Jane Kidd
Handwork Series: to the bone, in the blood, from the heart
February 7 to March 21, 2004

For the majority of my art-making career I have chosen to work with the process of woven tapestry. The multi-cultural and ritually charged tradition of this narrative textile medium provides an appropriate vehicle to express both my actual and spiritual concerns. The process of woven tapestry also allows me to indulge my inclination towards intricate detail, rich colour and sensuous surfaces.

Calgary-based artist Jane Kidd’s Handwork Series: to the bone, in the blood, from the heart is comprised of nine vibrant, labour intensive tapestries produced by the artist between 1999 and 2001. In these works, Kidd combines images derived from anatomical drawings of the human hand and forearm with patterns and imagery that reference traditional and/or historical textiles. The result is both a beautiful object and a social inquiry into the changing value of human labour. Kidd’s Handwork Series, which has been described as a “sampler or archive of patterns,” draws attention to the intimate relationship that exists between material culture, such as tapestry and cloth, and the human body. Throughout history, textile objects have been produced to mark important occasions and milestones as well as to add warmth, beauty and visual pleasure to our lives.

The Kelowna Art Gallery is pleased to feature this first exhibition of Jane Kidd’s work in the Okanagan Valley.  In addition to the Handwork Series: to the bone, in the blood, from the heart, a selection of earlier tapestries produced by the artist are also on exhibit.

Jane Kidd was born in Victoria, B.C. and has studied art and design at the Vancouver School of Art and the University of Victoria. She has exhibited her work in solo and group exhibitions nationally for nearly 30 years. Travel has been an important means of research and influence in her development as an artist and she has traveled extensively in Central and South America, North Africa, Europe, India and South East Asia. Jane Kidd has been an instructor at the Alberta College of Art and Design in Calgary since 1979 and is the current Head of the College’s Fibre Program. The artist gratefully acknowledges the support of the Canada Council for the Arts.