Helena Wadsley
Textiles hold memories; bequeath traditions, they fold individuals into family and community. For Silken Smokestack, I chose to weave my way through an understanding of kinship. My art practice has become dominated by textile-based techniques; it was my grandmother who gave me her old sewing machine when I was 16, and it is the one I continue to use today. I looked to the place of my father’s and grandmother’s births, a town renowned, for a period, for its jacquard silk weaving. Although no relatives remain, and my parents and grandparents emigrated to Canada before I was born, I visited the town, imagining I was walking in the footsteps of my grandmother. One of the weaving factories, now a museum, is walking distance from the house where my father was born. Tall, brick smokestacks are noticeable architectural features of the town, remnants of the numerous old weaving factories. To make Silken Smokestack, I wove leftover mulberry paper from a previous project, over a warp of eri silk, a cruelty-free silk. I liked the connection between the mulberry paper and silk from worms that rely on mulberry trees for their nourishment. I used silver pigment to paint the coin-like dots of the jacquard pattern cards, which, miraculously, turn out incredibly ornate patterns in the fabric. The floral pattern, drawn with graphite, is based on patterns that the factory would have produced, but also reminiscent of the pattern of my grandmother’s sofa. The seam visible in the third slide alludes to vertebrae, symbolically representing the stacking and the strength of family ties. The charcoal gets darker towards the top of the stack to show weaving as an industrial endeavour with deep roots in the hand made. The softness of this woven paper smokestack represents the organic nature of memory and heritage. This is a portrait of my existence folded into a family history.
Using a variety of media including performance, video, textile-based sculpture and drawing in my practice, themes of physical and emotional relationships to place are key to my work. I prioritize locally sourced materials and making by hand. Collecting materials is a way of exploring a place while making work with them is my way of communicating my response to a place. These approaches combined incorporate a history of women’s labour as I often incorporate skills that are passed on matrilineally. I look for ways that we connect to community and place as a way of understanding the formation of identity.
BIO
Helena Wadsley is a Vancouver-based artist working with textiles, drawing and painting, performance and video. While her work defies categorization, it generally involves careful studies of the materials and processes by which we develop a sense of belonging—to the land, community, and family. A strong interest in environmental concerns, equal rights and fair representation, these issues are central to her work, thus, she could be called an eco-feminist. She has participated in residencies Morocco, Portugal, Italy, Greece, Iceland, Norway, Spain, and the UK. Her work has been exhibited in five continents. Recently, her work was included in exhibitions in New York City, Poughkeepsie, NY, and Chicago. In 2021, the public will be able to visit her work in Burnaby, BC and Seattle, WA. She has been the recipient of Canada Council and BC Arts Council grants.
