tapestry

Marriage no fairy tale

“Kiss! Kiss! Kiss!” by Lilian Broca is part of the exhibit Brides: Portrait of a Marriage, which is at the Italian Cultural Centre’s Il Museo until Sept. 30.

In most romance novels and fairy tales, a love story ends in a wedding and the couple lives “happily ever after.” In real life, it’s not that simple. Marriage has its challenges.

The show Brides: Portrait of a Marriage, which opened at the Italian Cultural Centre’s Il Museo in Vancouver this summer, examines some of the aspects of marriage that fairy tales purposefully omit. The show incorporates the works of several local artists in different media: textile art by Linda Coe, photography by Grace Gordon-Collins, drawings by Jewish community member Lilian Broca and a tapestry by fellow Jewish community member Barbara Heller.

“I always wanted a show about brides,” Angela Clarke, curator and director of Il Museo, told the Independent. “We have weddings at the centre almost every week. There is so much energy, so many emotions. But the Roman goddess of marriage, Juno, was not a happy woman. Hers was not a happy marriage, and the controversy attracted me.”

Brides is part of the museum’s Gendered Voices series, and looks at marriage from a woman’s perspective.

“This exhibition places the institution of marriage under the looking glass,” said Clarke. “Each participating artist tackles the deep psychological complexity and immense social pressure involved in a traditional marriage. Historical perspectives and family dynamics, personal reflections and the impact of feminism are explored in the show.”

Each artist contributed her own personal outlook. Coe’s fabric panels belong to her Dirty Laundry series. Colourful and sophisticated-looking hangings were all created from fabric snatches that were once parts of women’s dowries, used and reused for several generations before they ended up in the artist’s stockpile.

“The eight fabric panels represent eight stages of a woman’s life,” explained Clarke. “Each one incorporates relevant texts from Renaissance romance novels and etiquette manuals. In the 16th century, such manuals were very popular in Italy, especially among the middle classes. They were written to instruct young brides in the proper comportment, in the ways to become a successful bride and mother.”

In addition, those eight panels reference the eight requisite parts of a romance novel, from the Middle Ages to the modern Avon romances. “Those stages have names, the same names as the panels,” Clarke said. “No. 1, Stasis (infant). No. 2, Trigger (young girl). No. 3, Quest (betrothal). No. 4, Surprise (courtesan). No. 5, Critical Choice (bride). No. 6, Climax (wife). No. 7, Reversal (matron). No. 8, Resolution (widow). Every love story published these days must follow this structure.”

Heller’s tapestry and Gordon-Collins’s photographs explore wedding dresses and the commodification of weddings. The tapestry shows a bride in a beautiful dress, but her face is blurry, unimportant, and the dress becomes the focal point, a uniform, a symbol.

The photos, in the photogram or X-ray style, lack faces altogether, only the wedding attires of four generations of women of the artist’s family can be seen.

“Grandmother’s wedding tunic was modest, especially in comparison to the artist’s daughter’s wedding dress, much more opulent and sensual, and designed for one-time use only,” said Clarke. “Here, we can trace how, through the generations, the weddings grow into an industry, and the wedding accessories become commodities.”

While neon-bright colours dominate Gordon-Collins’s images and Coe’s collages shimmer with the patina of gold, Broca’s contribution to the show is a sequence of stark black and white lithographs, all from her Brides series.

“My mother passed away in 1989,” Broca said, as she explained the roots of her series. “I was devastated by her death, although it was a blessing after suffering for years from cancer. Soon after her passing, I started dreaming about her as a young bride. I decided to draw my dreams.”

Her drawings reflect the dichotomy between the happily-ever-after concept and the fact that most marriages in the past were arranged, and not unions of love.

One of the drawings, “Kiss! Kiss! Kiss!” depicts a bride sitting in a chair, regarding a frog in her lap. A few more frogs – potential princes? – wait at her feet, expecting her to choose between them.

