Turbanup with its bright and colourful fabric was back at Yonge Dundas Square again this year.
Posts Tagged ‘fabric’
Turbanup 2019
Posted: June 10, 2019 in events, peopleTags: #experiencesikhi, #turbanup, drink, fabric, food, kirpan, men, people, sikh, turban, women, Yonge Dundas Square
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shout it from the mountain
Posted: July 22, 2018 in galleriesTags: AGO, Ani Castillo, Art Gallery of Ontario, fabric, messages, painted, positive, Salvation Mountain, squares, words, youth
‘This Mountain Loves You’
is a mountain of positive messages stitched into a quilt-like artwork at the AGO. Fabric squares were decorated with pictures and messages and then hand stitched together. It is the creation of the AGO Youth Council, overseen by artist Ani Castillo.
An example of her work, black and white drawings with a little bit of whimsy and a lot of heart…. ‘Toronto in the Summer’ by Ani Castillo. Found online at Bored Panda.
“I love my black hair and my black loves me”.
“It’s me and it’s you and we’re the universe too”.
Castillo worked with a group of young people (ages 14 to 24) over seven weeks and this was one of the results. I’m not sure how high it was, 4 or 5 metres perhaps?
Part of the AGO description of ‘This Mountain Loves You’ mentions that it is a tribute to, and a recreation of, Salvation Mountain in southern California.
Photo credit: by Kevin Key, found online at Los Angeles Magazine in an interesting article about the site and its creator, Larry Knight who worked on it for 30 years before his death in 2014.
As you can see in the above photo, Salvation Mountain is predominantly about God and Jesus whereas the fabric mountain proclaims a message of secular love, hope, and acceptance. Messages such as “trust in your abilities”, “love ahead!”, and “keep families together”.
Today was the last day that this ‘mountain’ was on display.
Christian Dior at the ROM
Posted: December 7, 2017 in galleriesTags: beads, buttons, Christian Dior, clothing, design, display, dresses, dupion, embroidery, exhibit, fabric, jewelry, leaves, lily of the valley, necklace, ROM, Royal Ontario Museum, silk, velvet, weave
I went on a whim. No one has ever called me ‘fashionable’ when it comes to clothing!
I went not knowing what to expect and was very pleasantly surprised at what I encountered. The majority of the exhibit consists of dresses designed by Christian Dior from 1947 to 1957.
Christian Dior was born in a seaside town in northern France in 1905. He began his career in fashion by selling fashion sketches in the early 1930’s after a failed attempt to run an art gallery. This led to a job as a design assistant with Paris couturier Robert Piguet. His career took off after WW2 when he started his own business, House of Dior (Maison Dior), in 1947.
below: This simple but classy two piece dress with black cummerbund is from Dior’s 1948 autumn-winter collection. It is made with black velvet with iridescent bead work. The bottom part is a mid-calf length skirt with the same beading. Actually, the words simple and classy describe most of the dresses here.
below: Embroidery with beads and stacked sequins in intricate designs.
below: The fabulous colours of fabric samples – this is only a small part of the display of fabrics with “a silk warp and a dupion weft”. Warp and weft are weaving terms – warp refers to the threads that run lengthwise down the fabric while weft refers to the crosswise threads. Dupion is similar to silk but it is thicker and more uneven.
below: This dress is made from the silk fabric described above.
Christian Dior’s success as a designer and a businessman continued until 1957 when he died while on vacation in Italy. Yves Saint Laurent spent a few years as the Artistic Director immediately after Dior’s death although he was only 21. There have been countless designers and many changes since then but the the company still exists as part of LVMH. I was surprised to learn that the full name of the company is LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SE. I also hadn’t realized that many of the luxury brands that we recognize the names of are actually controlled/owned by 3 companies: LVMH, Kering, and Richemont. If you have a few minutes, take a cruise through wikipedia.
below: There was a small display of jewelry, including this necklace by Maison Gripoix. It is a string of lily of the valley flowers made from green and white handmade glass paste. Glass paste, or pâte de verre, is made by mixing finely ground glass, binding agents, and colour. The resulting ‘paste; is molded and then kiln fired. Apparently the lily of the valley was Christian Dior’s “lucky flower”.
