| May 12 - Jun 16 | opening reception Sat 12 May | 4-9pm |
| 217 Avenue Road, Toronto, Ontario | Artist Present |
For
many years Barb made her own clothes, and in Winnipeg worked in a
clothing factory to save money for grad school. After completing her
MFA, she worked as a textile pattern designer in Montreal and this
influenced the designs on her steel dresses. Each metal dress is
fabricated from a single sheet of cold-rolled steel. The dress shapes
vary, and delicate forms are cut out to resemble textile patterns,
images from nature, or forms traditionally associated with the category
labelled "femininity".
This work originated as a way of investigating the social constructions of identity, in particular the categories of masculinity and femininity. Through these terms and their preconceptions, Barb investigates the notion of gendered subjectivity. In her work, she uses the meanings culturally inscribed onto materials and processes as a way of examining the construction of gender. She is particularly drawn to feminism's acceptance of domestic activities as a valid approach to contemporary art practice. Thus, Barbara considers the making of these steel dresses as “sewing with fire”. She interweaves both contradictory and supportive correlations between material, image, and process in order to hypothesize alternative visions of identity.
In much of her art practice, Barbara attempts to recuperate what has been considered "feminine", which historically has been discredited. Whether imbued by training or biologically inherited, Barbara believes that many of these qualities are of vital importance to our survival. In her work, she is interested in developing tactics that can further illuminate and unravel contradictions between cultural notions about gender and our daily lived experience.
Barb Hunt received a visual art diploma from the University of Manitoba and completed an MFA at Concordia University, Montreal. Her art practice has also focused on the rituals of mourning, particularly those of Newfoundland, and the devastation of war: knitting antipersonnel land mines in pink wool, and creating works from camouflage army uniforms. Her work has been shown in solo and group exhibitions across Canada and internationally. She has also been awarded residencies in Canada, Paris and Ireland. She has been the recipient of Canada Council grants, as well as the President's Award for Outstanding Research from Memorial University of Newfoundland, where she teaches in the Visual Arts Program, Grenfell Campus.
Barb Hunt's last exhibition in Toronto – Antipersonnel – was at the Art Gallery of Ontario in 2001.
De Luca Fine Art's Steel Dresses is linked to two current exhibitions:
Paper Doll – at Mendel Art Gallery, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, May 5-Sept 3, 2012. Curator, Julia Pine. Includes 23 artists: KC Adams, Ingrid Bachmann, Lori Blondeau, Dana Claxton, Cathy Daley, Nicole Dextras, Aganetha Dyck, Jane Eccles, Gathie Falk, Farheen Haq, Barb Hunt, Michele Karch-Ackerman, Meryl McMaster; Kent Monkman; Janet Morton; Jacques Payette; Camal Pirbhai; Barbara Pratt; Ana Rewakowicz; Natalie Purschwitz; Jana Sterbak; Camille Turner, and Mary Sui Yee Wong.
Fashionality: Dress and Identity in Contemporary Canadian Art – at McMichael Collection of Canadian Art, Kleinburg, Ontario. May 5-Sep 3, 2012. Curator, Anne Koval. Includes 8 artists: Barb Hunt, Ed Pien, Sylvia Plath, Cindy Sherman, Jeannie Thib, Anna Torma, Cybe´le Young, and Lynne Yamamoto.
