Filamenta, a quilting collective from the Edmonton area, has been exploring different aspects of life through quilt work for the past few years. Their newest series, Connections, is their fifth show, and explores different connections in peoples' lives.
Three different artists make up Filamenta, Dawna Dey Harrish, Carol Tomm and Sharon Willes Rubuliak. Each took a different connection and explored it in their work.
Willes Rubuliak's work is based around her practice of yoga. Harrish explains that the work explores the connection between mind, body and spirit, and each piece uses yoga positions to connect a variety of mini-quilts, or organza to layer and link poses.
Tomm explores the connections between family members, using family recipes and old telephone cords in order to call to mind how family members connect to each other through the years.
Harrish explains that the start of Tomm's work in this show was an exploration of her family history in Exploit, Newfoundland. From there, Tomm started exploring how families communicate, and how the audience can communicate with the artists. Tomm's work also features text, which Harrish explains is something that is increasingly part of people's lives and artwork. One of the works, Party Lines, references old telephone systems that had many people on the same line, and the ways that affected privacy in a community.
Tomm's work has won awards, and Harrish notes that all of her textiles are hand-dyed in a wide range of colors.
Some of the artwork is interactive as well, as people are encouraged to write in a scratch book and place a tag on a brick wall. Harrish says it's about connecting to the audience.
"We thought we would like to encourage people to participate in the artwork. Because it goes to various communities, there are school bus loads of young children that come into the galleries from the communities that want to be entertained and introduced into art. While most of the time you are not encouraging them to touch the artwork, we thought it would be nice to have a few things," she explains.
Harrish also explores the connections between family members and the people in her life. She uses primarily re-purposed items such as gloves and jewelry to celebrate people in her life. She notes that the majority of the items she uses are vintage, both things discarded by others and things from her own life that she used years ago.
She explains that her work explores people throughout the community, and she wants to honor people who reach out in whichever way they can.
"I feel like the community is the source of a lot of inspiration for me because in the community we find people volunteering absolutely non-stop. People who are helping with our youth, with our elderly, with our disadvantaged, there's just so much going on in our community so I am thinking many hands to help," Harrish states.
Connections runs until April 21 at the Godfrey Dean Art Gallery. Admission is free.
