The Salmon gill net is teeming with a great variety of braids and knots and we are still open this week 2-7 pm Here are some pictures from yesterday.
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The Bunka workshop with Sharmistha Kar as part of the Knotting, Netting, Connecting Community-engaged art program will take place at the Covent Garden Market's outdoor space, Wednesday, July 27, 2022, 5-7 PM (130 King St, London, ON). If it's raining, we will still be at this location as the Market's outdoor space has a covered area near the entrance. We have tools for ten people, so we need to limit participants to ten. Feel free to register If we have more people registered than ten, we will contact those who registered after the limit, to see if another date would work for them and in this case, we would offer a second workshop. Doughnut Knots are decorative knots. Yesterday, we made and placed several of them in and around the net. When four-year-old Aisha visited with her mom, she showed us what else we could do with them. But Gabriella was particularly impressed that Aisha wrapped herself into the salmon gill net, and then she was able to free herself skillfully from the net. When Gabriella was in art school, she did a performance of tangling herself in a salmon gill net and struggling herself out of the net. She struggled but could not come out; she panicked, and her classmates had to free her.
The knot is one of the oldest human technologies. It is our oldest type of binding and played a significant role in human evolution. Knotted fishing nets were used in the Neolithic period 10,000 years ago. The technique of making knots has evolved in myriad ways into thousands of bends, hitches, lashings, and loops while adapting to the particular needs of various trades. Knots have also played a significant role in spiritual life. The belief that knots possess magical power and can cure all kinds of ills has been widespread across cultures.
As artists, we are interested in knots as they are important in arts and crafts, knitting, weaving, and crocheting. Sharmistha's work in embroidery employs a number of techniques. She will give workshops on Bunka, a Japanese embroidery technique that is usually presented as artwork instead of clothing adornment. Gabriella has become truly intrigued and curious about knots since the day she was given a discarded, damaged commercial salmon gill net at the Steveston fishing port in BC and learned about how the structure of the net, mesh size and the way the net is knotted together impact the catch. In fact, we start our project by hanging a beautiful salmon gill net that was never used (it is an obsolete model) in the gallery in an organic, random way as an initial structure. It will provide a myriad of opportunities to expand and shape it by attaching/knotting additional materials to it. We will use this blog to add pictures and reflections on what is happening in the gallery throughout the project. |
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