Shamina Senaratne prepares to install Interpret.| Photo by Christie Lim
Local artists Shamina Senaratne and Christie Lim have collaborated to create an exhibit that showcases their textile creations. Senaratne’s work for the Evergreen Cultural Centre exhibit, Here and Through and Back and Through, began with a line that she says looped back on itself.
“It was an image that wouldn’t leave me. It spoke to me of progress and reflection; journeying away or astray and returning; backwards and forwards; beginnings, experience, traumas or disorientation and moving into coherence again,” says Senaratne, who graduated from Simon Fraser University with a Communications and Public History BA.
Through independent research and exploration, Senaratne also studied textile design, colour theory, dye techniques, surface design and needlework. Her inspirations come from exploring Muslim/Sufi and Buddhist approaches to understanding the world and living everyday life.
Selecting the right medium
Senaratne has always been looking for the right medium to convey her message. She finds that textiles allow her to encode texture and form with metaphor and meaning rather than using full sentences.
“Materials convey some part of a message; whether verbal or non-verbal, communication affects how the message is formed and received,” says the Port Moody resident, who has also expressed herself through poetry, fiction, sound, dance and mixed media three-dimensional and two-dimensional art.
She is fascinated by how the age-old practice of sewing has connected women throughout history. Her mother was a tailor/dressmaker and pattern maker in ladies couture evening wear in London. From a very early age, Senaratne learned how to respect and love fine materials and craftsmanship, and how to consciously choose the right material for the intended design.
Hands-on appeal
Christie Lim with her artwork, Where Are You Going? | Photo by Shamina Senaratne.
As an Emily Carr art student, Christie Lim longed for something that was more tactile than what two-dimensional or digital mediums offered – so she started studying textiles at Capilano’s Advanced Textile Art Program at the same time. She also studied privately with a textile artist in France in 2013.
“I enjoy working with thread and fibre because it’s very hands-on. There is something to be said about the connection you build with a work through the long amounts of time simply holding it and working with the material directly in your hands,” says the Burnaby resident.
Lim notes that she is drawn to this medium because of its immediacy. She explains that textiles are a medium that everyone is very familiar with and can connect with instantly.
“Textiles have tradition and historical relevance with every culture; we wear cloth every day, we touch textiles every day. Those elements of connection and intimacy are important to my work in that they bring an element of accessibility through materiality,” she says.
She also finds the process of hand embroidery meditative, and draws inspiration from embroidery artists such as Tilleke Schwarz and Takashi Iwasaki, as well as graphic novelists, philosophers and artists such as Keri Smith.
“While I’m working, I can get out of my head and into my body. It’s a place where I find calmness and my thoughts are still. In this sense, the labour of the stitch[ing] and the act of slowing down are essential to my process and my personal philosophy,” says Lim.
Although Senaratne and Lim have drastically different styles, they enjoyed their collaboration.
“I have so enjoyed being paired with Christie in this show – we’ve thoroughly enjoyed working together as we each developed the work for Here and Through and Back and Through,” says Senaratne.
Lim agrees.
“It’s been an exciting journey together from start to finish. I’m looking forward to working again with her on some upcoming project ideas we have brewing. Not revealing anything just yet – stay tuned to find out!” says Lim.
The exhibit runs until July 11. For more information, visit www.evergreenculturalcentre.ca