“I knew my bride would not kiss that frog,” said Broca. “So I added several other potential grooms. Some small, others big…. Still, I had a feeling she would resist them all.”

The work “Upon Reflection” is even more powerful. It shows a bride in a gown and veil looking into a full-length mirror. The image in the mirror depicts the bride, face and posture serene, as befits the occasion, but Broca has left the image of the bride herself white and, from within it, there is the drawing of a woman, the bride, trying to escape.

“That woman, upon reflection, discovers how much she doesn’t wish to be married, to be tied down. What happens next is up to the viewer’s imagination,” said the artist.

For Broca, black and white was the only possibility for the series. “It was the most appropriate way to describe what I felt…. After the first two or three drawings, I began to realize that many brides were not happy at the altar – I showed them. Only a very few happy brides appear in my drawings. Not because happy brides are a minority, but because happy brides are difficult to portray without slipping into a less-than-powerful mode. I may be wrong, I may be able to do it today, but, at that time, it didn’t seem possible.”

Clarke knew about Broca’s series and wanted to include it in its entirety in the show, but that wasn’t possible. “We couldn’t include so many that Angela wanted because they had been sold,” said Broca. “We couldn’t borrow them. The owners live in the U.S. and Eastern Canada. As it is, the two works in the exhibition were borrowed from local owners.”

Brides is at the Italian Cultural Centre until Sept. 30.

Olga Livshin is a Vancouver freelance writer. She can be reached at [email protected].

Tapestry up for raffle

Barbara Heller (photo by Olga Livshin)

Temple Sholom’s Dreamers and Builders gala is not only a time to celebrate, but to raise funds for the synagogue. In addition to honouring Jack Lutsky and Susan Mendelson, this year’s sold-out event on May 5 will include a silent art auction at the dinner and a raffle, the bidding for which has already started.

“We have art donations for the silent auction from members of the synagogue, Ian Penn and Ivan Gasoi, as well as from Dina Goldstein and Gordon Smith, and a tapestry by Barbara Heller for the raffle,” said Karen Gelmon, gala co-chair, in an interview with the Independent. “Barbara is a member of Temple Sholom and an internationally known tapestry artist. Her works are very valuable, unique and truly remarkable.”

Gelmon noted that the synagogue has several tapestries by Heller on its walls. “There are two magnificent pieces that are on either side of the ark at the front of the sanctuary,” she said. “They are wonderful and loved by the congregation. She has donated two other works that are in another room and are also very appreciated. All these pieces have been there for more than 20 years and are fixtures at the synagogue.”

The raffle features the tapestry “Stones 22 – Stonefall,” the 22nd in Heller’s Stonefall series.

“I have been weaving these tapestries of stone walls and stones on the ground every few years for decades, between more difficult pieces,” Heller told the Independent. “I love these stone walls, built by man without mortar or cutting the stones to fit. If these walls fell down, the stones would return to the earth and no one would be the wiser. Yet, I see the spirits of the people who built the walls. Their energy remains in the stones.”

Heller also likes that the tapestries are abstract. “I get to immerse myself in the act of weaving as I transform them from stone into wool,” she explained. “I play with the handspun and hand-dyed yarns, the textures and the colours, without worrying about the underlying message.”

photo - Fabric artist Barbara Heller has donated her work “Stones 22 – Stonefall” to Temple Sholom’s Dreamers and Builders fundraiser — Fabric artist Barbara Heller has donated her work “Stones 22 – Stonefall” to Temple Sholom’s Dreamers and Builders fundraiser.

“Stones 22” was woven in 2013. “It was based on the photos I took in Caesarea on the Mediterranean in Israel,” said Heller. “The site has been home to invader after invader for millennia. It has been an archeological dig since a farmer plowing the meagre soil first uncovered a large stone block and called the scientists. Here, there are definitely ghosts of the people who came before.”

