MEDIA RELEASE: la Galerie du Nouvel-Ontario presents P0P F0LK: T3XT1L3S

From March 13th to April 18th 2015, la Galerie du Nouvel-Ontario (GNO) presents P0P F0LK: T3XT1L3S, a group exhibition resulting from a consideration of those points that textile arts and popular culture have in common. The exhibition’s curator, Sophie LeBlanc, is interested in how textiles are omnipresent in our daily lives. In fact, she points out that textiles are so integrated in our day-to-day existence that they end up becoming nearly invisible. Still, the ubiquity of textiles does not bring about the disappearance of all their characteristics: we recognize the particularities of a certain pair of socks even though we might only rarely consider the conceptual or basic form that unites all the possible socks across the world.

It’s in this spirit that artist Danielle Gignac subverts the sock by fashioning a tent from tree branches and old orphan socks. In a way, it’s an amplification of the sock’s habitual role: instead of enveloping and protecting the foot, the socks become the basic materials of a primordial shelter that protects us from nature. The socks used by the artist have been gathered from Sudburians by the GNO.

Artist Greta Grip offers a re-contextualization of textiles by documenting the first step in all works of art made from wool: the shearing of sheep. After documenting the shearing of four sheep, the artist knit individual QR codes with the wool from each sheep. The crossing of traditional knitting techniques with the contemporary form of the QR code is playful while also evoking the deepness of time.

Interdisciplinary artist Mariana Lafrance brings a temporal dimension to the exhibition by offering a performance at the opening reception. Working in nature and having recourse to natural dyes she herself gathers, Lafrance also contributes a quilt handmade by herself that evokes the three dimensional forms of a beehive or even the pyramid-like structures from the classic video game Q*bert.

With a wealth of experience working with textiles, artist Judy Martin has made a series of 74 bundles each containing four hemlock twigs. By wrapping the little branches in wool, Martin makes peace with the passage of time and grieves her late mother. As time goes by, she wraps the bundles in second and third layers of material.

P0P F0LK T3XT1L3S is presented in collaboration with Le Labo, Toronto's Francophone Media Arts Center. The exhibition is the final stage of Le Labo's mentorship program*. This year, the emerging artist and curator Sophie LeBlanc benefited from established artist Thom Sokoloski's insight as she developed the P0P F0LK T3XT1L3S project. After the GNO in Sudbury, Le Labo will show P0P F0LK T3XT1L3S in Toronto.