OFF the WALL BY CRYSTAL MURRAY
A private collection from Pictou finds its voice at a Toronto gallery
O
ur relationship to objects from the past has always been a curiosity for me. Why do certain objects capture our imagination? Why are we drawn to them? Once we establish a fascination with the object why are we compelled to collect more of the same and at what point, if ever, does this collection find significance? Over 50 years ago when the late Jane Webster started a collection of Victorian needlework that bedecked the walls of her summer cottage in Pictou, she likely didn’t have an inkling that some day they would be recognized as one of the largest and compelling treasuries of this particular style of domestic art. A fact that likely would have gone unnoticed if it were not for Katherine Knight, a photographic artist and professor of Visual Arts in Toronto who also summered in Pictou. On viewing the mottos during a visit, Katherine knew she had found something special. She started to photograph the collection but it took her some time to understand her response. It took a few years, but eventually a project emerged that would add another dimension to the life of the collection as it travelled from the storied walls of a family retreat near the shores of Caribou, Nova Scotia to the halls of the Canadian Textile Museum in downtown Toronto. Her work is documented in the new exhibit, Katherine Knight: Portraits and Collections. From her office at York University, Katherine shares her story about how the exhibit evolved. “I first met Jane Webster when she was in her 80s. She invited me to tour and photograph her guest house, the “Caribou Hilton.” At that moment I transcribed the phrases in order of how they
The North Shore
were installed on the walls. I was instantly astonished by the wonderful motto needlework that covered the old house walls. After Jane’s death in 2009, I was given permission by her family to re-photograph the mottos more carefully.” Katherine captured the different aspects of the needlepoint work, carefully taking apart the frames and scanning the finer details of the stitching. This would reveal a story of its own and furnish a hint of the person behind the handiwork. Katherine’s inventory of 173 mottos is introduced through photography, video and audio recordings. She captures the collection as it appeared in the Webster cottage where the needlepoints were displayed for the amusement of family and friends. The heart of the installation is a multi-media work Forget Me Not. Here Katherine recorded the voices of four generations of girls and women from Pictou County. Michelle and Nina Davey of Pictou were two of the hundred or more voices recorded that would be edited down to a 12 minute video. They recently watch a link to the video exhibit waiting to hear their own voices and they recited the mottos. “The quotes were universal,” says Michelle Davey of her experience recording for Katherine. “I read, “The Lord is my Shepard” still used today during hard times,” adds Michelle who has a keen interest in antiquities as Site Manager of the McCulloch Heritage Centre. “In the end 70 different voices draw attention to the mottos,” says Katherine. “As they recite the mottos through memory and interpretation their voices produce a somewhat disquieting air that reverberates across time.”
ah! Spring 2017 - 12
