Amanda Wood @ The Crawl
i. My Name: Amanda Wood
ii. I am an interdisciplinary artist. I slip between different ways of working depending on the feeling or quality I’m looking for in a particular work. I might use alternative photography techniques to capture light, or a fleeting moment, or I might use hand weaving to think about systems and patterns or printmaking for texture and layering. The methods I use are tactile and they incorporate collaboration with materials.
My background is as a hand weaver, and I use a similar logic when working in other media. I am drawn to grids, patterns and structures but also enjoy finding the blind spots in those frameworks. My work is about sitting in liminal and marginal spaces and exploring intersections of identity. I think through making, engaging in investigations that reveal the process. I create feedback loops. I map, I score, I record things. I tease out and dance with glitches.
iii. My Eastside Culture Crawl dates + location:
My studio is located in Eastside Atelier, 1310 William Street on the corner of Clark. There is a flight of stairs at the door and when you get to the top, just follow the yellow line on the floor to find me. I’m at the end of the hallway in studio 10E and I’ll be open November 17-20 Thu/Fri: 5pm-10pm Sat/Sun: 11am-6pm.
Please wear a mask when visiting. Thank you!
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iv. The type of work I’ll be showing in the Crawl is:
For the Crawl I have work that explores in-between spaces, the uncanny, the almost familiar but ungraspable. I’ll have two dimensional framed and unframed work, three dimensional sculptures and woven installations that range the whole span of my art practice. It’s been such a great opportunity to rethink and reframe older works within the context of new work.
somewhere, nowhere, nothing, everything is my newest series of work in cyanotypes, using hand painted light sensitive watercolour paper to capture a moment in time. Light is captured, memory explored through the colour blue, and a series of material geometries are created through repeated actions. A cyanotype is made through a series of gestures, a collaboration with space time. What comes next is often unexpected and untameable. These pieces are a memory, an echo of a familiar action – to fold, to crumple. The outcome is an artefact or leaving of a moment. A blueprint for future actions.
interwoven is an exploration of forms found in functional cloth in my home. Cleaning rags are put through a process of translation using haptic processes and materials like clay, photography, and printmaking. By shifting familiar forms into a liminal space, memories are lost and found, the present, past and future exist simultaneously and the understood is upturned and re-imagined.
With my woven installations disrupted, one dot at a time and you can always change direction I am exploring chance, found patterns and networks through the grid inherent in plain weave. I let gridlines loosen, curve, disappear and push into the space to create effects that mimic the flow back and forth between whole and disrupted networks. The cloth responds to stimulus such as gravity or a shift in materials or tension. I use random integers, computer generated algorithms and Fibonacci numbers to create weave structures that reference chance connections. Natural materials such as silk, cotton, and paper combine with these asymmetrical, random patterns in tactile sculptures. Tiny faults are created on purpose to highlight the inconsistencies available in the cloth and there is an opportunity for something new to occur in that glitch.
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v. I particularly enjoy being part of the Crawl because:
This is my first Crawl as an exhibiting artist. I have been a visitor to many studios over the years but have never had a studio within the Crawl boundaries. I moved into my studio building about a year ago and have just switched over to a larger space that will allow me to welcome in guests. As a visitor I love seeing the inner workings of artists spaces and having meaningful conversations about the work. I hope to bring in this sense of connection to my visitors over the weekend.
vi. Something I learned about myself in creating this work is:
I am learning to be more comfortable in the in-between the more time I spend working and thinking in those kinds of mental and physical spaces. I’m finding less of a need to categorize my work and more interest in research-based practices. I wasn’t sure I wanted to weave installations anymore and revisiting them has let me see a through-line with the work. I’m beginning to see a map of where I have been and where I might go next.
vii. One highlight of my career from over the last few years has been:
I am so grateful to have been awarded Canada Council for the Arts grants for the past few years. Having the support of a peer assessment committee and the financial means to continue working and exploring has been truly game changing for me. I encourage all artists to apply!
These grants have allowed me to show work in Kelowna and Toronto, teach workshops, work with mentors, attend residencies and ultimately create work that speaks to my interests and those of my community. It’s been very liberating and supportive.
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viii.After this show, I’m looking forward to:
Alongside my art and weaving practices, I also have a teaching practice. I love introducing people to material interventions in woven cloth. I am releasing an online hand weaving class at the School of Sweet Georgia on November 30. I have been working with the school for the past couple of years and there is so much there to dig into the fibre arts. If you want to learn to weave, I highly recommend checking it out. I have created a series of classes that incorporates the way that I approach weaving with incremental learning and projects that you can use in your home.
And I am continuing to work with my somewhere, nowhere, nothing, everything project. I work alongside the artists and staff at Malaspina Printmakers on Granville Island. This shared printmaking studio allows me to go larger and to try new things with equipment I would not be able to access on my own. I will also be doing more installation work as I settle into my new studio at Eastside Atelier. I plan to continue to engage in investigations that reveal the process and to build on work begun at a residency I just completed. It’s been a busy fall for me and I’m looking forward to some quiet studio time to go deeper into the work and sit with and follow up on the great connections made during the Crawl.
ix. Anything to add:
I have a cyanotype work included in the NEXT group exhibition on now until November 25 at the Firehall Arts Centre
Opening Reception: Thursday, November 10 6–8pm
Gallery Hours: 280 E Cordova Street Mon-Fri: 1-4pm*
1 hour prior to performances
Nov 19: 11am-3pm, Nov 20: 11am-1pm
*Closed Nov 11 and 23
You can find out about weaving workshops, exhibitions, and new work by signing up to my newsletter https://www.amandawoodstudio.com/contact
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www.creatorsvancouver.com
Art Photos by Byron Dauncey
