Finding the Words

Finding the Words. 101cm x 65cm. Dryer sheets, transfer, cotton cheesecloth. Handstitched, embroidered
2019

The various roles society demands that women assume create fragmentation and division of self. In women’s roles as mother, sister, aunt, daughter, friend, professional, employee, employer, it often seems that too many people want pieces of you, demand more of you than you can give. All this creates a disconnect with the self and threatens well-being and wholeness.
With each art work created is an entry point into myself, uncovering me and making myself visible to others. This is especially true of Finding the Words, where my full-length portrait is curtained by the text and painting, nebulous and numinous. My silent voice makes itself heard. Text plays a more prominent role in my life, at times appearing to eclipse the visual art I am creating. The textile collage mirrors how words and images shape my thinking process. Slowly they emerge to form strands of words that are then stitched into a cohesive whole. My artistic process parallels my awkward, tedious and meticulous writing journey. Each word is carefully examined for flaws and tested for its quality and authenticity.

Finding the Words (poem)

I vanish between the spaces of the words

I disappear into the blanks

I recede into the silences

I can only find my creativity in the quiet places

I live in the place where there are no words

fueled only by the quiet

punctuated by various sounds

in this space 

my awareness wanders 

into nooks and crannies

of  ideas and thoughts

into  memory and emotion

where love is stored

Each word that comes to me a pearl

formed in the shell of my silence

and like the pearl

clear luminescent smooth and hard

each word a bead strung upon a strand

to make me whole

© Line Dufour 2019

Worn Worlds: Community Participation Component - Introduction

Clothes are our autobiography and our identity. Through them, we “can trace the connections of love across the boundaries of absence, and  of death, because cloth is able to carry the absent body, memory, genealogy, as well as” the characteristics of its materiality.

In his article Worn Worlds: Clothes, Mourning and the Life of Things, Peter Stallybrass tells us he lost his friend Allon White to cancer. When Allon died, Stallybrass came into possession of Allon’s favourite jacket. Stallybrass wore it to a presentation where suddenly, he was overcome with emotion and could not continue. He  recalls,
“…I was inhabited by his presence, taken over…..he was there in the wrinkles of the elbows, which in the technical jargon of sewing are called ‘memory’.  He was there in the stains at the very bottom of the jacket….above all, he was there in the smell”.

Susan Avishai: My Father's Leather Jacket

He goes on to tell us that clothes and textiles that are part of our everyday life, receive us and yield to our shape, absorb our odours, scents and perspiration, wearing in the places where our bodies exert more friction. When parents, children, close friends, and lovers die, their clothes still hang in their closet “holding their gestures, both reassuring and terrifying, touching the living with the dead.”

Meru Parmar: Woven Wedding Saris with gold and silver threads

Textiles are witnesses and recorders of our daily lives. Our skin, the food we eat and other particles become imbedded within the intersections of the threads. They absorb scents from our immediate environment and those that emanate from our bodies. Our fingers recall their feel,  surfaces, textures, and materiality. The sensors in our fingers like threads dressed on the loom of our mind, unspool our feelings and our re-memorying of a person or events. 

Carolyn Barnett: My Mother's Horruckses Dress


EVERY GARMENT TELLS A STORY

Every garment tells a story

about the person who made it

whose hands have touched it

fingers caressing

a body it enveloped

in comfort 

or adorned 

the persons who sold it and disposed of it. 

every garment tells a story 

about the person who wears it

each day and the event it was worn for

stories for the adventures they accompanied us on

stories of the people met while wearing them

stories of the relationships that they witnessed.

and when the person who once inhabited the garment does so no longer

the garment remains 

storing  these silent stories

each stain, each rip, each frayed seam

commemorating like a marker

our memories  

their only inhabitants 

Line Dufour ©2019

Re-Collection exhibition

Re-Collection

Emanuel Jaques

Art Gallery of Burlington
1333 Lakeshore Road, Burlington
Opening Reception: November 30 2017  17h-19h
On exhibition until January 28 2018
https://artgalleryofburlington.com/
Part of a group exhibition entitled Holding By a Thread, featuring the work of Lorraine Roy, Kelly Bruton, Carole Baillergeon and Line Dufour.

Our personal narratives are pieced together by fragments of our past and that includes the textiles that has accompanied us along the journey. Cloth is imbued with memory and feelings. Embedded in cloth are our stories, our histories, our identities and our cultures. Conscious and unconscious memory is activated by our associations with cloth, stirring our senses and emotions.  Cloth arouses thoughts of warmth, comfort, protection and intimacy but also paradoxically, confinement, containment, fragility, and impermanence.  

