A wide swath of new artwork is on display at Altona's Gallery in the Park. The second season launched Thursday and features artists April Friesen, Josee Voth, Pearl Krahn and Tim Froese.
We caught up with April Friesen on opening night, where the artist described her art of making something out of nothing to create the tapestry exhibit titled, Threat Intention.
"Here we have redundant Japanese textiles that, a majority were gifted to me from people who had no use for them. That's kind of where my initial inspiration came from," explained Friesen, adding seeing these textiles nearly thrown in the garbage was almost too much to bear. "So, when my partner's mom started giving me heritage fabrics, she encouraged me to cut them up and turn them in to stuff."
One of the pieces on display at the gallery is from that very fabric, while the rest were created from pieces Friesen found, some years old but still in the original packaging.
When turning this deadstock into works of art, Friesen says you have to use what you have and not be too picky about it.
"For example, the morning dove over there," noted Friesen, pointing to one of the tapestries on exhibit, "the dove itself is just made out of a jacket. So, I had that much fabric to use. The rest of the fabrics I dyed myself and I, again, had just that much to use. So, I looked at the pinks and the purples and the different colours I don't normally use, I'm not a pink and purple person, I decided it had to be a sky because that was the only thing that I could imagine with those colours."
As for what inspires the work, Friesen pointed to nature.
"I believe whole-heartedly in Land Back - let's give the land back to Indigenous Peoples, let's find reverence in the world once again. I want people to look at my work and to go outside and see beauty."
Through this process of using scrap fabric to make tapestries, Friesen has unearthed familial and ancestral connections.
"When I was in Japan, there was a lot of things I was running away from, being there. But I found myself getting really lonely, especially having young children, really craving a family connection. So, starting to specifically quilt, despite the fact that it's not traditional at all - it's very much my own style, I found a lot of peace. I felt my partner's grandma watching me as I ripped up the kimono that she had stitched and yeah, there was a lot of familial connection, a lot of feeling my ancestry and knowing that on both sides of my family, both my husband's and mine, that there's a lot of blanket making, there's a lot of sewing, a lot of textile work and I found a lot of comfort in that."
Alongside Friesen's exhibit, there are also a variety of acrylics, sketches, photography and oil paintings on display from the other three contributors - Josee Voth, Pearl Krahn and Tim Froese.
The gallery's second season runs into September.
With files from Chris Sumner
