STORY BY SAMANTHA MAICH
A red and black themed gallery room was filled with creative realistic and abstract artwork that sprang from the walls and the floor. Portraits and colourful abstract canvas designs made from thread decorated the corridors of the Oakville community centre, which were filled with many guests and artists at the World of Threads Festival 2014.
The World of Threads Festival is one of the most vibrant textile festivals in the world, featuring a total of 255 artworks made by 97 artists from 10 different countries, according to the festival curators.
Dawne Rudman said she and fellow festival curator, Gareth Bate, don’t preplan their displays. The red and black pieces just stood out to them from the online submissions. “They come alive,” she said, explaining how different the artworks appeared in their new setting.
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Rudman, festival curator, said during her introductory speech Nov.1 that the festival had visitors from Europe and thousands of enthusiasts from around the world. One artist even delivered her work in person from France.
Ana Diosdado is a graduate from the Sheridan Textiles program who submitted her graduating piece, Communication Breakdown, to the World of Threads Festival. It had been in a different exhibition in February, and she said she was trying to find her audience.
Diosdado described her artwork as the way we translate our emotions into words, when sometimes the original message becomes lost. It portrays several cloth boxes hanging in the air, with fabric within the boxes, and strings flowing underneath.
Diosdado advises that if your heart is into your artwork then you just need to work through the frustration and confusion until it comes together for you. She warned that you should not corner yourself, as the final product is sometimes very different from your original expectation.
Abstract fibre artist, Susan Avishai compared the experience of developing her artwork to driving to Mississauga. When you know where you’re going, you get bored easily. If you hop on your bike with no destination, it’s more exciting; you can explore where you want.
Avishai said she first developed an interest in fibre art when her parents died and she was cleaning out their house. She started making art out of their clothes as homage to them. Afterwards, she began doing work based on discarded clothing.
“This is a very prestigious exhibition to be in,” Avishai said, explaining why she submitted her piece to the festival. “Everyone who does fibre wants to be a part of this.”
Dagmar Kovar, an artist from London, Ont. stitches with fabric, exploring its interaction with colour. “This is trusting something different from reason,” she said.
“It started with a question, where?” When she finished her artwork, she called it There. The artwork portrays three black boxes hung against a wall, with a collection of roses scattered on the floor beneath.
She said that she had been looking for purpose when creating the boxes for her artwork, but when the roses came she made a connection. To her, the roses represent human souls.
Kovar teaches a Drawing for Inspiration course, and gave some advice to aspiring abstract artists. “It’s a hard process,” she said. “Let the work itself, or the material, speak.” She also said not to attach any concrete terms to the artwork, so avoid having a plan beforehand.
The World of Threads Festival is free of charge, and runs from Nov.1 to Nov.30 at the Queen Elizabeth Park Community and Cultural Centre in Oakville. There is a related show at The Living Arts Centre in Mississauga with 12 artists from four countries exhibiting.