TOAE 2012: Shuyu Lu

Shuyu Lu textiles; Photo credit Karen Thiessen, 2012

As a Chinese artist living in Canada, Shuyu Lu is a bridge between East and West. Confronting this duality on a daily basis led Shuyu Lu to explore other contrasts of sheer vs. opaque (see the bottom image), colour vs. black-and-white, contemporary imagery of hamburgers and electronic equipment superimposed with traditional French Toile de Jouy fabrics, old vs. new, and slow hand-embroidery vs. faster screen-printed fabrics. Shuyu Lu makes good use of this tension with her witty melding of traditional and contemporary, and eastern and western cultures.

Shuyu Lu textiles; Photo credit Karen Thiessen, 2012

Shuyu Lu moves beyond the rectangle with her amorphously shaped Toiles de Jouy and her embroidery hooped stitched screen-prints. Embroidery hoops are on the verge of being over-used among textile artists, but they are a quick and inexpensive solution to presenting the work. The irregularly-shaped stuffed Toiles are so unusual that they force me to spend more time with them.

Shuyu Lu textiles; Photo credit Karen Thiessen, 2012

Shuyu Lu, a graduate of the Ontario College of Art and Design's fibre program, is finishing a residency in the Harbourfront textile studio. For more information, check out Shuyu Lu's blog.

Shuyu Lu textiles; Photo credit Karen Thiessen, 2012