SHRINE: A Canadian Felt Exhibition

A Group Exhibition Created by Felt Feutre Members from Across Canada

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SHRINE (2018) by felt fetureCraft Council of British Columbia

SHRINE is a group exhibition created by felt feutre members from across Canada. The work asks participating artists to create a portable shrine that pays homage to a belief which is intrinsic to them. This belief can be based on religion, but can also be secular, a testament to an object/theme selected by the feltmaker.

TasteCraft Council of British Columbia

The combination of the forks with wool and reclaimed wood in Taste by Connie Michelle Moray references both of gender and ecology. Forks are often found inside the drawers of kitchens, wool used to create clothing and wood used to build a home; in this way these works act as a shrine to overlooked and often undervalued domestic history, such as textile practices and building traditions.

TasteCraft Council of British Columbia

The colour and form of the wool references the organic unseen or unpresentable body made visible, the female body beyond the surface. The felted silver plated forks are shrines of 'taste' associated with class, gender and the body - things that we consider valuable or beautiful as a society, yet the entropic state of the materials complicate these values to show the eco-body as a site of both degenerative and regenerative beauty.

Effigy: Frida, Emily, Georgia (2018) by Liza HageraatsCraft Council of British Columbia

Effigy: Frida, Emily, Georgia by Liza Hageraats, featured in the foreground, is a vertical triptych to honour three iconic women artists of continental America. The connection to Mother Earth and the feminine spirit is reflected in the images chosen to depict each of Head, Heart, and Soul. For Frida Kahlo the Head, source of so many creative ideas, focuses on her often worn flower headdresses.

Heart is bound in Emily Carr's stand of West Coat red cedar trees, where one discovers Truth.

And the Soul that often remains after our departure from this world is seen in Georgia O'Keefe's reocurring images of skulls. The loops connecting one section to another are braided to indicate the weaving of inspiration shared between women artists. The inclusion of driftwood speaks to the fact that they have all been battered by the elements of life, but remain beautiful and strong. The individual pieces are all primarily wet felted, some using resist or a form as a base. There is the inclusion of machine embroidery as well as knitted felted yarn flowers. The wire is a connecting force.

IGNITE (2018) by Fiona DuthieCraft Council of British Columbia

Fiona Duthie's Ignite combines bold brushstrokes in ink with high contrast in colour. Traditional joomchi papermaking meets fetlmaking and charcoal based inks to ceate a whole new form of cloth. This work is about movement and commitment, and the fire that consumes us as creative people, necessitating our making.

This is a shrine to our creative spirit - to the imagination, and the compulsion to create. As the brushstroke of ink on cloth necessitates courage, commitment, a deep breath and flow, so does our navigation through life - from everyday to the big changes. Ignite celebrates the artistic nurturing of internal coals of potential; flaming these into life and strong gestures.

Complementaries (2018) by Chantal CardinalCraft Council of British Columbia

Inspired by the textural world, natural and human made, Complementaries by Chantal Cardinal celebrates the slow movement, the creation of natural crevasses like canyons, the passing of time and the effects on its environment. Using two tone handmade partial felt to define spatial boundaries to contain colours and play with plaster which has a nice somewhat symbiotic relationship with felt.

Open Heart (2018) by Marjolaine ArsenaultCraft Council of British Columbia

The inspiration for Marjolaine Arsenault's Open Heart comes from the belief that the body is a vessel housing the soul. We are one with the divine. Our heart is the instrument connecting us between the earth and the sky - the human and the divine. In Open Heart the garment representation is cut open to reveal the heart radiating like a sun. Copper, being a natural conduit of energy, is the perfect material to include with nuno felting and beading.

Strong Spaces (2018) by Sheila ThompsonCraft Council of British Columbia

Sheila Thompson's three circles honours Strong Spaces that promote growth, healing, recovery, self-determination, and general optimism. The first part with its embedded silk imagery considers the power of memory and begins the journey along the silk ropes. The 36 beads represent our past and present lives.

The second part joined to the first with knitted copper wire shows five places to comtemplate represented by the silk circles - fresh water, green grass, warm sunlight, cool forests, and a copper net canopy. The QR code that goes with this piece links to a page to the artists webside containing inspirational quotes.

Finally the silk ropes lead to the third circle joined again with knitted copper wire. This piece has a place of recovery and recuperation where the candles light the way. The nearby silk circles represent candles using thimbles as forms for the silk georgette images that became the candle holders.

An Ode to ArlieCraft Council of British Columbia

An Ode to Arlie by Kimberly Tucker is a needle felted interactive piece where visitors and stack or flip around the felted components, each with a different trinket underneath.

Visitors are encouraged to create their own compositions.

Arboreal Stand (2018) by June JacobsCraft Council of British Columbia

This shrine, Arboreal Stand by June Jacobs, is composed of three hand-felted wool tree stump forms mounted on three hand-carved wood connected bases. The bases act to elevate the tree stumps to give them a place of honour and enhance the network of roots that anchor the trees and provide the structure of connectivity.