The exhibit is presented by Holt Renfrew and you can find it on the 4th floor of the ROM…. until 18 March 2018. In the meantime, you can find more information on the ROM website.
#ROMDIOR
the brains are back
Posted: July 26, 2017 in events, public artTags: art, Baycrest, beads, blue jay, brain, collage, coloured pencils, decoration, Distillery District, embroidery, fabric, forgetting, fundraiser, ideas, lace, memory, nathan phillips square, nest, pencils, remembering, research, science, sculptures, sequins
The second annual Brain Project is now on display across the city. These are only a small sample of the brain sculptures that form the exhibit. In total there are 100 brains in about 20 locations around the city. There is a map on the Brain Project website if you are interested in visiting some of them.
below: One of the locations where you can see some of the brain sculptures is Nathan Phillips Square.
Descriptions of all the brains on display around the city, as well as notes on the artists responsible, can be found online. You can vote online for your favorite brain.
below: Circles of beads and sequins – circles representing wholeness and totality come together to form a complex mosaic like the brain itself. “Unleash Your Mind” is by Kara Ross.
below: Sitting on top of a blue and teal brain is a blue jay in a nest – a sculpture by Ted Hamer that is called “Thinkubator”. Here the brain is shown as an idea incubator where the bird symbolizes the idea.
below: “Vitale” by Molly Gambardella is dedicated to the artist’s grandmother who died of Alzheimers in 2016. Vitale was her maiden name.
below: Three of the brains on display at the Distillery District. In front is “Red Head” by Anitra Hamilton who glued pieces of chicken eggshells to the surface of the brain. Red acrylic paint highlights the spaces between the eggshells. In the middle is Cindy Scaife’s “Food for Thought”. Broccoli, avocado, apple and walnut, all healthy foods, play in the park.
below: Also at the Distillery District is a brain by Laura Bundesen, “Not Forgotten” is a collage of fabric embellished with lace and embroidery and beads. It is in memory of her stepmother who suffered from dementia.
Part of the goal of the project is raise awareness of diseases like Alzheimers that affect the brain. Another goal was to raise money – the sculptures are sponsored by various people and corporations (such as Telus). As well, most of the brains from last year’s exhibit have been sold. Funds raised through this project are donated to Baycrest Health Services.
below: Keight MacLean’s “Loss” illustrates the idea of memory and memory loss using a portrait of a person, a loved one. Paint as the memory loss, obscures the picture.
standing room only
Posted: February 19, 2017 in locationsTags: angels, Christmas, clown, decorations, dolls, fabric, flower, frisbee, gnome, lights, mickey mouse, plaques, plastic, Pokemon, Shrek, signs, snowman, stuffed, sunglasses, tape, taped, toys
Take one ordinary semi-detached house on an ordinary street in Leslieville…
and add a decoration or two…
The above photo was taken back in November whereas the one below was taken a couple days ago. Many, many items are the same. The biggest change is that there a few more Christmas decorations now large candy canes, another Santa Claus, a couple of angels and an elf or two.
Call it cute. Call it creepy. Call it fun. Call it fascinating. Call it a mess.
below: Some of the dolls and toys are attached to wooden stakes that stand upright in the yard.
below: The fence is packed full with toys and dolls and the like, including this creepy clown and ghoulish green faced doll. The pink Powerpuff girl (Blossom?) looks happy and even Elmo doesn’t seem to mind being behind bars.
below: A red candle fence lines the entrance.
below: The retaining wall is also covered. Welcome to our Garden, Boston Bruins, more Mickey Mouse, Dora the Explorer, Season Greetings and a frisbee or two or three.
I wonder how it all started? And where is it going?
I wonder what the neighbours think.
apparel oft proclaims the man
Posted: February 17, 2017 in galleriesTags: art harbourfront, black, boots, cat, clothes, cross, dress, fabric, gold, hat, hearts, imagination, jobs, mesh, needlepoint, pussy, shiny, shiny red hearts, straw, tapestry
“Apparel oft proclaims the man” Shakespeare in Hamlet I iii.
or as Mark Twain said, “Clothes make a man”.
