Rilla Marshall: Home Terrain

The textiles theme continues at the Confederation Centre Art Gallery with an exhibition of new work from Rilla Marshall. Thirteen hand woven pieces of textile art make up Rilla Marshall: Home Terrain which opened at the Gallery on November 21.

Growing up in Atlantic Canada, Marshall began learning the craft of hand-weaving as a teenager. Her love of weaving developed while she was a student at NSCAD University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where she received a BFA with a Major in Textiles in 2004. Since graduating, her weaving practice has grown to include the design, creation and exhibition of both contemporary wearable and artistic textiles.

This new work will focus on the changes in population and place in the four Atlantic Canadian provinces, delving into the interpretation of filtered data about Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island.

“As a resident of Atlantic Canada, I am aware of the forces that keep people living here and the necessities that draw people away. As a young artist, I have chosen to make my life here, having lived in three of the four Atlantic provinces, and I am fascinated by the effect of out-migration on the culture and the landscape,” Marshall says in her artist’s statement. “Through this new work, I am illustrating the stories behind the numbers, portraying the emotion behind the data.”

Rilla Marshall: Home Terrain is curated by Pan Wendt. It is on view until  February 28, 2010. Marshall’s exhibition is part of the RBC Emerging Artists series at the Gallery supported by the RBC Foundation.

The artist would like to acknowledge the generous support of the Newfoundland and Labrador Arts Council and the Craft Council of Newfoundland and Labrador.

above image: Cancer Rates and the Use of Chemicals in Commercial Farming, PEI, 2001-2006, 2009, 64.8 x 96.5 cm, hand woven and hand dyed, wool and silk