About
This piece, commissioned for Harbourfront Centre’s main entrance foyer is conceived as both drawing and sculpture. Hundreds of units hang from single points creating a tactile setting filled with line, colour and movement that activates this passageway and gathering place. The accumulation of multiple units of formed wire, ranging in size create a large expansive canopy to envelop the viewer, creating an environment of moving light and shadow. Through the repetition of floral imagery and circular motifs, the cumulative presence will be both delicate and substantial.
“I am interested in finding connections between scientific research and decorative patterns found in textiles and wallpaper in my work. Lace-like pieces inspired by geometry and flora are created by sewing into a material that dissolves in water so I can build up stitched lines on a temporary surface. The crossing threads create strength so that when the material dissolves, the thread drawing can hold together without a base. My interest in embroidery began with a desire to create lines that exist in space. In this work, I have shifted my materials to create lines in space from colourful wire instead of thread.”
Harbourfront Centre would like to thank ArtworxTO for their generous support of the installation work in 2022.
About Amanda McCavour
Amanda McCavour is a Canadian artist who works with stitch to create large-scale embroidered installations in Toronto, Canada. She holds a BFA from York University, where she studied drawing. In 2014, she completed her MFA in Fibers and Material Studies at Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. From 2007 to 2010, McCavour was an Artist-in-Residence at Harbourfront Centre’s Craft & Design Studio. McCavour’s work has been exhibited in galleries nationally and internationally, with recent solo exhibitions in 2019 Pink Field, Blue Fog at the Art Gallery of Northumberland, Cobourg (ON); Consumed by Clouds at the Kootenay Gallery of Art, History and Science, Castlegar (BC); The Floating Garden at Workhouse Arts Centre, Lorton (VA) and Pink Field, Blue Fog at Washington Pavilion Visual Arts Center, Sioux Falls (SD).
Upcoming 2022 projects include new installations for Paige Court at the Chazen Museum of Art, Madison (WI), and a commission for the Columbia Museum of Art, Columbia (SC). She has received awards and scholarships from Canada Council for the Arts, Ontario Arts Council, Toronto Arts Council, Craft Ontario, Young Masters Art Prize, Handweavers and Spinners Guild of America, Ontario Society of Artists, Surface Design Association and Embroiderers Guild of America.
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