Gillian Collyer @ Hard Twist

Gillian Collyer Bound, 2011

If you haven't already seen it, Hard Twist is on at The Gladstone Hotel in Toronto until January 27, 2013. Hard Twist is a fibre arts exhibition associated with a larger fibre festival based in nearby Oakville. Over three posts I'll share some highlights of the show. Some of the work was conceptually strong and looked fantastic from a distance but revealed disappointing technical flaws upon closer inspection. 

Gillian Collyer's Bound is one of the highlights for me. I first became familiar with her work when she exhibited hand-held at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia in 2000. In the AGNS exhibition, Collyer donned a white lab coat and wrapped kitchen utensils with white hand-spun wool yarn in the gallery. The wrapped utensils were exhibited on mayo (surgical) stands that reinforced the clinical nature of the performance and the work.

Gillian Collyer Bound detail, 2011

Bound is a kitchen chair wrapped in twine and hand-spun wool yarn. Wouldn't you love to see a time-lapse video of the wrapping of this chair? I wonder how heavy the chair is now, how much yarn and twine were used, and if Collyer hand-spun the yarn herself. Collyer is a graduate of NSCAD and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and now teaches at OCAD while maintaining an active studio practice and exhibition schedule.