Barbara Todd A Bed is a Boat
Barbara Todd, Night Sky, 1994
Opening on Saturday, September 14, 1996, at 4 pm
During the last decade Barbara Todd has used the hand quilted bedcover to create work that presents an unnerving link between the mortal body, domesticity and warfare. Her recent body of work, completed since her arrival in Montreal in 1993, expands the notion of the Security Blankets (1986-1993) to explore the resonances and paradoxes of darkness, night, sleep, dreams and death.
In addition to the large scale woolen quilted works included in this installation, Todd is introducing large brush line drawings based on those of young children. Texts excerpted from poetry by Muriel Rukeyser and Paul Celan as well as folk lullabies are woven through the installation. These textual references underline Todd’s interest in the passage between wakefulness and sleep, conscious and unconscious. In Rukeyser’s words:
The day grow and the stars cross over. And my wild bed turns slowly among the stars.
Relinquishing.
Barbara Todd, Night Sky, 1994
Barbara Todd termine des études en arts visuels à l’Université de Guelph en 1975. Elle vit à Banff entre 1981 et 1993 et développe alors un corpus d’oeuvres renouvelant la courtepointe. L’exposition individuelle intitulée Security Blankets organisée par la Southern Alberta Art Gallery de Lethbridge en 1992 a circulé à travers le pays pendant trois ans permettant ainsi à plusieurs de se familiariser avec le travail de l’artiste. Depuis 1993 Todd habite à Montréal.
Barbara Todd, vue de l’exposition A Bed is a Boat, 1996
Barbara Todd, vue de l’exposition A Bed is a Boat, 1996
Barbara Todd, vue de l’exposition A Bed is a Boat, 1996
Barbara Todd, Pelt, 1996