Experiencing more of the Toronto arts and culture scene is always on my to-do list. I feel like I know many of the city's neighbourhoods, parks, festivals, shops, bars, and restaurants. But I'm lacking in the fine arts area, and winter, as usual, has turned me into a hermit. So when my friend Caryn, who is doing a masters' in museum studies at U of T, suggested we start hitting up some museums, I was pumped.
Our first stop: the Textile Museum, which might be one of the hardest museums in the city to find. It's tucked at the bottom of either an apartment building or a hotel, on a little street running off that seedy-ish part of Dundas just east of University.
There are two feminist exhibits running at the moment—When Women Rule The World: Judy Chicago in Thread and She Will Always Be Younger Than Us by a collective of five artists inspired by Chicago's work.
We were initially taken aback by the "birth" section of the Chicago exhibit, which includes a lot of pictures of well, the vagina in birth/earth mode. But there was so much to appreciate in Chicago's work beyond the vaginas, from the layered textiles and colours of her pieces to the fact that she included many women in her artistic process. My favourite piece was "Smocked Figure", a simple outlined shape of a woman contemplating the birth of her child. We also found Chicago's later collection, Resolutions for the Millenium: A Stitch in Time entertaining. I liked the play on traditional needlework/cross-stitch pieces with their corny messages—they were wacky, weird, and retro, and old-fashioned at the same time, a feminist textile version of pop-art.
We both appreciated the well-edited layout of the exhibit (you have to critique this if you're with a museum studies student). Quotes from Chicago were painted on the wall (I love when walls are painted for exhibits—it makes them seem transient, which they are), and some of her original sketches were placed beside finished pieces of work. Being able to see the artistic process makes me, someone with no art history background, appreciate and absorb an artist's work much more effectively.
The permanent collection, although small, was nice to take a quick meander through, although I might recommend the Patricia Harris Costume Gallery at the ROM to people looking for more decadent costumes—that is, if the ROM doesn't bother you like it does at least 60% of the people in Toronto.
Besides the Chicago exhibit, my next favourite part of the Textile Museum was—don't make fun—the gift shop. It was filled with rows of coloured scarves, quirky gifts (knitted stones! finger puppets!), sewing kits, books, and bags.
Overall, not a bad start to the Toronto museum scene. Stay tuned.
p.s. Speaking of feminism, Robyn posted this video on her blog and I really liked it, so I'm going to copy her and put it on, too. Check it.
Photo: A piece of work from Birth Project by Judy Chicago.
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