With the work Breathless Canadian textile artists Tina Struthers gives us a moment to consider the air and atmosphere that we share.
Cover photo : Josiane Farand
The connection of our breathing with the external environment is the basis of her artistic research. At its core are physical transformations caused by illness specifically related to breath and breathlessness. When we are born, we inhale, and when we die, we exhale … in between, our breath is the unfolding of our transitions and physical metamorphosis though life. As our life story unfolds, we change and evolve. Passages through time become a physical metamorphosis, growing from the infant to the adult body, collecting scars, wrinkles and markings.
She is interested in the role of healing, both with touch and with meditative, repetitive actions, the method of slow stitching, slowing down of the breath and heart rate. She explores the power of conscious breathing and mindfulness, connectivity with our environment has been explored through philosophy, religion practices, physical exertion, and general wellbeing. Through a creative exploration of the power of breathing, Struthers explores both the inhalation of freedom in mediative conscious breathing practice as well as the invisible and invasive limitations due to breathless and illness. The works presented are abstractions of lung mutations, cells that can damage and heal our bodies. In modern society, we seem to be suffocated, locked in the physical limitations of our sick bodies. But the breath, like the spirit, can escape and observe how the body slowly breathes normally again to heal.
The process of creating slowly stitched surface textures, beads, and embroidery is a practice that eases the mind and soothes the breath, it is a physical act of stitching and mending the self, allowing the body to slow and heal. The purpose of this textural aspect of her work is to attract the viewer to come closer, to be drawn in and to evoke the desire of touch. Only to realise that what they have just touched, represents for example cancer cells. The reaction of sudden shock and disgust, as well as fear of contamination, is the author’s attempt to create reflection with the viewer on these issues.
Tina Struthers is a Canadian textile and visual artist, she creates large scale textile
abstractions which attempt to map the unpredictability of human impact on global societies
and environments. She has exhibited at exhibitions in the USA, Belgium, Ukraine, South Korea, South Africa, Uruguay and Spain. Her artistic practices include cultural mediation projects. Struthers is the recipient of grants from the Canadian Arts Council and the Quebec Arts Council, as well as various awards and mentions. Her formal training began at the Open window art academy, where she studied visual communication, majoring in fine arts, and then focused on the use of textiles as her principal medium. She is currently working on her MFA in Fibre and Material practices at Concordia
university in Montreal.
