An upcoming exhibition at the Alternator Centre for Contemporary Art in Kelowna invites visitors to explore themes of community and the gift economy from September 18, until October 31, 2020.
In the exhibition Backstitch, Nicole Young displays a large-scale art piece resembling a quilt, created from sewing together hand-dyed textiles. All the textiles in the work are a mix of materials, such as plant matter used for dyes, that were donated to the artist by community members.
As an environmental activist, Young noticed a disconnect between her work as an environmentalist and her work as an artist because painting in acrylics is essentially painting with plastic. In order to bring these two facets together cohesively, she switched from using acrylic paints to creating inks and dyes out of plant matter.
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The title Backstitch refers to one of the strongest, most adaptable, and permanent hand stitches used in the tradition of sewing.
Young is an interdisciplinary artist working at the intersection of visual art and environmental preservation. Her process is motivated by a desire to reduce waste and build a visual language out of leftovers. Her pieces merge science and visual art – recording how plants interact with one another on a visual plane or examining the impact of human interference in nature.
The Alternator Centre for Contemporary Art is an artist-run centre located in Kelowna at the Rotary Centre for the Arts, 421 Cawston Avenue.
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