{"id":220,"date":"2010-01-25T23:14:16","date_gmt":"2010-01-26T03:14:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.josettevilleneuve.com\/?page_id=220"},"modified":"2015-12-16T21:06:17","modified_gmt":"2015-12-17T02:06:17","slug":"glendon-gallery","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/www.josettevilleneuve.com\/?page_id=220","title":{"rendered":"Article by Marika Kemeny"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Josette Villeneuve \u00e0 la Galerie Glendon (Universit\u00e9 York), Toronto (Ontario).<\/h3>\n<\/blockquote>\n
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\"Installation<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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\u00c0 la Galerie Glendon de Toronto, du 24 f\u00e9vrier au 27 mars 2009 : Un monde \u00e0 raccommoder \/ A World Stitched Together<\/h3>\n

Article by Glendon communications officer Marika Kemeny
\nA fascination for textiles, textures, and where they were made \u2013 these were the initial motivations of Quebec artist Josette Villeneuve for collecting labels of used clothing. But the works she created from these mundane sources, currently on view at the Glendon Gallery with the title Un monde \u00e0 raccommoder \/A World in Need of Mending, are anything but commonplace, as they are full of colour, symbolism and imagination.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"24<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Josette Villeneuve in front of the Map of the World<\/em>\u201cI discovered an interest in clothing labels in 2003\u201d, says Villeneuve. \u201cTheir textures and exotic origins seduced me and filled me with questions about their geographic and social context. Where were they made, by whom, under what conditions?\u201d Since each label features the location of its production, the \u2018made in\u2026\u2019, collecting them was also a means of virtual travelling and understanding the impact of globalization.Villeneuve initially collected by sorting through unwanted, unsalable items at used-clothing depots, and personally removed each label. Eventually, places like the Salvation Army Store and other collection sites started setting bags of clothing aside for her and occasionally even removed labels they thought would interest her. \u201cThe more I collected, the more I wanted\u201d, she confesses.<\/div>\n
\"Canada,<\/a>The flags of Canada and VietnamHer first wish was to produce a really large work \u2013 a map of the world, stitched together from tiny pieces that came from every corner of the globe. Putting fifteen of her creations on view, the current exhibition includes this seminal piece, an enormous 9-foot by 17-foot testimonial to Villeneuve\u2019s patience and attention to detail, as each tiny piece has been pinned individually to the backdrop.Villeneuve started with representative items: maps, flags of different countries. But her impish sense of fun took over as she created an American flag which contained Cuban and Thai labels \u2013 from products which would never have found their way to American stores.Her map of the world dominates the current exhibition, directly opposite the entrance to the Gallery. There are also a number of recognizable flags on display including India\u2019s, Vietnam\u2019s and Canada\u2019s. But soon Villeneuve\u2019s imagination took over. With a wink to Neo-Dadaist American artist Jasper Johns, whose best-known works include flags and maps playfully reconstructed with unorthodox colours and characteristics, Villeneuve\u2019s flags gradually took on new features as well.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"\"<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>Visitors showed a great deal of interest in the artworks<\/p>\n

\u201cI realized that when you look at real flags on display, what you also see is the sky and the clouds above. So, I decided to incorporate these into my works \u2013 after all, a creative artist can do anything\u201d, she twinkles. In fact, she considers clouds as a metaphor for continued transformation, a cyclical change much like what happens within the world\u2019s population.<\/p>\n

What resulted from her fascination with clouds is a series of cloud-flags \u2013 flags that started out as accurate representations of the official ones, but which were transformed into cloud shapes with details such as stars or stripes in other colours than the official ones. The most impressive cloud-flag on display at Glendon is the large blue one which is the first work greeting visitors as they enter. With its sapphire blue background and dreamy white cloud centre, it transports the onlooker up, up into the sky.<\/p>\n

The combination of maps, flags and cloud-flags is shown together for the first time at the current Glendon exhibition, inciting a great deal of interest and admiration from the public for the painstaking work and imagination that went into each piece. Villeneuve praises the Glendon Gallery\u2019s curator, Marc Audette and his team. \u201cThey had many insights and innovative ideas for mounting these unusual pieces\u201d, she observes. \u201cIt was a pleasure to work with them and the setup is dynamic and harmonious.\u201d<\/p>\n

A closeup of the labels\u00a0\"D\u00e9tail\"<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWe are confronted with a veritable melting pot of origins, where \u2018Made in Bangladesh\u2019 rubs elbows with a large array of other provenances\u201d, says curator Marc Audette. \u201cJosette Villeneuve’s flags open the discussion on questions of identity within our societies, which are undergoing constant change as a result of globalization. These flags also resonate in worrisome ways with the current geopolitical reality of continuous periods of conflict in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Un monde \u00e0 raccommoder – A World in Need of Mending is shown at the Glendon Gallery until March 21st. The next exhibition at the Gallery will display the work of York University Masters of Fine Arts studentStephanie Reynolds, from April 18th to April 30th. For details and gallery hours, please visit the Gallery\u2019s website.<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Josette<\/a>
\nThe blue cloud-flag with the artist and Glendon Coordinator of Artistic and Cultural Affairs Martine Rheault
\nArticle by Glendon communications officer Marika KemenyPosted 05\/03\/2009<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Josette Villeneuve \u00e0 la Galerie Glendon (Universit\u00e9 York), Toronto (Ontario). \u00c0 la Galerie Glendon de Toronto, du 24 f\u00e9vrier au 27 mars 2009 : Un monde \u00e0 raccommoder \/ A World Stitched Together Article by Glendon communications officer Marika Kemeny A fascination for textiles, textures, and where they were made \u2013 these were the initial   Read More …<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":111,"menu_order":22,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.josettevilleneuve.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/220"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.josettevilleneuve.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.josettevilleneuve.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.josettevilleneuve.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.josettevilleneuve.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=220"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"http:\/\/www.josettevilleneuve.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/220\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":235,"href":"http:\/\/www.josettevilleneuve.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/220\/revisions\/235"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.josettevilleneuve.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/111"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.josettevilleneuve.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}