Unfurling

About Unfurling

This contemporary mixed media assemblage features a botanical motif.

Alice Vander Vennen’s stunning, intricately detailed work is created using ‘found’ objects. Growing up, her immigrant parents taught her the value of collecting and re-purposing objects as they’d lived through the rationing of the Second World War. Vander Vennen’s work is deeply personal, but the story behind it also resonates with our collective memory. The base of each composition is formed using squares of beautifully detailed textiles –new and archival that are layered along with stones from the shores of Lake Ontario and coiled, burnished copper. The three linked squares are stacked one on top of the other to create the assemblage. The colour palette is fresh and modern—the addition of black and white graphic shapes offers bold contrast to the red, yellow, blue and green colours of the textiles. These framed pieces can be hung horizontally or vertically.

“I feel like a quilter who is playing with colour, or I feel like I’m painting with textiles. And when I go for a walk, I’m always finding things. These (found objects) are little diary pieces. It feels like I’m collecting little moments in time.”
Alice Vander Vennen

Alice Vander Vennen trained as a sculptor at Calvin College, USA and at the Ontario College of Art and Design. Her work is held in public, private and corporate collections both here and abroad.