Jan 19 - Mar 12, 2023 | Jan 19, 2023 6:00 PM

I Hope You Are Both Well

Jessie Fraser

Artist Biography

Jessie Fraser is a Kjipuktuk/Halifax based visual artist working predominantly in the medium of fibre. Her practice considers how photographs, literature and cloth may be combined, to investigate the affective potential of woven cloth and text in site-sensitive installations. Fraser completed an MFA in 2019 at the Alberta University of the Arts in Craft Media. She has participated in multiple residencies and has exhibited work in a number of venues throughout Alberta and Nova Scotia; including shows at VivianeArt, Illingworth Kerr Gallery and ICCA. Image, text and textiles, along with photographic and weaving processes are used as sites of intuitive and emotional investigation. Using time as both a process and a material, Jessie’s practice is the process of weaving. She weaves not only with thread but also with historic narratives and atmospheric feeling.

Exhibition Statement

Telling a story is a translation of materials; it is a selection of information that is salient to you. This idea has led me to consider how the present rearranges the past, conveying the interaction between presence and absence, and history and memory through this site-sensitive installation.  

I hope you are both well, is inspired by two books, Bluenose Ghosts by folklore author Helen Creighton and The Key to Weaving by Mary E. Black. Both of these books were gifted to me by mentors before I set out to move across Canada. Arriving in a new city I craved companionship; I found this companionship in both Helen and Mary, in folklore and in craft. Both authors were influencers of their time, shaping our collective memory of Nova Scotia’s past through the collection of stories, pedagogy and advocacy. I saw a connection between Mary and Helen, and I feel a familiarity with both. In this installation I’ve collaborated with their literature to create an exhibition that entangles the three of us together.

 

Acknowledgments

   

Published ©2021 by the Centre for Craft Nova Scotia All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. All photography courtesy of the artist unless otherwise stated.