Vanessa Yanow
September 1 - October 1, 2022
Reception: Thursday, September 1 from 6-9pm
Craft Ontario Gallery, 1106 Queen Street West, Toronto
“Each piece from the ‘Second Life’ series includes an unfinished antique textile piece made in the 20th century by anonymous women. Considered hobby projects, these artifacts were each abandoned at various stages of completion. I documented each of them before beginning, researched their technique and place in history, and then transformed them into completed sculptures using elements of glass, textiles and mixed media.
The objects’ incompleteness is my road in. I start where my “collaborator” left off. I extract the love, frustration, boredom, eccentricities, or whatever traces of this unknown person’s humanity that I can divine from the piece and let these characteristics take the lead. If I can respect some of the original author’s intentions while inserting my personal interpretation of the work to transform it into something new and meaningful, I will have succeeded in this rejuvenation process. I am the final chapter in a story that unexpectedly stopped in time. Though separated from the author by time, culture and age, the process of transforming these objects allows me to cross the boundaries that continue to persist between art and craft, the past and present, the young and elderly, what is old and new, technology and handmade, and between traditional techniques and conceptual art practices.”
– Vanessa Yanow
Vanessa Yanow is a queer artist who works primarily with textiles, flame worked glass and found objects. They have been reviewed and featured in many North American publications as an exceptional craftsperson, but their BFA in Paint from RISD points the way back to a grounding in the visual arts, lending their work a unique strength that defies categorization. Their sculptural work has been shown in museums in Canada, and in galleries and art fairs internationally. Their work is also part of the city of Montreal’s permanent collection, the collection of Le Musée des Maitres et Artisans in Montréal and in the Musée National in Québec City. Yanow currently lives and works in Tiohtià:ke (aka Montreal) out of The Long Haul – a nonprofit, artist-run organization that they cofounded in 2001.
www.vanessayanow.com
We would like to thank the CALQ for their support in getting this work and the artist to Toronto.
