Last fall I took a trip to see the World of Threads Festival in Toronto, CA. It ran for about 6 weeks. This is a biannual exhibit that gathers fiber art from all around the world and is displayed throughout the Queen Elizabeth Community Center in Oakville, Ontario, CA. The Festival is a showcase of local, national and international contemporary fiber and textile art. It is one venue where you can see a wide range of art and see much of it in depth because they will feature several pieces from one artist. I spent most of a day there this past fall and came away with a ton of new ideas and new artists to admire.
The organizers and curators for the festival are Dawne Rudman and Gareth Bate. There approach to the exhibition is, in their words:
we don't have predetermined curatorial ideas or impose our cone[ts on the artists. Each festival is a blank slate. Shows develop entirely out of the submissions received. To find our thematic exhibitions we look for connections between thousands of artworks from around the world.
Along with the thematic shows that develop, there are many solo shows and installations which is a great opportunity to see a body of work. This year there were 25 solo shows featured. Another area features the Cat Walk - one of a kind clothing - some meant to be worn, some meant for performance, some meant to be display only. The opportunity to see this work up close and in the round is great.
One of the solo shows this year that I most enjoyed was In Between: Presence and Absence, created by Sun Young Kang. This massive installation 9the floor of a very large open area0 was created by casting hundreds of vessels from every day life and arranging them in the display. Each vessel was sliced open so you could see the relationship between inner and outer.
Below are a number images from the exhibit. If you are intrigued and want to see more visit www.worldofthreadsfestival.com. The website is extensive and includes not only the artwork form this past festival but previous years. Also includes artist interviews and lots of interesting info. I encourage everyone to think ahead to the next call in 2020 and enter. I had a solo show of my Tree Ring series in 2014 and it was a great experience. And there is nothing wrong with having an excuse to visit the Toronto area!
