MIXEDFIT
Millie Chen, Emelie Chhangur, Hannah Claus, Stefan Hoffman and Dan Perjovschi
Exhibition
Koffler Gallery at various venues, 2010
Photo documentation by Isaac Applebaum
Bearing a written message, an iconic image, a familiar or an eccentric brand, the T-shirt makes a statement, expressing individual choice in creating a personal image. As a basic clothing item, the T-shirt has become established as one of the most ubiquitous identity-defining elements. Five Canadian and international artists were invited to explore notions of migration and displacement between geographical territories, cultures and identities, designing silkscreen-based T-shirts to be disseminated through several Toronto stores. The project is presented in conjunction with Printopolis, an international symposium in Toronto, organized by Canada’s leading printmaking centre, Open Studio, in celebration of its 40th Anniversary.
Exploring the T-shirt as a medium for mass-communication, Millie Chen, Emelie Chhangur, Hannah Claus, Stefan Hoffman and Dan Perjovschi engage with issues of race, gender, immigration and social justice. Based in Ridgeway, Ontario, Millie Chen delves into her Chinese heritage, reinterpreting the motifs of Chinoiserie wallpaper, disrupting the fictional Chinese idyllic scenes as projections of European desire, and adapting these patterns for the T-shirt. With a text-based T-shirt design, Toronto artist Emelie Chhangur addresses inter-racial relationships and the history of discrimination practiced against those of mixed racial identity.
Montreal artist Hannah Claus manipulates decorative patterns to explore the intersection of her two cultural identities, Native and European-Canadian, highlighting areas of overlap and transformation.
Romanian artist Dan Perjovschi, who gained international recognition for his shrewd political cartoons that explore global events, contributes a T-shirt that comments on the immigrant condition. As a major destination for new arrivals in Canada, Toronto is a city where borders are constantly crossed between languages and customs.
Rotterdam-based Stefan Hoffman is the featured artist invited by Open Studio in conjunction with Printopolis. Hoffman creates work that ranges from site-specific wall and window interventions to object-based multiples, using silkscreen to layer images drawn from pictograms, urban signage, medical illustrations, and old heraldry books with visual elements derived on location. In a public, in-store event during Scotiabank Nuit Blanche 2010, he transferred his images to T-shirts brought in by the public, creating an original piece for each participant, re-emphasizing the democratic essence of this popular clothing item.
Montreal artist Hannah Claus manipulates decorative patterns to explore the intersection of her two cultural identities, Native and European-Canadian, highlighting areas of overlap and transformation.
Romanian artist Dan Perjovschi, who gained international recognition for his shrewd political cartoons that explore global events, contributes a T-shirt that comments on the immigrant condition. As a major destination for new arrivals in Canada, Toronto is a city where borders are constantly crossed between languages and customs.
Rotterdam-based Stefan Hoffman is the featured artist invited by Open Studio in conjunction with Printopolis. Hoffman creates work that ranges from site-specific wall and window interventions to object-based multiples, using silkscreen to layer images drawn from pictograms, urban signage, medical illustrations, and old heraldry books with visual elements derived on location. In a public, in-store event during Scotiabank Nuit Blanche 2010, he transferred his images to T-shirts brought in by the public, creating an original piece for each participant, re-emphasizing the democratic essence of this popular clothing item.
