Janet Morton: Better Homes and Gardens

May 9 - July 6, 2008
Singularly Significant series
Organized by KW|AG

"The house we were born in is physically inscribed in us. It is a group of organic habits…The successive houses in which we have lived have no doubt made our gestures commonplace. But we are very surprised, when we return to the old house, after an odyssey of many years, to find that the most delicate gestures, the earliest gestures which suddenly come alive, are still faultless." - Gaston Bachelard in The Poetics of Space

 

Janet Morton, Better Homes and Gardens, 2007, mixed media. Image courtesy of the artist and KW|AG. Photo: K.J. Bedford.

The works of Janet Morton transform the mundane into wonders of labour while examining mass consumption and the shifting location of value in our lives. Morton employs popular craft techniques such as knitting and crocheting on an often massive scale that subverts their traditionally domestic role. Whereas many of Morton's earlier works share an element of humour, one might see the works featured in Better Homes and Gardens as suggestive of a relationship between time and labour. In the installation entitled Overgrown, a flowering white vine creeps and clings along the gallery walls. Combining knitted tendrils and various plastic detritus, Morton transforms the most commonplace bits of refuse into a slow-growing object of value. Morton has also created a series of knitted sculptures that serve as models of homes that she had lived in over her lifetime, defying the integrity of bricks and mortar by rendering these houses as smaller, softer versions of themselves. Rather than offering an immediate spectacular encounter, these two monochromatic projects invite viewers to come closer and savour the details in their making. Complementing these works are selected images that document Morton's Cozy (1999), a knitted cover for a house on Toronto's Ward Island.

Janet Morton, Overgrown (detail), 2008, mixed media, installation dimensions vary. Image courtesy of the artist and KW|AG. Photo: K.J. Bedford.

The Singularly Significant series features concise projects by artists marking significant developments in contemporary art practice. The series is designed to provide visitors with a glimpse of otherwise expansive endeavours. Read the Better Homes and Gardens publication.

About Janet Morton
Janet Morton has been exhibiting nationally and internationally since 1992. She has received numerous awards for her textile-based work. She has produced a number of ambitious outdoor installations, most recently with the inclusion of her work, Femmebomb, in Toronto's Nuit Blanche event (2007). She is represented by Paul Petro Contemporary Art in Toronto and her work can be seen on the Canadian Centre for Contemporary Art website at www.ccca.ca.