>>PREVIEW
HOUND’S TOOTH, FORSOOTH!
Runs until June 23
Hazel Meyer
Truck Gallery
Hazel Meyer’s exhibition Hound’s Tooth, Forsooth!, currently on display at Truck Gallery, is an installation that reflects upon the sociological significance of patterns in society. Hound’s Tooth check, a weave born in the early 19th century from the union of twill and plaid, is the main focus of the exhibition and is reproduced here in black and white tiles across the gallery floor.
Because of its subtle placement, the pattern is quite hard to recognize at first glance, as the magnitude of each pixelated check shifts the familiar pattern to abstraction. Regardless of the fact that it is probably the last thing that one notices as one enters the gallery space, the Hound’s Tooth check is celebrated here with the great fanfare of a sports game as it shares the gallery space with two zebra mascots made from papier-mâché, multicoloured suspended pennant banners and a sport riser facing the entrance. The only other feature in this installation is the title of the show painted in large block red letters across two walls.
Hound’s Tooth, Forsooth! is a conceptual work hidden behind an esthetically pleasing installation. Once this is understood, the viewer requires a substantial amount of explanation to grasp the many facets of the work. Hoping to fill this need, Meyer stuffed the exhibition’s publication with relevant printed material alongside her poems, brainstorming notes and sketches that were used as inspiration for this project. Unfortunately, without this background information on the artist (who has worked as a textile designer for a fine-gauge circular-knit company) or on the history of this pattern (that has been linked to one’s social position in society), the installation can quickly lose its playfulness once the visitor passes through the entrance of the installation. It’s at this location where one enjoys the best point of view of the work.
However, as a conceptual piece it successfully invites the visitor to ponder a variety of sociological issues that might have never crossed their mind. By using the medium of visual art to communicate her thoughts on textile, Meyer immerses the viewer in "an environment familiar yet absurd enough to allow for new associations to be formed."
Let’s begin with the two zebra mascots. Located at either end of the gallery, they guard their respective corners like goalies and face visitors as they roam around the patterned playing field. The pair seems almost identical except for the fact that one has black stripes on a white body while the other sports white stripes on a black body. This difference in appearance brings forth questions as to the nature of the beast. Is there a white or black animal underneath those stripes? The answer will depend upon who you ask. According to Michel Pastoureau, the author of The Devil’s Cloth: A History of Stripes and Striped Fabric, Africans have always recognized the animal to be black while the Europeans see it as being white. It is this realization that such a dichotomy exists within the zebra that brings forth similar questioning in regard to the Hound’s Tooth textile pattern that is neither black nor white, like the famous reversible patterns of M.C. Escher. By following this line of thought, Meyer has creatively dubbed Hound’s Tooth as "the zebra of the textile world."
Another important conceptual characteristic of this exhibition is its performance and participative aspect that is brought forth by the inclusion of the sport riser in the installation. Hazel describes this sort of "participatory project that combine athletics and esthetics" as the unifying thread that connects her various art projects to one another. With Hound’s Tooth, visitors sitting on the steps become part of the installation by acknowledging that this pattern, and whoever stands on it, deserves to be celebrated and admired.
For Meyer, the Hound’s Tooth pattern is so intriguing because "it provokes references to racism, zebras, ambiguity, orthodontics and modernism, all by being a woven fabric." Although the installation alone might not convince the viewer of the pattern’s effectiveness at communicating all of the above, the project as a whole is rich with stimulating and original ideas when it is accompanied by the introductory and informative text to the exhibition as well as Meyer’s publication. |
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