Into The Forest (2018) by Lois McDonald-LaydenCraft Council of British Columbia

This piece by Lois McDonald-Layden is inspired by the quote Into the forest I go, to lose my mind and find my soul. The connection we are all seeking, is all around us, if we only wander in nature for a bit. The runestones are engraved with symbols of beliefs and religions. We can give these ideas different names, but ultimately, we are all searching for the same thing and it can be found in your forest, or your shrine, wherever that might be. The background and trees are needle and wet felted wool and silk. The stones are engraved and painted polymer clay.

Hold DearCraft Council of British Columbia

Hold Dear by Diane Goossens, a shrine to the artists aunt, it is also a testament to a rural, life sustaining way of life. A photo of the 80 year old maple tree on the family's farm is transferred to silk and set in a wet felted papal hat, paired with a nuno felted jacket designed with pouches to hold life sustaining seed pods, nuts, and cones as sculptural elements.

Hold Dear Hold Dear (2018) by Diane GoossensCraft Council of British Columbia

Much like trees hold life, the farm holds trees that foster life sustaining ways.

Self-Reverance (2018) by Jennifer TsuchidaCraft Council of British Columbia

Self-Reverence by Jennifer Tsuchida is a tactile homage to self; a celebration and veneration of who one is at their core. One cannot possibly love and respect others if, at one's core, the love and respect doesn't first come from within. Self-Reverence encourages viewers to delve deep within themselves to find, embrace, and revere their uniqueness.

Hand felted and stuffed using wet and nuno felting techniques with merino fleece.

Sea Shrine Sea Shrine (2018) by Fay HodsonCraft Council of British Columbia

Fay Hodson's Sea Shrine is a place for contemplating the bitter sweet reality of our existence; when enjoying the wonders of the ocean or living our daily lives, we leave our mark - and it is not always a good one. Our challenge is to be aware of the "footprints" that we leave in the sand and to strike a sustainable lifestly balance.

While secular in nature, this shrine utilizes religious references including the rosary, shells, hermit, and labyrinth. The coral "architecture" is inspired by medieval drawings of trees integrated with the pointed arch of gothic cathedral windows.

Memory House Memory House (2018) by Debbie KatzCraft Council of British Columbia

Memory House by Debbie Katz is a shrine that was created to hold the memories that are contained within us; some lie deep within our bones, some were created yesterday. It is a sanctuary that invokes a sense of reverie allowing one to connect with his or her most intimate self. In truth, what is remembered is often strange and haphazard; many things worth remembering simply vanish while some things that one wants to forget, remain. Modern life tends to lead us to the traumatic on a regular basis. Enormous anxiety can confront the most well meaning individual on any given day. Memory House was imagined as a place to curl into and rest within the memories of our lives.

The strongly painted antlers, the second medium in this piece, offer protection for the felted bowl that contains our memories. The beach wood offers a solid base; it has been tossed on rocky shores for years absorbing memories of its own. The red felted cord wrapped in strong cotton binds the sanctuary and protects and holds the memories we most need to keep. The Moroccan trading bead acts as a portal that draws us into the shrine.

TRANSFIGURATION (2018) by Diane KrysCraft Council of British Columbia

Transfiguration by Diane Krys is about honouring the act of picking up the pieces and reshaping a new normal, one that can find joy, beauty and hope within traumatic, unexpected circumstances. The five irregular, colourful forms represent this transformation.

Humbles Gestes au QuotidienCraft Council of British Columbia

Humbles Gestes au Quotidien by Carmen Laferriere honours the beauty and simplicity of day to day actions such as the hand stiching and mending clothes of our grandmothers and mothers used to perform. These actions, so vital for the family's well being often went unnoticed.

Spiritual TempleCraft Council of British Columbia

Sandra Barrett is a blacksmith and felt maker in Fernie, BC. This shrine has a felt covered steel core with lights between the layers. This sanctuary is her Spiritual Temple.

Saint MarilynCraft Council of British Columbia

Saint Marilyn by Christianna Fergusson is a shrine to honour the life of a friend and is a celebration of aging gracefully. Marilyn embraced again, she wintered in India, wrote stories and poetry, drank whiskey with friends, she made things. She had friends of all ages.

Saint MarilynCraft Council of British Columbia

The shrine is a physical object to reflect on her memory and the things learned from knowing her. A poem about her was written on mulberry paper and felted into the piece. The patchwork surface design reflects all the stories and experiences stitched together to make a life. Stones were felted into the work to symbolize her love of the natural world. The second medium incorporated was rug hooking. This choice was made to add texture and dimension and to experiment with rug hooking into a fulled piece of felt.

Saint Marilyn Saint Marilyn (2018) by Christianna FergusonCraft Council of British Columbia

Shrine - a place regarded as holy because of its associations with a divinity or a sacred person or relic, marked by a building or other construction. A place associated with or containing memorabilia of a particular revered person or thing. A casket containing sacred relics, a reliquary. A niche or enclosure containing a religious statue or other object.

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