1. Early life and education

2. Career
    Land Mines series  Camouflage series  Mourning series  Steel Dresses series 

3. Other

4. References

5. External links

Barb Hunt is an interdisciplinary textile artist based in Corner Brook, Newfoundland and Labrador. Her work examines the construction of gender, investigating issues such as violence against women, domesticity, cancer, labour and the rituals of everyday life. A core focus of Hunt's practice has been the devastation of war: knitting antipersonnel land mines in pink yarn and creating works from camouflage army uniforms. Such work contrasts knitting and sewing as warming, protective domestic art, against the violence of war. Her work also reflects on her Canadian identity.

A feminist, Hunt has also created large cut steel dresses and a series of embroidered quotations about women on 1940s-1950s sheer aprons. Her previous work focused on the rituals of mourning, particularly those of Newfoundland. These involved huge collections of fabric flowers, traditional shroud cutwork, black lace and sea-worn quartz stones from Newfoundland beaches.

Hunt says about her work: "In my art practice, I attempt to mend separations, and to reveal and recuperate the "feminine" which historically has been discredited. By giving value to the humble, the discarded and the hand-made, I hope to recover lost histories and encourage the re-consideration of traditional rituals within a contemporary context."{{citation needed|date=June 2015}}

Early life and education

In a November 2013 talk given for the Wendy Wersch Memorial Lecture Series at MAWA in Winnipeg, entitled We are all of us made by war...., Hunt described how her grandmothers made quilts and her mother taught her craft.^[1]

Hunt received a Diploma in Art from the University of Manitoba School of Art in Winnipeg in 1982 and was awarded the first Gissur Eliasson Memorial Scholarship for her studio work. She completed her post-graduate studies with an MFA focused on Fibres at Concordia University in Montréal, Québec in 1994. From 1995-1996, Hunt taught at the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario. Between 1997 and 2001 she taught at Queen's University^[2] in Kingston, Ontario. Hunt has taught in the Visual Arts Program, Grenfell Campus of Memorial University of Newfoundland in Corner Brook in 1996-1997, and permanently from 2001.^[3][4] In 2015, she inaugurated their first textile-based course.

Career

Hunt has a distinguished exhibition history including solo exhibitions at the Art Gallery of Ontario, The Rooms Provincial Art Gallery and at Exeter and Bath galleries in the UK. Her work has been included in high-profile group exhibitions and biennials both national and international. She has also completed residencies throughout Canada, as well as Paris^[5] and Ireland. Her art is included in books and scholarly journals such as:

• Susan Cahill, "The Elsewhere War: Art, Embodiment, and the Spaces of MilitaryEngagement," Journal of Canadian Studies, Spring 2018.

• Black, Anthea and Nicole Burisch. "Craft Hard, Die Free: Radical Curatorial Strategies for Craft in Unruly Spaces." Maria Elena Buszek, ed. Extra/Ordinary: Craft and Contemporary Art. Durham,London: Duke University Press, 2011; and in Glenn Adamson, ed. The Craft Reader. New York: Berg, 2010.

• Perron, Mirielle. "The Art of Camouflage, A Female Touch: Exploring tactility in the work of Janice Wright Cheney, Barb Hunt and Sarah Maloney." Paula Gustafson, ed. Craft Perception and Practice 3. Vancouver: Ronsdale Press, 2008.

• Kirsty Robertson, "Capturing the Movement: Affect, Anti-War Art and Activism." Afterimage: The Journal of Media Arts and Cultural Criticism, Vol. 34, No. 6, Fall 2006, 27-30.

• Magliaro, Joseph and Shu Hung, eds. By Hand: The Use of Craft in Contemporary Art. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2006.

