Danish Modern at Mount St. Vincent University Gallery in Halifax

The Mount St. Vincent University Art Gallery has a unique mandate.

"Opened in 1971, MSVU Art Gallery exists as a resource to Mount Saint Vincent, communities served by the university, artists and art publics everywhere. The gallery reflects the university’s educational mission by emphasizing the representation of women as cultural subjects and producers. Through its focus on contemporary art and internships the art gallery has been a catalyst to many careers in visual art. Its exhibitions explore various forms of cultural production, highlighting the achievements of Nova Scotian artists and themes relevant to academic programs offered by the university."

Gallery Director, Ingrid Jenkner, has long been an important voice on the Canadian art acene, organizing germinal exhibitions for many young artists and writing important text contributions for the likes of Joyce Weiland, Suzy Lake, and Kelly Mark. The rigour with which she programs is a further articulation of her making public a wholistic and healthy feminism.

It was a great pleasure to meet with her and discuss possibilities for collaboration between Studio XX and MSVUArt Gallery and the current exhibition of textile based works of Suzanne Swannie...

It seemed somehow deeply appropriate that the last official visit i made as part of the TransCanada Pipeline tour was to a textile exhibition as both the germinal idea for the brief of the Matricules website was Jacquard weaving, and "from strand to structure" the presentation i have been giving on tour, expands on the connection between textiles and computation, hardwares and softwares, and alludes to social structures being pliable as they are constructed of many individuals. Swannie's practice is that of an artist designer and educator. The exhibition has been artfully curated, offering many points of access to how someone does all that Swannie does, and why.

Danish Modern: Suzanne Swannie Textil

Imaginary Landscapes Nos. 1-4, 1980. Lurex, linen, silk, gold, 4.5 x 9.5 cm. Collection, Mount Saint Vincent University. Purchase, 1980

18 Oct 2008 – 23 Nov 2008

Suzanne Swannie is a Halifax-based designer and weaver who creates functional textiles, tapestries and large architectural installations for private and public environments. She also weaves pictorial tapestries and is known for unique fabric constructions such as the gallery installation Repassage. Both the woven works and the constructions display the “Danish Modern” principle of repetition of modular units as a means of generating surfaces and structures with a typical emphasis on rich colour harmonies.

Swannie’s integrated sensibility—the legacy of her Scandinavian
training—allows her to move adroitly between industry, craft and the art world, gaining from each, apologizing to none. The retrospective selection will include tapestry works from the 1970s; pieced and appliqueed wall textiles created in collaboration with the Mi’kmaq women of Eskasoni Reserve (1977-1980); production household textiles (1980s); the creased-silk installation Repassage (1986); subsequent tapestry carpets and their paper studies (1990s, 2000s); and the major figurative tapestry triptych completed in 2007. Images of these may be viewed on the artist’s website, www.suzanneswannie.com.