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Feature Gallery: Hanging by a Thread
Generations of women come and go. Once we were young and now we have become the keepers of the flame. Soon we will have passed on everything we have learned to the next generation. What difference will it make? How do we transfer what we have gleaned about ourselves to our daughters on the wheel of life, and perhaps they back to us?
The genesis for Hanging by a Thread arose when we were studying the Marie Erickson Rug Collection (Middle Eastern) at the Nickle Arts Museum with the support of Dr. Michele Hardy, Curator of Decorative Arts. There we discovered that during the current war in Afghanistan, Afghani women have been unable to acquire the wool to make rugs and carpets in traditional patterns. Women had been passing patterns orally from generation to generation, but without the material to make them, the oral tradition began to disappear along with women’s cultural value. This inspired us to look at our own culture and consider the transmission of information and learning among current generations of Canadian women.
In 2009, we received an Alberta Creative Development Initiative grant (Canada Council for the Arts) to conduct focus groups with different generations of Canadian women. What we learned from the focus groups stimulated us to develop this exhibition.
An important question arose. Have we nurtured an interest in art and craft with our own children? To create a more lively interpretation of the data collected, our children and a grandchild were invited to participate in the exhibition and present their own perspectives. Robin West presents her poetry and sculpture. Ilse’s daughter-in-law Monika Salkauskas operates a cottage industry making and decorating sculptural cakes. The youngest contributor is Ilse’s granddaughter, Emily Ella Rigaux, who writes poetry and is an award winning singer. Pat Strakowski and her daughter Lynda Strakowski demonstrate the transfer of skill from mother to daughter through the creation of altered books.
In doing my research, I realize that as a daughter, a mother and now a grandmother, transmission of my acquired knowledge to the younger women of my family is very important to me. Passing on knowledge from one generation to the next is complex and can only be achieved if women are willing to listen. Thus a game is played: do I listen to my mother’s and grandmother’s advice, or do I listen to the advice my friends give me? Knowledge is lost when the information thread is broken.
I use tic-tac-toe and the feminine symbol to represent their relationships and choices that influence the outcome of life’s games. The one important thread that binds these generations together is the symbolic umbilical cord. In this work I bring my life’s experiences to bear on my creative process; it is a synthesis of my acquired knowledge and personal feelings.
-Ilse Anysas-Salkauskas
Over the past several years I have been challenged in my art to consider the materials and the process of making as part of the concept being presented. My love of textiles and its versatility as a medium has allowed me to explore the broader meaning of knitting in Western culture. The popular cultural perception of knitting is for protection from the elements, making fashion statements, and particularly as an indication of caring in the making of knitted items for family and friends. More recently it has become a means of artistic expression. In this exhibition, knitting represents the caring of mother towards daughter. It stands as a tribute to the feminine perspective and the ways learning is transferred from generation to generation, whether through cultural myths, introjection, or competition.
Each of our children/grandchild have identified their own interests in art which have often differed from our own. Interacting with them in this way has expanded our own enjoyment of and interest in art. Whether it is textiles, poetry, creative culinary, music or following in mother’s footsteps, we are thankful our lives are enriched by art.
-Barbara J. West
Cups of Tea
The seasons pass my family by But I never stopped to wonder why The memories of my Omas passed Are still among us to be grasped
The stories passed from age to your Sometimes not burdened with the truth, But on they pass with mirth and laughter
Where it’s known you happen after And tears are brought for both to see Over cups of golden tea
Questions brought and wisdom shared To an Oma souls are bared And with those secrets now set free Over cups of golden tea
New days dawn, some filled with strife
But now I know it’s part of life
And thus the seasons pass us by Now I know the reasons why
Through a strengthened family tree Tended over cups of tea
-By Emily Rigaux