ONLINE

upcoming:

Claiming Needles, peer to space, http:// claiming-needles.net/ - www.peertospace.eu

[online Aug 16, 2018]

Land Mines series

In the group exhibition, Museopathy, coordinated by the Agnes Etherington Art Centre in Kingston, Ontario and curated by DisplayCult ^[6] Hunt explored subversive feminisation of war weaponry. A solo show of her antipersonnel series followed at the Art Gallery of Ontario.^[7] This series documents the proliferation of antipersonnel landmines through hand knitting replicas in various shades of pink yarn. The work draws on the history of knitting as caring for the body and the use of knitting to create bandages for soldiers. In this context knitting becomes a metaphor for recuperation, protection, and healing, creating a contrast between the materials and the destructive subject matter.^[8] The series was inspired by a protest against landmines that Hunt attended in Paris called The Pyramid Shoes, while completing a three-month residency at the Canada Council studio there. Collections of this series have been acquired by the Agnes Etherington Art Centre in 2005 through the Canada Council's York Wilson Purchase Award, and The Rooms, Newfoundland and Labrador where it is designated as work of Outstanding Significance and National Importance by the Canadian Cultural Property and Export Review Board of the Department of Canadian Heritage.

2017 antipersonnel (video from Museopathy project), Display Cult

http://www.displaycult.com/project.html?type=exhibitions&project=museopathy

Camouflage series

In Toll, her 2011 solo show at The Rooms in St. John's, Newfoundland, she created large installations using camouflage fabric as a central theme and material. Hunt's art considers the human costs of armed conflict balanced by a deep empathy for individuals, including soldiers, in areas of hostility. This work reflects upon depicting the absurdity of war. Works from this series have also been exhibited in galleries across Canada and internationally: in Europe, the United States, and Mexico.

Mourning series

This body of work expresses relationships between death, mourning, gender and recuperation. Hunt has studied the close cultural ties between Newfoundland and the islands of Ireland and the United Kingdom. As a descendant of Irish/English settlers, Hunt's female relatives taught her some of the textile skills expected of women. After the death of her father, she found herself involved in highly repetitive textile work as a way of mourning. This labour-intensive craft seems to be a common way of coping with grief and loss, as cloth has strong associations with protection and healing.^[9] Work from this series has been exhibited across Canada and in England. It was also the subject of a feature article "The Woman Who Eats Lace" by Lisa Moore in ARTSatlantic in 2003.

Steel Dresses series

Hunt made each metal dress in this series from a single sheet of cold-rolled steel. Using a plasma-arc cutter, she created delicate forms resembling textile patterns, images from nature and forms traditionally part of women's cultures. Hunt is particularly drawn to feminism's acceptance of domestic activities as a valid approach to contemporary art practice. Thus, she considers the making of these steel dresses as "sewing with fire". This work has been shown in galleries across Canada and appears in the collections of the Canada Council Art Bank, the Winnipeg Art Gallery, and Seneca College, Ontario.

Other

2018 Endurance Award, VANL-CARFAC Excellence in Visual Arts Awards, St. John's, NL

2010 Canada Council, Production Grant

2005 Canada Council, Creation/Production Grant

2004 Memorial University of Newfoundland, President's Award for Outstanding Research

2001 Canada Council, Creation/Production Grant

2000 Ontario Arts Council, Individual Visual Senior Artist Grant

1999 Canada Foundation for Innovation, New Opportunities Grant (Team Member)

1994 Gouvernement du Québec, Ministère de la culture, Bourse B

Barb Hunt's work is included in public and private collections including the Central Museum of Textiles in Poland, Yale University, Columbia University, Stanford University, Scripps College, the Winnipeg Art Gallery and the Canada Council Art Bank.

Since 1995 Hunt has been teaching in post-secondary visual art programs, and she has included instruction in textiles throughout her teaching career. From 1995-1996, Hunt taught at the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario. Between 1997 and 2001 she taught at Queen's University[2] in Kingston, Ontario. Hunt currently teaches in the Visual Arts Program, School of Fine Arts, Grenfell Campus of Memorial University of Newfoundland in Corner Brook (in 1996-1997 and permanently from 2001).[3][4] In 2015 she inaugurated their first textile-based course, and in 2017 textiles became an established part of the curriculum.

Hunt has presented her research at six international scholarly conferences in the United States, England, and Australia. Her writing has also appeared in Border Crossings, Surfacing Journal, and catalogue text for the Manitoba Craft Council. She has been a Visiting Artist for eleven post-secondary art programs across Canada.

Hunt is a past board member of the Manitoba Crafts Council ^[10] and the Craft Council of Newfoundland and Labrador. Since 2006 she has been a member of the Educational Review Committee for the Walrus magazine.

References

External links

• Hunt's website

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