In celebration of the intimate relationship between people and cloth, the Gladstone Hotel presents hand-face-body, a juried exhibition of textile-based art.

October 13 to November 26, 2006  

3rd and 4th Floor Public Spaces   12-5pm Daily

OPENING RECEPTION THURSDAY OCT 12, 2006 7PM-9PM

Participants: Louise Lemieux Bérubé, Gontran Brennan, Ginger Brooks Takahashi, Kate Busby, Washboard Collective, Ying Gao, Sonia Haberstich, Filiz Klassen, Elana Kochman, Melissa Levin, John Krynick, Teresa Marcy, Hazel Meyer, Dorie Millerson, Allyson Mitchell, Janet Morton, Gordana Olujic Dosic, Vessna Perunovich, Christa Rowley, Lois Schklar, Auriane Sokoloski, Barbara Todd, Andrea Vander Kooij, Joy Walker, Ute Wolff

Curated By: Helena Frei and Chris Mitchell

In celebration of the intimate, layered and complex relationship between people and cloth, the Gladstone Hotel presents hand-face-body, an exhibit of textile-based art

Playing with the double meanings that "hand", "face" and "body" have in the context of textiles, curators Chris Mitchell and Helena Frei have assembled a diverse group of works whose makers range from established artists with impressive track records to students in the process of refining their focus.

With the intimate, personal overtones of textile, the act of using it as a medium suggests human presence. The participating artists speak of things as disparate as biblical lyrics, cancer and the fate of dryer lint. Whatever the subject, whether addressing issues of body image, sexual preference, intimacy or pornography, the work speaks of the body either explicitly or by inference.

The pieces in hand-face-body are made with a gamut of textile techniques that range from cutting-edge to the ancient and labour-intensive. Some of the artists use technologies derived from industry - a multi-head embroidery machine, a computer-controlled loom, a knitting machine. Others work with manual techniques like needle lace, rug hooking, hand knitting and quilting. Still others use found materials - human hair, jigsaw puzzles, dryer lint and abandoned craft projects.

The works in the show are many and varied - tiny and huge, straightforward and complex, representational and abstract. Their materiality is ethereal and robust. The human figure is shown in woven detail, implied by empty garments or evoked by the traces it leaves behind.