About why she chose to offer one of her artworks for the raffle, she said, “When I was asked to donate a tapestry by Susan [Mendelson] and the organizing committee for Dreamers and Builders, I was happy to say yes. Susan and Jack have supported my art and own a few tapestries. Temple Sholom is my synagogue and has also supported me. It has several of my tapestries, some as donations and two on loan. The bimah is flanked by two of my tapestries that were commissioned at the time of my son’s bar mitzvah, and the library has a tapestry that my mother willed to the Temple on her death. Now, it was my turn to support them.”

The decision of which tapestry to donate was a practical one. “I felt it had to be mid-size, large enough to have a presence but not so large that it would not find a new home in a modern condo,” she said. “And the reference to Israel was also important to me.”

As an artist who makes a living by her art, Heller has given much thought over the years to the concept of donating work.

“It has been awhile since I donated artwork,” she shared. “There was a time a few years ago when art auctions were all the rage for fundraising, to the detriment of the artists. The fundraisers always stressed that the auctions would be good publicity for the artists, but I don’t think so. People always wanted a bargain when they bid at auctions, and I don’t think that the fundraisers were aware of the lost income for the artists.”

An artist must look at a donation as just that, said Heller, as a donation to raise funds for a charity they believe in. “I now do it only on occasion. I am reminded of what my friend, a pianist, does. When approached to play for free, she says, ‘You pay me what my normal fee would be, and then I will decide how much to give back to you as my donation.’ This makes the fundraisers aware of what they are actually asking.”

Gelmon and the organizing committee were well aware of what they were asking. “I think different artists may have different motivations to donate their art,” said Gelmon. “For Barbara, I think she saw this as a worthy cause. It is raising money for her synagogue, where she and her family have been members for years, and it probably gives her great pleasure to contribute.”

To take part in the raffle, visit templesholom.ca/dreamers-builders-2019-raffle.

Olga Livshin is a Vancouver freelance writer. She can be reached at [email protected].

Divine Sparks at the Zack

Barbara Heller’s exhibit, Divine Sparks, is at the Zack Gallery until Oct. 8. (photo by Olga Livshin)

Barbara Heller’s new solo show at the Zack Gallery, Divine Sparks, could be divided into three distinct themes, each one representative of a world culture: the Sephirot, the Mudras and the Future Reliquaries. Each of the three resonates with one of three religions, Judaism, Hinduism and Christianity, respectively, but Heller, a master weaver, sees divine sparks everywhere. Her tapestries, big and small, invite gallery guests to contemplate what unites us, no matter our ethnicity or religious affiliation.

Symbolism infuses Heller’s images, starting with the centrepiece of the show, “Tzimtzum,” or “Transcendence.” The large tapestry is a stylized ladder. The midnight blue rungs at the bottom coalesce into a dead bird, but the higher your eyes travel, the lighter the colours become. Two pairs of wings punctuate the climb of colours from dark indigo to white radiance.

“The ladder has many interpretations,” Heller told the Independent. “It can be a metaphor for our life, a liminal space between birth and death…. For me, the rungs are stepping stones on the path of spiritual attainment, of transcendence.”

Heller has shown this tapestry at several exhibitions already, to great acclaim. Recently, it won the American Tapestry Alliance Award.

photo - Barbara Heller made a series of small tapestries of her feather collection, Sephirot, specifically for the Zack show — Barbara Heller made a series of small tapestries of her feather collection, Sephirot, specifically for the Zack show.

“Originally, I wanted to display this tapestry with real feathers piled along the bottom,” the artist said about “Tzimtzum.” “I have amassed many beautiful feathers, and friends kept bringing me more, but I discovered it was almost impossible to send real feathers anywhere. I displayed the tapestry in Poland a couple years ago, and they told me that real feathers have to be quarantined for weeks before being allowed into the country. And they can’t be from endangered species. I wasn’t sure about that.”

Since the plan involving the real feathers fell through, Heller made a series of small tapestries of her feather collection, Sephirot, specifically for the Zack show.

