A new exhibit at the Textile Museum of Canada shines light on the historical importance of textile

By: Sharon Arulnesan

Themes of ancestral reclamations and longing for the homeland are displayed in the Textile Museum of Canada’s “Gathering” exhibition.

Showcasing textiles from a range of time periods, each piece falls into the narratives of migration and diaspora, the comfort of everyday life, reclaiming and retelling ancestral histories, and highlighting the connection between the environment and textile usage.

“Gathering” aims to elicit insightful thoughts from its visitors about how textiles can create stories over time and different lands, and the meaning behind each carefully placed thread in the pieces.

The pieces shown in the exhibition are from the museum’s permanent collection and were selected by artists from different communities to be included in “Gathering.”

Artists were chosen to reflect on different pieces in the museum’s permanent collection. The artists described their personal connection to the artwork they chose through video responses on the museum’s website.

Par Nair: Silk Sarees from India

In the section about ancestral reclamations, Par Nair, an interdisciplinary maker based in the Greater Toronto Area, responded to a silk sari, fashioned in a style called patola, a garment worn typically for weddings in Gujarat, India. The sari was made in India in the mid to late 19th century

“For me, working with textiles and embroidery is a more sustainable way to keep my art practice going. It has also allowed me to consider the relationships between textiles and migration. The work aims to examine how textiles can carry cultural heritage, historical contexts and personal narratives of migration,” said Nair in an interview. “It also allows me to gain a broader perspective on craft traditions and storytelling of my ancestors.”

Nair is currently working on a series of works called “Letters of Haunting” where she hand-embroiders letters to her mother on her mother’s sarees.

“To me, the work is about the labour of reaching and care, and about memory held in objects. I think working with a material like that speaks to body archives, the types of memories the saree carries and also to the stories the sarees can tell,” Nair said.

Nair aimed to tap into the memories that both of the sarees carry, and through her piece Letters of Haunting, send nonverbal messages to her mother who lives in India.

Beenish Tahir: Dresses and Phulkari

In the Migration and Diaspora section, the pieces evoke feelings of reconnecting with one’s family who live on a distant land, as a result of migration.

Beenish Tahir, a textile researcher and scholar, responded to two dresses from Pakistan that were made during the 20th century.

Tahir selected these pieces from the museum’s collection to respond to because of her childhood-originating fascination with embroidery, taught to her by her grandmother and mother.

Beenish reflected on how craftspeople from Pakistan express their culture through embellishments, motifs, and colours in their textiles during times of social and political change.

Sarah Larock: Dutch Klederdracht

Tying back to themes of connecting to one’s ancestors, Sarah Larock chose a short jacket from the museum’s collection to respond to. The jacket originates from Zaanstreek, Netherlands, from around the late 18th century.

This jacket, made with pieces of Indian painted cottons sewn together, was initially worn by Dutch working-class people, but was later adopted as fashionable day-time wear.

Larock has been working on creating a klederdracht as a way of reconnecting with her Oma, her grandmother, and as a way to learn more about her Dutch roots.

Sewing has become one of the ways Larock and her Oma communicate despite language, hearing, and distance barriers.

Textiles and the Environment

The exhibition connected several more pieces that, although were not responded to by artists, stand as fascinating, historic objects for visitors to learn about.

The mino-boshi, or rain hat, made entirely of natural materials, originates from Honshu Island, Japan, from around the mid 20th century.

The hat, typically worn exclusively by workers in the mountains, hunters and woodcutters, is made out of rice straw, bark and seaweed.

The threads are dyed with indigo and persimmon juice, making this hat completely naturally made.

This piece is part of the Resilience section of the exhibition. Objects in this portion display how handmade textiles are interwoven with nature and the planet.

The pieces emphasize how people from around the world reduce their environmental impact by finding resourceful ways to construct clothing.

In an urban, constantly-changing city like Toronto, these artists and pieces have shown how textiles bring together communities from all over the world and comfort people on a land far away from home.

“Gathering” presents a common motif to its visitors: no matter the distance or time passed, it only takes a few hundred woven threads to tell a story.

The “Gathering” exhibition will be open until March 31, 2024 at The Textile Museum of Canada.