SHIFT: Michelle Sirois-Silver at Crafthouse Gallery

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Michelle Sirois-Silver's exhibition Shift, opened at Crafthouse Gallery on Granville Island in Vancouver, on Thursday, July 21, 2011. It continues until September 1st. By all accounts the opening reception was very well attended and I`m sure there were fascinating discussions about the concept behind the show as well as Michelle`s beautiful work.

Bettina, Michelle & Eleanor

From the curatorial essay that Bettina Matzkuhn wrote for the exhibition :

‘If a rug is not on the floor is it still a rug? If it has been altered materially, so it will not stand up to wear, what shall we call it? If a perfectly serviceable hooked rug is framed behind glass, how does it function? Michelle Sirois-Silver has used her skill in the traditional folk art practice of rug hooking to make these handsome works; she has used strategies from contemporary art theory to force these questions. The rugs on the wall might still be rugs, they have simply been presented differently for us to admire their textured and graphic power.’

` “Hit and Miss” is a stream-of-consciousness way to use up short bits of fabric. Bright and subtle line up in short clips, like words in text, to create run-on sentences... Sirois-Silver has mounted a large, vibrant ‘hit and miss’ rug on a white card backing, and framed it in a shallow shadowbox behind glass.’

Daniel Bush inspecting Large Squares

Tufted (detail below left)

www.michellesirois-silver.com
email:  bigdogrugs@yahoo.ca; 
phone: 604-253-4372