The entire installation is rooted in embodied cognition and speaks of the act of remembering as a mental, emotional and physical matrix.  Social identity is explored through the process of creating this body of work, re-creating each likeness, in a way that presents each victim as an icon, to be loved and revered, echoing the manner in which martyrs are elevated in Christian biblical traditions. Making the image as a material presence is a narrative act though they are not fixed and factual accounts. Enmeshed within the subjective embodied experience, is a forensic curiosity formed in large part through the research of each story, weaving together the partially glimpsed, yet profoundly felt. 

Re-Collection  references the Shroud of Turin, and each shroud depicts the face of a child or young woman killed by a sexual predator in Ontario. The horrified shock and disenchantment I felt 25 years ago when I first learned of the fatal assaults on Kristen French, Leslie Mahaffy and Tammy Homolka has never waned. Since then, I’ve been haunted by the need to pay tribute to these individuals who left this life under such tragic circumstances. At the time of their occurrence I felt immobilized, not knowing how to proceed in expressing this tribute to the victims and their families. As the years went by, it was impossible not to peer into  the Pandora’s Box of these  recurring traumatic social and cultural behaviors. Oliver Sachs and T.S. Eliot would call this long incubation period necessary to one’s creative process. It is a time when one is consciously and subconsciously, -  learning, gathering, reorganizing, reconfiguring and synthesising information, methods, and techniques. 

The term ‘shroud’ refers to a textile that” covers or protects an object”, usually a deceased human body. Historically, shrouds were hand woven in a 3/1 herringbone twill or plain weave and with a natural fibre such as cotton, wool, or linen, - an inexpensive easy way to produce cloth. In contrast, I created a series of jacquard woven shrouds. Historically, jacquard woven textiles were available only for the powerful and wealthy to command respect, and denote status. In using these patterns, I transfer these associations to each of the portraits, adding more potency to the homage. 

The shrouds have a surreal quality and could be faces glimpsed in a dream. Memory is made visible and the viewer’s memories are stirred and recalled as faces appear before us like apparitions.  The clearness of their features are dissolved by the overlaid jacquard pattern, alluding to the veil which I will return to in a moment. In close proximity to the shroud, it appears as a patterned textile. As one moves further away, the face emerges.  This disintegration alludes to how memory works - sometimes clear, sometimes vague and blurry. As memory fades, it leaves one with an imperfect recollection of the event or person. This body of work also explores how memory creates dissonance in its incompleteness and its unreliability in apprehending the truth or reality fully, which is further intensified by the limitations of perception. 

A veil is a semi-transparent textile through which we can see that which is curtained behind it. It is often used in religious ceremonies to honour a religious object, space or person.  It is frequently worn as an article of clothing or accessory, usually by a female and is often intended to cover part of the head and/or face.   The veil is an object imbued with the sacred and the profane. The idea of holiness, sanctity, piousness, purity, humility and submissiveness, is often associated with it, but it is also associated with being alluring. A veil can disguise or it can reveal; It can arouse, or denote status. The veil is often referred to metaphorically in various religions, as the curtain that separates us from the departed. 

The collection highlights the disorientating effects of impermanence and loss, and brings to light the transformative effects of our subjectivity and numinosity. Feeling our way out of our dark place and our confusion, we are led to enlightenment that expresses itself in compassion, action and creativity.  In turn it ignites the impetus to contribute in some way, to positive social transformation. Mary Sarton’s poem captures these thoughts succinctly and it reads: 

Help us to be the always hopeful gardeners of the (heart and) spirit

Who knows that without darkness, nothing comes to birth

As without light, nothing flowers. 

A special thanks to the Ontario Arts Council ( http://www.arts.on.ca/grants) , Montreal Centre for Contemporary Textiles, Suzanne Chabot, Adrien Landry, Lheila Palumbo without which this project would not have been possible. Thank you too, to the Fondazione Lisio in Florence for creating the braille cards. 