“Workware, Abiti da Lavoro” is an exhibit at the Harbourfront Centre Art Gallery. It is curated by Milan-based designer and artist, Alessandro Guerriero and co-produced by the Istituto di Cultura of Toronto and Triennale di Milano. A lot of the artists who participated in the show are fashion designers
below: “Dress for a Crop-Raising Girl”, 2014, by Elio Fiorucci
Some of the words on the wall – “Some time ago, the cowl did make the monk, the metalworker and the lawyer. Our clothes were the direct representation of our role in society and its related image. Originally, however, clothes were something else altogether. In the Biblical story of the apple, as He cast Adam and Eve out of Paradise, God made garments of skin to clothe them, saying, “Go but remember that you are just a man and that you need protection because you are limited.””
below: Hanging on the wall were a line of dirty work coats, each labeled with a job: cobbler, draper, glazier, saddler, carpenter, and hatter. None of these jobs would have involved a coat that looked like this, i.e. that got messy in this way.
below: left to right – “Work Shirt to Paint Dreams” 2014 by Alberto Aspesi, “Dreamers Clothes” 2014 by Angela Missoni, “Clothes for a Carrot-Picking Girl, 2014 by Colomba Leddi, and unfortunately two that I forgot to take note of. The red dress is just so little red school house – so literal. Not quite as literal as the carrots for the carrot-picking girl…. so if she’s finished picking carrots and wants to pick beans next, does she change into her bean dress?
More words on the wall – “This original garment was a gesture of love – protective as well as representative and foundational of the human condition. But as society rather than the sacred came to define the balance of power, these two meanings were upset so that clothing changed from being a mark of fragility into a social function and sign. Today, our individualism has once more changed its meaning making clothing an expression of the self. It is now a way of disguising our thoughts and of giving them a new shape.”
I decided just to repeat the words verbatim. I will let you decide their worth. I just can’t do it.
below: “Extreme Film, AW13 Collection”, 2013 by Issey Miyake
below: “Adam and Eve are Going Shopping in Costume” 2014, by Frederique Morrel. Eve is standing in the shopping cart
below: Some of tapestry placements are just a little too literal.
below: “Clothes for a Dithering Monk” 2014, by Denise Bonapace.
below: Part of “Clothes for the Chaste Pornographer” by Gentucca Bini
below: Close up of part of “Mirabelle Shining Star” 2014, by Melissa Zexter
Last paragraph of the words on the wall – “This exhibition is not a display of “work clothes” but of garments for hypothetical, invented, coveted, imaginary jobs that actually invent new jobs for a new and different society. Today’s designers, including the 39 in this exhibition, work amid epochal changes – the decline of the myth of great masters and of the small factories of fine Italian design on the one side, and on the other, between the giant global entities of eastern virtual design and the complete subversion of centres of post-economic and post-industrial geography. Nevertheless, there are those who attempt to discover new territories – empty spaces, experimental, staggering, radical and unknown. What would clothes look like not only for bakers, carpenters and tailors but also for an email eraser, a butterfly engineer, the one who looks for a needle in a haystack, a healer of the healthy, a survivor, or a quarreller?”
…. And now I think I am going to design an outfit for a ‘skeptical photoblog writer who has read too many words’.
Exhibit continues until 23 April
nuit rose
Posted: June 28, 2016 in events, peopleTags: birds, by chance, camera, dancers, evening, fabric, garden, glow sticks, lanterns, lights, night, parade, people, photos, pictures, posing, sparklers, stars, unicorn
Nuit Rose,
a festival of queer art and performance
On Saturday night events were held at a number of venues that were concentrated in two locations, along Queen St. West and in the Church-Wellesley village area. I hung out around two parks in the village, Norman Jewison Park which runs east of Yonge and Barbara Hall Park on Church street. In hindsight, I wish I had had more time, or had been more organized, to get to more of the events.