“I already had lots of yarn died blue for the ‘Tzimtzum,’” she said. She called the series Sephirot after the kabbalah’s spiritual qualities of understanding, wisdom, love and judgment, among others.

“Some of the feathers are almost photographic,” she said. “In the others, I played with colours and sparkles.”

The second series in the show, Mudras, obtained its name from the hand gestures prevalent in Hinduism, Asian dancing, yoga and meditation.

“Typically, mudras are used as a way to direct energy flow in the body,” Heller said. “According to yoga, different areas of the hand stimulate specific areas of the brain. By applying light finger pressure to these areas of the hand, you can ‘activate’ the corresponding region of the brain. In addition, hand mudras also symbolize various feelings and emotions.”

Heller’s Mudras is a series of small, uniform-sized round images of various hand gestures. The hands are woven of golden yarn and appliquéd to dark-green fabric with a vague “computer motherboard” pattern. Parts of real electronics – wires, chips, connectors – are incorporated into the design of every gesture, as if to emphasize the similarities between computer circuits and the neuron circuitry in our brains.

“I collect old electronics and take them apart, and use them in my weaving,” said Heller. “This series was fun to make.”

The other series, Future Reliquaries, is an older one. Also depicting hands embedded with parts of electronic devices, it reflects humanity’s developing love affair with technology.

Several tapestries of the series are rather large. In each one, a human hand in golden yarn stands out from the background of an ancient traditional pattern. “Different tapestries sport different patterns: from Persia, Indonesia, Turkey, Navajo,” Heller said.

Like in the Mudras series, the interlaced computer piece are symbolic of our interconnection with machines.

Heller wrote: “This series deals with three apparently separate but, in my mind, connected histories: weaving, computing and religion. Weaving is a binary system of up/down, just as computing is a binary system of on/off…. Religion is not only a store of faith; it is a store of history and social values…. Today, we are creating a new religion. We are worshipping the technology.”

Heller’s tapestries contemplate the future status of today’s electronic remnants in the context of ancient fabrics. “As holy relics were housed in reliquaries, often made of gold and gems, I’m trying to populate my tapestries with the future relics – the computer chips and wires.”

Beside the large hands, there is also a selection of tiny ones, where each miniscule woven hand is linked to topics such as keys or clocks, science or beauty, birth or death.

Heller’s exhibit is part of larger happenings in Vancouver this month – a symposium of the Textile Society of America. The symposium takes place Sept. 19-23, and many galleries around the city besides the Zack are displaying textile or weaving exhibitions to coincide with it.

As a well-known local artist, Heller has been one of the event organizers from the beginning. “We have a wealth of local textile artists, and about 400 people are coming to the symposium from all over the world,” she said.

The planning for the symposium began three years ago. “We made sure that the hotel reservations were available on the dates that didn’t include Yom Kippur,” she said. “Unfortunately, a year ago, the hotel informed us that they had to change our reservation dates.”

So, now, the first day of the symposium falls on Yom Kippur, as other reservations were not available, and the society has posted an apology on its website.

The Zack Gallery offers a bus tour of three textile exhibitions in the city on Sept. 20. To learn more about the tour and to register, visit jccgv.com/art-and-culture/gallery. For more about Heller, visit barbaraheller.ca.

Divine Sparks opened on Sept. 6 and continues until Oct. 8.

Olga Livshin is a Vancouver freelance writer. She can be reached at [email protected].

Life arising from destruction

Barbara Heller in front of “Regeneration,” the work she created in collaboration with botanist Elena Klein. (photo by Olga Livshin)

Through the art of weaving, internationally acclaimed local artist Barbara Heller explores the world – and she doesn’t shy away from controversial topics. Themes of politics and destruction, renewal and society attract her exactly because of their complexity.

Heller’s road to the tapestry arts wasn’t straightforward. Her first bachelor degree was in psychology. “I started a master in psychology and, as part of the program, I had to keep an art journal,” she recalled. “It made me happy, much more so than psychology, so I decided I wanted to go to an art school. But, at that time, an art program would be mostly about ideas, concepts. If I wanted to learn techniques, I needed a program in art education.”