Toronto Star Article by Robert Cribb may 25 2016

https://www.thestar.com/news/world/2016/05/25/child-abduction-and-murder-data-paint-chilling-new-portrait.html

Re-Collection

I just found out that I received a grant from the Ontario Arts Council to create my jacquard woven shroud series entitled Re-collection. Each shroud will depict the face of a young girl or woman killed by a sexual predator.I will be collaborating with Dr. Simon Lapierre as well as with other new technology artists. This collection of shrouds will focus on victims in Ontario, and over the years, I would like to create a set for each province. If you would like to recommend an individual for inclusion in this project, please contact me at linedufour.tapestry@gmail.com. This project will take a couple of years to complete.






Fate, Destiny and Self Determination: an International Tapestry Installation
Le Sort, Le Destin et L'Auto-Determination: un Installation Internationale de la Tapisserie

Upcoming Exhibitions: 

Craft Council of BC, 1386 Cartright Street, Granville Island, Vancouver, BC
March 26-May 5 2016. Co-created by 197 people, 310 contributions, 20 countries. More entries are arriving each day.

Centre d'Action Culturelle de la MRC de Papineau
20 August - 7 October 2016
3, rue Principale, Saint-André-Avellin,
QC J0V 1W0
Phone:(819) 983-2027

San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles
520 S 1st St, San Jose, CA 95113, USA
January 20-April 16 2017
Opening Reception: January 29 2017. 1-4pm

Art Gallery of Burlington
1333 Lakeshore Rd, Burlington, ON L7S 1A
2017 - dates undetermined


In the meantime, I continue to
collaborate with Erin Lewis on
integrating new technologies into weaving.
You can go to the Facebook page for the
collaboration to see how it is progressing.
https://www.facebook.com/MatrixErinLine/.
So far I've woven fibre optics, linen
with paper. Next on to wire. Erin is
working on the tech details. She recently
discovered that she was accepted into the PhD program at Boras University in Sweden.
I will be sorry not to have her around.
Maybe I'll have to go to Sweden?

Exploring New Materials and Processes

A few weekends ago , I took an electronics course at interAccess. The instructor was a very good speaker and explained the theories and the principles of electronics very eloquently, however, my practical knowledge was not greatly expanded and hoping that other experiences will fill that deficit.  I am learning more about this area because of my recent forays into incorporating assorted materials, technologies and new media into woven textiles. It has been very satisfying for my creativity and I am finding this path enchanting. I am collaborating with the new media artist, Erin Lewis.
I just finished weaving the a large fiber optic panel. Erin is helping in working on the finishing at Toronto Weaving School. Next, we'll be 'connecting' it for illumination. You will be hearing more about our ventures together.

Earlier this month, I was  thrilled to be invited by the Textile Department Head, Rachel Miller,   as a guest instructor at Sheridan College, to share my body of work, and to teach students how to design for weaving.

The jacquard woven piece, Alicia, was accepted into an exhibition, Fiber Art VII, held at the Sebastopol Center for Art, in California. I call this series my Shroud series, and each cloth depicts the face of young girl killed by sexual predators. If you want to read more about the project go to the previous blog page: http://tapestryline.blogspot.ca/2015/10/re-collection.html

The international tapestry installation, Fate, Destiny and Self-Determination, co-created by 193 people from 20 countries, and composed of 285 submissions, will be exhibited in Vancourver, British Columbia in March 2016. It is not too late to make a contribution. If you are interested, contact me at linedufour.tapestry@gmail.com.

Re-Collection

Recently, my jacquard woven piece entitled "Alicia" was accepted into  Fiber Arts VII, to be held at the Sebastopol Center for the Arts in California. It will be exhibited from October 22 - November 28, 2015. The opening reception is Friday, October 23 between 6-7:30 pm. 

"Alicia" is part of my Re-Collection series that I have been working on. Each piece woven is a shroud for a young girl or young woman, killed by a sexual predator. Each shroud is jacquard woven and I am looking for ongoing funding to support this project. It is the first time this shroud is being exhibited, and it means a lot to me that it is making its maiden voyage out into the world, to be seen, and to not be forgotten. 

"The pattern of the cloth dissolves the clearness of the features of the face, apparition like and haunting.   In close proximity to the shroud, it appears only to be a patterned textile. As one moves further away the image comes into focus.  This disintegration alludes to how memory works - sometimes clear, sometimes vague and blurry. As memory fades, it leaves one with an imperfect recollection of the event or person. Memory is described as “the process in which information is encoded, stored and retrieved”.  Similarly in jacquard weaving, information is encoded and stored in the punched cards and software and then retrieved as the treadle is pushed and released. The image also alludes to patterning found in textiles,  created by the circular clusters of dark and light points which form patterns of negative and positive space, associating it to the pattern of these societal behaviors." 

