Selvage

What began as unfamiliar, Selvage documents the process of learning textile and craft techniques through the artist’s gendered inexperience. As a tactile, print installation, this series investigates the meanings of fabrics in varied forms - selvages, scraps, previously owned materials, and home furnishings. These works build awareness to the properties and layered histories of the printed materials, and to the artist’s illusory skill with a now hobbyist level of craft. Through the exhibition and residency, Chalifoux has gained skills in embroidery, hand-quilting, upholstery, sewing, and creating repeating patterns through self-taught methods, familial knowledge, workshops, and online homemaking resources. Collaborating with existing materials, without overriding their pasts, is core to Mitchell’s working methods.

Running concurrently with the exhibition, a free skill-share was held Saturday afternoon in the gallery. Here participants learned and taught textile techniques where finished works were printed by the artist to take home.

2018

This work was created with funding from the Alberta Foundation for the Arts.

SNAP Gallery

Photos by Daria Nordell