The Glenbow art and history museum in Calgary will put Inuit textile crafts on display in an exhibit called Dynamic Connections: Threads of Living Memory.
The thrust of the exhibit, which opens Feb. 22 and runs for a year, is pieces that represent living or active memory, whether “literal, abstract, simply tactile or full of symbolism,” according to information provided by curator Joanne Schmidt.
Among the highlights will be natural dye collages from Taloyoak, of which only 24 were created, natural dye animals, a natural dye cape fashioned by Taloyoak’s Selena Tucktoo and macramé pieces hung on caribou antler supports.
“Chosen works act as connecting threads to both the familiar and that which is yet to come and are meant to evoke memory in the viewers,” Schmidt’s overview reads. “This exhibit explores object memories, and the way in which each thread, each fibre, contains a hint of the past… of hands once manipulating them, of smells of the land, and in some cases a trail of hands which were all connected to them before their arrival in the exhibit space.”
Artists’ or their relatives’ recollections of their work is included, wherever possible, to give added insight.