Videos that you might find interesting: 
Rebecca Mezoff and Barb Brophy talking about James Koehler: http://rebeccamezoff.blogspot.ca/2015/07/the-james-koehler-videos-from-denver_24.html
Teaching: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S19yrJlR2ac
Colour: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6ukOr5f3WY
Weaving as Meditation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCjBsn_jEGg
Distinct Style: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eiatDVZP_Co

Debbie Harris let us know about a commemorative tapestry for John Lennon. http://www.cbc.ca/news/watch-john-lennon-commemorative-tapestry-unveiled-on-ellis-island-1.3174247

Moonrain Centre http://www.moonrain.ca/

EXHIBITIONS

Fate, Destiny and Self-Determination: an international tapestry installation
http://tapestryline.blogspot.ca/2015/08/a-thrill-for-lifetime.html

Ramses Wissa Wassef tapestries on display in Oakville, Ontario
 http://www.joshuacreekarts.com/2015/09/13/3415/?utm_source=Arab+Spring&utm_campaign=35c72a7056-September_2015_Update9_23_2015&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_12ae6a5334-35c72a7056-64130069&ct=t(September_2015_Update9_23_2015)

Textile Art exhibitions in Italy
http://www.miniartextil.it/

Carlos Coelho recently emailed me expressing his desire to learn tapestry. In some email exchanges he mentioned that he was from Brazil and was inspired by tapestry weavers in his home country. These were some of the names he mentioned:
1- Genaro de Carvalho
2- Kennedy Bahia
3- Jacques Douchez (French-Brazilian)
4- Burle-Marx
You can find many works searching for their names on Google Images and visiting the website of the "Passado Composto" gallery in São Paulo: http://passadocomposto.com.br/
Also, sometimes instead of searching for "tapestry", you can also search for its equivalent word in portuguese "tapeçaria" to improve your results in websites not translated to English.
These are the artists that sparked my interest in tapestry and I would like to learn with you how to design similar tapestries.

Fate, Destiny and Self Determination at Regis Universtiy, Denver, Colorado

Fate, Destiny and Self-Determination/le Sort, le Destin et l'Auto-determination: an international tapestry installation exhibited at the Doyle and Margaret Hartman Gallery, Dayton Memorial Library, Regis Universtiy, Denver Colorado. August 2015. All of these pictures document this exhibition as well as the reception. 

Some of the shapes contributed to FD&SD. 

Rebecca Mezoff's tapestry, Emergence 1, woven under the guidance of James Koehler. 

Tapestries by Aneesha Parrone, and shapes contributed by FD&SD participants. Recognize yours?

On the right, a tapestry by David Johnson, along with more shapes contributed to the FD&SD installation. More information about David and his tapestry ventures 

http://www.americantapestryalliance.org/AP/ArtistBio/JohnsonD.html

RECEPTION  SUNDAY AUGUST 2 2015

VERNISSAGE DIMANCHE 2 AOUT 2015

Left to right: Aneesha Parrone (co-curator) and me (Line Dufour). 

Aneesha curated all the other tapestries as part of the FD&SD platform. 

Left to right: Sarah Swett, Line Dufour and Alex (Susan) Marriott. 

Here is a blog post by Sarah Swett on the weekend of the opening which coincided with a workshop she was giving and in which I participated: http://www.afieldguidetoneedlework.com/blog. To see more of Sarah's work go to her website at http://www.afieldguidetoneedlework.com/

Left to right: Rebecca Mezoff, Sarah Swett, Line Dufour and Debbie Harris

Summer Larson and Victoria Stone

Foreground left to right: Barb Brophy, Margaret Sunday and husband, Pete. 

Background left to right: Sarah Swett, Line Dufour, Mary Colton and Rebecca Mezoff

Cheryl Nachtrieb (owner of The Recycled Lamb, Golden, Colorado) and Sarah Swett reading over the names of all the contributors. 

Shapes by Melanie Siegal, Emoke, and Erin Lewis. Tapestry by Celine Grigore

Margaret Sunday standing in front of her tapestry. Below the concepts behind it. 

Rebecca Mezoff in front of her tapestry, Emergence 1. To see more of her work go to her website where you can also sign up for her blog and newsletter. http://www.rebeccamezoff.com/. Rebecca teaches online tapestry weaving classes as well as travels to give tapestry workshops.