Emma Aurelia artist in residence at Harbourfront Centre

Our beloved member Emma Aurelia is currently one of the artists in residence at Harbourfront Centre. Aurelia is a multi-media installation artist. With textiles at the forefront, her practice extends in several other directions incorporating sound, video and motors. She explores the way that these elements interact, transforming space and experience. Emma graduated from OCADU with a BFA specializing in textiles.

COLLEEN MCCARTEN at Angell Gallery

LESS IS MOIRÉ
COLLEEN MCCARTEN
July 15–August 26, 2017

Akin Dupont Member Colleen McCarten is showing at Angel Gallery this summer. Opening reception Saturday July 15 from 2 to 4pm

ANGELL GALLERY is pleased to present Less is moiré, an exhibition of recent stitched paper and woven sculptural works by Toronto-based artist Colleen McCarten. The exhibition runs in the Project Space alongside MINIMAL(ist) EFFORTS, a group show presenting contemporary approaches to minimalist art in Canada.

Moiré is the effect produced when an opaque lined pattern with spaces between the lines is overlaid with another similar pattern. The resulting ‘vibration’ effect is caused by our eyes’ inability to bring the individual layers into focus. In the 1960s, Bridget Riley and other artists associated with Op Art used this effect in their painterly and sculptural examinations of how vision works. At the same time, textile manufacturers, such as Marimekko, influenced fashion and décor by producing fabrics with similar graphic effects.

Colleen McCarten’s practice draws inspiration from such artists, as well as minimalists like Sol Lewitt, Agnes Martin and Eva Hesse (who pioneered the use of materials like latex and plastic in her work), and textile artists like Anni Albers and Sheila Hicks. McCarten plays with creating illusions using tangible materials. She has been sewing for 15 years and started working with textiles because she enjoys creating using tactile approaches. McCarten became hooked on weaving while attending OCADU:  “I loved the idea of creating something substantial from nothing but a simple repeated line”. 

McCarten works on an industrial sewing machine and wooden loom. Her challenge, she says, is to introduce “expressive gestures” into mediums that don’t readily allow for them. “Weaving and sewing don’t have the same gestural openness as painting or drawing as you have to pre-plan the settings of the machine” she explains. One technique McCarten employs is encasing her woven pieces in rubber, allowing them to hold their shapes after she moulds the forms. In the sewn works, McCarten carefully guides the paper through the machine to prevent snags and tears; however, slight variations in the repeated shapes convey the presence of her hand. “Every material and approach has its challenges,” she says “but, ultimately, I enjoy simplicity. Simple can be beautiful and seductive.”

– Bill Clarke

Toronto Design Offsite Festival (TO DO) 2018 Exhibitor Registration

The 8th annual TO DO Festival runs January 15-21, 2018. Independently-produced events, exhibitions, and window installations are integral to the Festival’s structure. TO DO welcomes all who want to present, discuss, demonstrate, or exhibit design in any field and/or related disciplines.

2018 Exhibitor Registration

Deadline: Monday, October 2, 2017 by 11:59pm EST.
Exhibitors include independent designers, design firms, local businesses, academic and cultural institutions, and students. Exhibitors are responsible for arranging their own venue in the city of Toronto, including spaces such as galleries, studios, workshops, cafés, schools, cinemas, and businesses. Window installations must run for the entire week, events must take place during the week, and exhibitions must run during some part of the week. Installations and exhibitions can start before and/or end after Festival Week.

Thematic Exhibition: Matter

Deadline: all submissions are due Friday, September 22, 2017 by 11:59pm EST.
Recycling is a daily act for the modern civic-minded citizen. Its intrinsic value instilled following the “3Rs” campaign of the late 1970s, we diligently sort our waste for processing elsewhere. But the methods, proximity, scale, inputs, and outcomes of recycling processes are massively diverse. Matter explores acts of material transformation and change. It considers the possibility of material memory in which use leaves a mark, whether visible or invisible; the history and future of recycling processes from a personal to a global scale; and the mundane and ritualistic aspects of material use and applications. Matter asks the question: what happens when we take a long-term view of material life?

Matter invites submissions from artists and designers working in all mediums and formats. TO DO are open to projects expressed in 2- or 3-dimensions, digital or analog, whether they be object- or concept-based.

TO DO Talks Symposium: Designing the Future of Work

Deadline: all submissions are due Friday, September 22, 2017 by 11:59pm EST. 
The world is increasingly digital and with it, so too is work. With a widespread shift towards greater connectivity, and robots capable of performing complex tasks, the landscape of work has changed dramatically, rendering a future that is less predictable and more complex. This new landscape offers a rousing combination of opportunities and challenges. Yet, jobs are increasingly unstable, or have disappeared altogether.

Design plays a major role in reshaping the way we work. It helps us imagine different futures, transitioning “old ways” of doing things, to new and “better” ways of doing and being. We seek designers and thinkers to give presentations that inspire. Talks may be about current research or case studies, new products or technologies, spaces or experiences, speculative design or strategies, or new processes or policies. TO DO welcome diverse perspectives and responses to the theme of designing the future of work.

Call for Host Venues

Deadline: all submissions are due Friday, July 7, 2017 by 11:59pm EST.
If you have a venue you’d like to have activated with a window installation, event, or exhibition. Potential venues include spaces in the City of Toronto such as shops, galleries, studios, cafés, schools, and cinemas. By submitting to this call for host venues, you agree to host a creative project by an artist or designer during Festival Week, January 15-21, 2018. The duration and type of participation is entirely determined by you when you make your submission. Host venues pay a registration fee, and provide the venue free of charge to the artist or designer.