Sally Thurlow
RENEWAL
SALLY THURLOW
Image: Recurrent Patterns (Detail), 2020, 27 of 40 antique fabric bolsters, cotton-filled, 15 x 60 x 30 each
The Red Head Gallery is pleased to present, RENEWAL, an exhibition by Sally Thurlow.
Thurlow is a multi-disciplinary artist living by the shores of Lake Ontario in a wildlife sanctuary. Informed by engaging with different cultures, their environments and beyond, through media, travel and discussion, her practice is based in sculpture, installation, photography and painting. It invites the examination of how cultural and environmental issues impact our communities.
RENEWAL speaks of regeneration - the earth re-awakening for spring’s new growth, resumption of friendships from years past, renovation, modernization, reconstruction and so on… RENEWAL also speaks to the continuation of Thurlow’s determination to recycle and revitalize materials, making new forms while also combining sculptures renewed by their association.
>From 1960’s filmstrips, beach flotsam, mesh food bags; to enchanting antique drapery and upholstery fabrics, this sculptural installation draws on materials collected over time. The film strips were rescued from her daughter’s high school waste bin; the colourful beach flotsam found on many beaches;…the mesh food bags just from one year of her use, (her life-expressive items placed inside appear to amass on their own…). She had stowed away remnants of antique fabrics for over forty years when she was last designing and selling her one-of-a-kind line of clothing. Some of these fabrics, now close to a century old, are very stable, beautiful cottons and linens, far removed from the low-priced synthetic mixed fabrics of today’s fast fashion. Re-visiting her love of fabrics, she turned them into floor cushions - bolsters, the kind used for meditation, or conversations. To this end she has applied to each, the name of a different archetype (based in Jungian psychology), inviting visitors to peruse the collection of forty bolsters laid out on the gallery floor (in a design which also speaks of renewal). Here, visitors may contemplate which of them could apply either to their present, their past, or to other people they know or think they know… Perhaps they will sit on one, but avoid another! Whatever visitors decide, by using archetypes to practice solidarity, Thurlow is making space to foster reflection, deliberation and discussion!
Sally Thurlow's work has been shown internationally including ARC Gallery, Chicago, Ill, BluSeed Studios and Gallery, Saranac Lake, NY, and Kunsthaus Gallery, San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. Thurlow received a BA majoring in Fine Arts from the University of Toronto, finishing with Cultural and Environmental Studies at Trent University, with significant earlier studies at OCAD and George Brown College. She has been the recipient of various Ontario Arts Council Awards and has given numerous artist talks and workshops at educational institutions and public galleries. She is a member of The Iris Group and The Red Head Gallery, both artists’ collectives. Her work is held in private collections across Canada, and at The Robert McLaughlin Gallery in Oshawa, Ontario.
For more information visit:
http://www.sallythurlow.com/
SALLY THURLOW
Image: Recurrent Patterns (Detail), 2020, 27 of 40 antique fabric bolsters, cotton-filled, 15 x 60 x 30 each
The Red Head Gallery is pleased to present, RENEWAL, an exhibition by Sally Thurlow.
Thurlow is a multi-disciplinary artist living by the shores of Lake Ontario in a wildlife sanctuary. Informed by engaging with different cultures, their environments and beyond, through media, travel and discussion, her practice is based in sculpture, installation, photography and painting. It invites the examination of how cultural and environmental issues impact our communities.
RENEWAL speaks of regeneration - the earth re-awakening for spring’s new growth, resumption of friendships from years past, renovation, modernization, reconstruction and so on… RENEWAL also speaks to the continuation of Thurlow’s determination to recycle and revitalize materials, making new forms while also combining sculptures renewed by their association.
>From 1960’s filmstrips, beach flotsam, mesh food bags; to enchanting antique drapery and upholstery fabrics, this sculptural installation draws on materials collected over time. The film strips were rescued from her daughter’s high school waste bin; the colourful beach flotsam found on many beaches;…the mesh food bags just from one year of her use, (her life-expressive items placed inside appear to amass on their own…). She had stowed away remnants of antique fabrics for over forty years when she was last designing and selling her one-of-a-kind line of clothing. Some of these fabrics, now close to a century old, are very stable, beautiful cottons and linens, far removed from the low-priced synthetic mixed fabrics of today’s fast fashion. Re-visiting her love of fabrics, she turned them into floor cushions - bolsters, the kind used for meditation, or conversations. To this end she has applied to each, the name of a different archetype (based in Jungian psychology), inviting visitors to peruse the collection of forty bolsters laid out on the gallery floor (in a design which also speaks of renewal). Here, visitors may contemplate which of them could apply either to their present, their past, or to other people they know or think they know… Perhaps they will sit on one, but avoid another! Whatever visitors decide, by using archetypes to practice solidarity, Thurlow is making space to foster reflection, deliberation and discussion!
Sally Thurlow's work has been shown internationally including ARC Gallery, Chicago, Ill, BluSeed Studios and Gallery, Saranac Lake, NY, and Kunsthaus Gallery, San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. Thurlow received a BA majoring in Fine Arts from the University of Toronto, finishing with Cultural and Environmental Studies at Trent University, with significant earlier studies at OCAD and George Brown College. She has been the recipient of various Ontario Arts Council Awards and has given numerous artist talks and workshops at educational institutions and public galleries. She is a member of The Iris Group and The Red Head Gallery, both artists’ collectives. Her work is held in private collections across Canada, and at The Robert McLaughlin Gallery in Oshawa, Ontario.
For more information visit:
http://www.sallythurlow.com/
