Makeshift Contemporary Textiles Festival

MULTIPLE VENUES AND SITES, Victoria BC - November 9, 10 & 11, 2018
by Christine Clark
Makeshift, an expansive, three-day, city-wide celebration of contemporary textiles practice, features over 40 artists working in fabrics and threads from various social, political and personal perspectives. Exhibitions, a film screening, performance work, workshops and artists’ talks are scheduled at several venues, including the Atrium, Xchanges Gallery and Studios, Errant Artspace, the Ministry of Casual Living, arc.hive Artist Run Centre and the Fifty Fifty Arts Collective.
Imagined and designed by a group of ambitious volunteers, including Victoria’s Indigenous artist-in-residence, Lindsay Katsitsakatste Delaronde, and artist-writer-instructor Connie Michele Morey, Makeshift is a collaborative effort between artists, galleries and artist-run spaces. The goal of the festival is, in part, to increase public engagement and support for the art of textiles, described on the festival website as a practice closely in tune with natural environmental rhythms of birth and decay.
One of several solo shows is Shannon Peck’s exhibition of embroidery and sculpture, Your Daughter Is in Good Hands, an evocative exploration of adoption, identity and belonging at arc.hive. In partnership with the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, Inuvialuk artist Maureen Gruben’s film Stitching My Landscape (2017) will screen, with an opening talk by writer and curator Kyra Kordoski. Delaronde will perform Fury, described as a response performance touching on similarities between the abusive and exploitative treatment of both women and the Earth. Morey will present a curatorial talk and tour of the large group show, Mend, featuring 150 embroidery-based works. Two workshops are scheduled: beading with Bev Koski and grant writing with Barb Hunt, and this list is just a sampling of the many artists and activities involved. Further information, including a printable schedule and map, is available on the festival website.
Opening remarks Nov 9, 6pm, at the Atrium, 800 Yates St.
make-shift.weebly.com