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Fibre art exhibition returns for fourth year (15 photos)

The Fibre Exhibition will be on display at the Baggage Building Art Centre until Mar. 24

THUNDER BAY - Every artistic medium can challenge the artist and elicit a response from the viewer and one form of art that is gaining popularity in the region is giving artists normally hidden away a moment in the spotlight.

“The way people are using them now is it’s almost like they are painting with the fabrics and the threads,” said Angie Jensen, operator of the Baggage Building Art Centre. “There is the traditional knitting and crocheting, and it’s really exploded.”

The Fibre Exhibition opened at the Baggage Building on Jan. 15 and includes work from 24 different artists. Now in its fourth year, the pieces included vary in styles from quilting, weaving, textiles, to knitting and crocheting.

“Fibre is kind of a hidden art in Thunder Bay, but there are so many people involved in it,” Jensen said. “There was never an actual exhibition in Thunder Bay to promote that, so I thought it would nice to give everybody, from new artists, to experienced artist a chance to show their art work.”

“This is one of the most popular exhibitions that we have,” Jensen added. “We have people come up from Grand Marais to see the exhibition.”

Artist, Elaine Wiersma, has two pieces in this year entitled Whispers in the Wind. New to the medium, Wiersma said all her pieces consist of up-cycled materials.

“I was inspired by a number of different artist’s works that I saw,” she said. “I was never one who was particularly into sewing or embroidery or textiles when I was younger, but trying it now as I got older, I found it very meditative and relaxing and I was very much inspired by the natural world around me.”

Wiersma added that the viewer also gets to experience a different way of experiencing and interacting with art that doesn’t normally happen with traditional painting.

“Because it’s a different medium, I think the ways of using textiles allow people to take a step back from traditional art like painting or water colour, as well as the opportunity for texture and touch that with regular painting you don’t normally get,” she said.

Every year, the Fibre Exhibition is paired with a public art project. This year will include a yarn bomb, where the public will be invited to contribute to a friendship train that will be displayed at Prince Arthur’s Landing near the skating rink.

“We try to link a fiber project to the exhibition every year,” Jensen said. “For the second year we are doing a yarn bomb. It happens all over the world, people go out and cover things with yarn, and knitting, and crocheting.”

The public art project will be launched on Sunday and sessions will be open at the Baggage Building every Sunday until Family Day from 1 to 3 p.m.

The Fiber Exhibition will be on display at the Baggage Building until Mar. 24.



Doug Diaczuk

About the Author: Doug Diaczuk

Doug Diaczuk is a reporter and award-winning author from Thunder Bay. He has a master’s degree in English from Lakehead University
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