After earning a certificate in art education, Heller taught printmaking for awhile, but an allergy to the chemicals used pushed her to seek another form of artistic expression. She took some evening classes in tapestry-making, and loved it. She started showing her work at craft markets and art fairs.

“Tapestry-making is a slow, time-consuming process,” she told the Independent. “Sometimes, a large tapestry takes a year to complete. But the meditative aspect of weaving fits my personality. I need slow. I need time to think, to contemplate what I am doing. When I make a tapestry, I can stop at any moment, which was convenient when I was younger. I rented my studio on Granville Island the same year I got pregnant, 36 years ago.”

She continued her art while raising her son.

“With a tapestry, I’m creating the canvas along with the image, and I like that,” she said. “Dealing with mistakes is much harder than in a painting, so I go slowly to get it right the first time. It is almost a dialogue between me and the tapestry on my loom.”

In the beginning, Heller taught tapestry, but she doesn’t do so any longer. “I learn by doing,” she said. “It’s the best way to learn. I often find it hard to explain in words all the concepts and ideas that go into my weaving. I still make presentations and lectures at the professional conventions and shows, for the experienced artists, but I don’t want to explain the alphabet to the beginners anymore. I want to have more time for my tapestries.”

Her latest creation, “Regeneration,” took a year to complete. This large tapestry, made in collaboration with botanist Elena Klein, is part of the group show Connections that opened on May 11 at Craft Council Gallery on Granville Island. The concept of the show was collaboration, an exchange of ideas between three textile artists and their non-artist friends.

photo - “Tzimtzum” or “Transcendence,” by Barbara Heller — “Tzimtzum” or “Transcendence,” by Barbara Heller.

“For a long time, I had this image in my head of bombed-out buildings in Syria,” Heller said. “I wanted to use it for a tapestry, but I didn’t know where to go with it. Then, I met with Elena, and we talked. That’s how I found out that certain species of pine trees drop cones that don’t release their seeds unless a forest fire occurs. The seeds then germinate in the earth newly cleared of large trees by the fire. Suddenly, the image of my tapestry took shape.”

The tapestry has three distinct sections. The bottom layer is flames, blazing with red, yellow and orange, gorgeous and deadly. The middle part is what comes after, and these grey ruins could almost be anywhere in the world. The aftermath of a fire, whether man-made or natural, is the same: ash, devastation, fear. But hope won’t be denied, and the top part of the tapestry represents rebirth: a green field with the pinecones scattered around. The artist’s message is clear: new growth will come out of the wreckage. Life will reassert itself.

The same message of life arising from destruction or death manifests in another of Heller’s large tapestries, “Tzimtzum” or “Transcendence.” In 2016, she was invited to submit a piece to the 15th International Triennial of Tapestry in Lodz, Poland. “I wanted to work on an image with birds and wings, starting with tragedy, but ending with hope,” she said.

The tapestry depicts a stylized ladder. The darker blue rungs at the bottom incorporate a dead bird, a recurring image for the artist. From that low point, the ladder climbs, punctuated by several pairs of wings, with the shades of blue gradually lightening towards a white radiance. “The ladder has many interpretations,” Heller says in her artist’s statement. “It can be seen as a metaphor for our life, as a link, a liminal space between birth and death, heaven and earth … matter and spirit…. For me, they [the rungs] are stepping stones on the path of spiritual attainment, of transcendence.”

After six months in Poland, the tapestry came home, and it is currently on display at Christ Church Cathedral on Burrard Street, as part of the show (in)finite. The exhibition, featuring 30 Canadian textile artists, opened on May 25 and runs until June 4, with an opening reception on May 27. The show Connection on Granville Island continues until June 22.

Olga Livshin is a Vancouver freelance writer. She can be reached at [email protected].