Red Pepper Spectacle Arts led a Light Parade that started at Norman Jewison park. A small contingent, most wearing or carrying a light-emitting object, walked through the park, along and then back down Church Street. From the – sparklers, glow sticks
to the more elaborate
below: and an eagle on stilts
below: Note to self: for night time parades take more photos at the start of the parade because once people start moving it’s more difficult to get them in focus!
below: Where else would you be able to sit on a unicorn and get your picture taken?
below: And after a unicorn pose, have your photo taken standing with a well-lit couple.
below: 360 degrees by Iain Downie, 360 stars, 60 in each of the six Pride colours in the garden.
below: Dance performance, ‘By Chance’ by Janessa Pudwell and Tanya Svazas Cronin.
We pass by hundreds of people on a daily basis who we may never see again. Sometimes we share a glance that lasts a bit longer. This piece is about the relationships that could be created if we acted on those glances. These are the fleeting chances, exchanged through our eyes that will never be fully realized. Instead these people may only appear once in our lives as an extra sipping coffee in the background, as a blur of traffic passing on the highway, as a lighted window at dusk.”
#nuitrose | #nuitroseTO | #nuitrosetoronto
Turban Up! 2016
Posted: May 16, 2016 in events, peopleTags: chairs, colours, event, fabric, outdoors, people, sikh, sikh youth federation, sitting, turban, Yonge Dundas Square
Get your head wrapped!
Considering the cold temperatures, not to mention the rain, snow and hail, there was a great turn out for Turban Up! at Yonge Dundas square today. The event was organized by the Sikh Youth Federation to help raise awareness about Sikh religion and culture. There were martial arts demonstrations, food, an art exhibit, and other examples of Sikh culture, but the main event was the turban wrapping. Numerous eager and friendly volunteers were available to wrap a turban for you in your choice of colour. A few people sported black and dark blue turbans but bright colours were very popular – colours like turquoise, bright greens and blues, as well as pink, orange and red. A veritable rainbow of turbans.
below: He’s out of focus but I like his gumption. Thanks for the smile!
#sikhyouthfederation | #turbanup | #ydsquare
Surrender
Posted: October 16, 2015 in galleriesTags: AGO, Art Gallery of Ontario, art installations, blanket, blankets, boxes, clothing, contemporary art, details, fabric, husky, Liz Magor, material, moving boxes, sculpture
The title of the exhibit is ‘Surrender’ and the words on the wall say this:
“Liz Magor’s art invites us to reconsider our relationships with the things we encounter every day. Through subtle shifts in materiality and context, her works reveal the important role that objects play in our lives: they can allow us to conceal ourselves or to express our identities. In her sculptures and photographs, Magor explores how we depend on domestic materials to develop a sense of self.”
Nothing is mentioned about surrendering, or why the exhibit has the title that it does.
In the first room there are boxes on the wall. Each box looks like a carefully wrapped sweater or jacket that has just been purchased. I can envision a middle aged saleslady taking her time to package your purchase, like in an Eatons store thirty or forty years ago.
On closer look, most boxes also have a hand print, or shape of a hand with index finger pointing at something and little details are amiss… a ketchup package for example.
The second room has a number of smaller installations.
A garment bag left over a chair.
Neatly folded blankets hanging on a wall.
A platter of chocolates and left overs.
A tweed jacket on top of a liquor bottle.
A husky under a blanket (of snow? on a bed?)
A coat and purse hanging on a hook.
The contents of a room boxed and ready to move.
On closer look, some of the details on the blankets are wrong
including the labels that are sewn on back to front.
I was interested in what people’s reactions were to this exhibit so I had a chat with a couple of the employees about it. According to them, there was no reaction. Most people showed interest in the boxes but when they walked into the second room they rarely stopped to take a closer look.
As for surrender, I did find reference to it in the description of the exhibit on the AGO website, ” In this exhibition, everyday objects and forms, as well as the natural world, function allegorically by evoking the human need to surrender to desires, compulsions, fantasies.” Once again, I will leave it to you to decide if this description fits.
Exhibit continues until 29th November.
#turbanup
Posted: May 17, 2015 in events, locationsTags: #turbanup, cloth, Dundas Square, event, fabric, fun, men, people, photos, selfies, sikh, turban, women, wrap
This afternoon at Yonge Dundas Square,
Turbanup, presented by the Sikh Youth Federation.
There were many people there helping to wrap
and many colours of fabric to choose from.
as I walk Toronto 