Poke Out Her Eyes & Other Stories: The Meaning of Cloth
In 1991 curators Ingrid Bachmann and Kai Chan invited people in the Toronto area to tell their stories about cloth that held significant personal meaning. The museum received over 100 submissions. From these responses 30 were selected. Poke Out Her Eyes and Other Stories is comprised of these textiles and their accompanying stories, from people of diverse cultural and social backgrounds. In a world where advertising and media constitute a massive ideological intervention in our daily lives, many of the objects in this exhibition offer a site of resistance where value is determined by personal narrative and a living relationship with the object rather than by a consumer ethos.
In 1991 we invited people in the Toronto area to tell us their stories about cloth. Calls for submissions were placed in a variety of local papers and community newsletters. In response to this request to tell us what role, if any, textiles played in their lives, we received over 100 submissions. From these responses we selected 30, with consideration for space constraints and availability of the item. The quality of the textile, or of the accompanying story, was not an issue in the selection process. The exhibitors, not necessarily artists, reflect a diversity of cultural and social backgrounds. Poke Out Her Eyes and Other Stories is comprised of textile items and the heartfelt stories, family lore and tradition that accompany them.
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