all-over designs represent flora and fauna and create an ordered version of the wild through stylization and repetition. However by using over fifteen thousand pinned tropical insects of various forms, hues and sizes to create these patterns, Angus challenges the viewer’s notion of attraction and repulsion, comfort and discomfort. Publication documenting a series of three exhibitions, at the Musée d’art de Joliette, the Textile Museum of Canada and the Dennos Museum. In English and French.
Textile Museum of Canada / Musée d’art de Joliette (09/2008) 88 pp col. ill. 9 x 8 in softcover 978-2-921801-40-9 $30.00 Can. ($32.00 U.S./ 24 €)
The Blues: A Resource Guide
Patricia Bentley
Publication intended to support the explorations of teachers and
learners in cross-disciplinary investigations of cloth. Teachers
can integrate resources and activities in the guide into a variety
of series. "The Blues" refers to the Museum's collection of
traditional African pieces and contemporary Canadian pieces, both
of which use denim in their work.
Textile Museum of Canada (02/2008) 24 pp col. ill. 9 x 7.5 in
978-0-9736656-8-0 $10.00 (8 €)
Close to You: Contemporary Textiles, Intimacy and Popular Culture
Sarah Quinton
An examination of the use of idioms and images from popular culture in the work of contemporary textile artists from Canada and the United States. Participating artists Ai Kijima, Scott Kildall, Allyson Mitchell, Mark Newport and Michèle Provost explore popular myth, comic book heroics and contemporary social and sexual mores through their material practices of knitting, appliqué, embroidery and crochet. Their evident skill and craftsmanship acknowledges traditional craft values even as their cultural and critical sensibilities position them within more recent "neo-craft" practices.
Dalhousie Art Gallery / Textile Museum of Canada (01/2008) 48 pp 17 col. ill. 11.5 x 8 in softcover 978-0-7703-2755-2 $25.00 (20 €)
Wandering Weavers: Nomadic Traditions of Asia / Les tisserands errants : Traditions nomades d'Asie
Natalia Nekrassova
The Textile Museum of Canada holds an wide variety of traditional textiles from Asia and Afghanistan, Iran and Turkey. Through these textiles, the author draws a picture of traditional nomadic life, a life that is gradually vanishing as a result of rapid social and economic changes. The textiles discussed include a broad range of items made by nomadic people of Central and West Asia: Turkmen, Kazakh and Kirghiz, Uzbek, Baluch and Shahsevan, Bakhtiari, Kurds and Qashqai. The rugs, tents, clothing and animal gear show various textile techniques.
Le Musée du textile du Canada détient une variété extraordinaire de textiles traditionnels (incluant des tapis, des tentes et des vêtements) de l'Asie centrale, l'Afghanistan, l'Iran et la Turquie. L'auteure dessine, à travers ces textiles, une vision de la vie nomade traditionnelle, une existence qui, dû à des changements sociaux et économiques rapides, se trouve en voie de disparition. En français et anglais.
Textile Museum of Canada (06/2006) 48 pp 25 col. ill. 10 x 10 in softcover ISBN: 0-9736656-4-5 $19.00 Can/U.S. (15 €)
Thor Hansen: Crafting a Canadian Style
Rachel Gotlieb
A long overdue review of the work of Canadian textile designer Thor Hansen (1903-1974). Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, the Danish émigré was a popular artist, designer and tireless promoter of the craft movement in Canada. Incorporating the iconography of the Group of Seven and the teachings of William Morris, Hansen's printed textiles and decorative arts were displayed in many executive work environments as well as at public events such as Expo '67. Fifteen colour plates illustrate his original designs. Rachel Gotlieb is the author of Design in Canada (Key Porter, 2004)
Textile Museum of Canada (2005) 34 pp 26 ill (15 col) 9 x 9 in softcover 0-9736656-1-0 $9.95 (8 €)
Boys With Needles
Anne-Marie Larsen & Robin Metcalfe
Catalogue of an exhibition of four gay male artists who use fibre to express their sexual philosophies and to incite dialogue about the role of queer culture in religion, technology, media and the arts. Two essays elucidate the intentions and ramifications of the artistic production of David Grenier, Neil MacInnis, Thomas Roach and Patrick Traer.
Museum London / Textile Museum of Canada (2003) 16 pp 10x7 in 9 col. ill. 1895800838 $5.95 Can./U.S.
Cloth & Clay: Communicating Culture
Roxane Shaughnessy
An exploration of two thousand years of Mexican, Central and South American history through the holdings of the country's most important collections, the Textile Museum of Canada and the Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art. Objects and textiles, both ancient and contemporary and rarely seen outside of museum storage facilities, are featured in the interactive, image-rich environment of a CD-Rom. With a curatorial essay, editorial sections by field experts, graphics and an index. Of particular use to the teacher and researcher but accessible to school-children. By having the Virtual Museum of Canada site on the CD Rom, the project is accessible to those without internet-access.
Textile Museum of Canada (2002) CD-Rom with 12 page ill. booklet 5x5.5 in 0973131802 $20.00 (Can./U.S.)
Janet Morton: Wool Work
Sarah Quinton
Through her juxtaposition of the traditional techniques of knitting with contemporary subject matter, Janet Morton demonstrates the flexibility and richness of textiles as a contemporary art making medium. Not restricted by disciplinary limits, her work combines installation, sculpture and performance. Morton's monumental hand knit works have been exhibited throughout the country, notably at The Power Plant and the Art Gallery of Windsor.
Textile Museum of Canada (2001) 17 pages 25 ill. (23 col.) 7x7 in. 0968441165 $10. 00 (Can./U.S.)
Comfort Zones: Textiles in the Canadian Landscape
Marijke Kerkhoven & Sarah Quinton
The fascinating story of the complex relationship of Canadians to their country and its environment is told through textiles. It is a story based not only on the search for personal comfort in a harsh environment but on the search for beauty and solace. Artists range from Albert Lohnes (b. 1894) to Emily Carr and Joyce Wieland. With analyses of individual works and artist biographies.
Textile Museum of Canada (2001) 32 pages 18 ill. (12 col.) 7x7 in. 0968441181 $10. 00 (Can./U.S.)
On Growth and Form: Textiles and the Engineering of Nature
Philip Beesley, Rachel MacHenry & Evelyn Michalofski
Artists and designers reveal how art, science and nature are intertwined when it comes to the creation and utilization of textile structures. Participants include Kenneth Snelson, the inventor of 'tensegrity', the structural system made famous by Buckminster Fuller, Ann Richards whose textile practice focuses on biomechanics, and Sophie Roët who combines technology with the hand weaving process to develop new and hybrid textiles.
Textile Museum of Canada (2001) 32 pages 16 ill. (10 col.) 7x7 in. 096844119x $10. 00 (Can/U.S.)
Celebrating Virtue: Prestige Costume and Fabrics of Late Imperial China
John. E. Vollmer
Textile Museum of Canada (2000) 16 pages 17 col. ill. 10x8 in. 0968441173 $9.95 (Can./U.S.)
Felt: Social History, Technical Processes, Artists' Projects
Kathryn Walter et al.
Textile Museum of Canada (2000) 84 pages 78 ill. 8.5x5.5 in. softcover 0968441149 $15.00 (Can./U.S.)
Stitching Women's Lives: Sujuni and Khatwa from Bihar, India
Dorothy Caldwell & Sky Morrison
Textile Museum of Canada (1999) 35 pages 20 ill. (9 col.) 8.5x8.5 in. softcover 0968441130 $18.00 (Can./U.S.)
Gather Beneath the Banner: Political and Religious Banners of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union 1877-1932
Wendy Harker & Max Allen
Textile Museum of Canada (1999) 63 pages 39 ill. (6 col.) 0968441111 $20.00 (Can./U.S.)
From Baba's Hope Chest: Macedonian Treasures in Canada
Anne Wood
Textile Museum of Canada (1995) 24 pages 38 ill. 8.5x8.5 in. 0968068960 $20.00 (Can./U.S.)