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Excerpts from curatorial
essays in exhibition catalogues
Catalogue: Heart of Stone ~ Heart
of Garden
Grand Forks
Art Gallery September 20 to October 22, 2005
Niederlausitzer Heidemuseum, Spremberg, Germany, April 2 to April
30, 2006
Art Gallery of the South Okanagan, Penticton, September 8 to
October 29, 2006
Excerpts
from the essay by Roger
Boulet,
17 August, 2005
"Rocks have [....] figured largely in many of her recent
works where she has come to some kind of hybrid medium where
collage is the approach, and the media encompass forms cut out
of fabrics, enhanced by sewn stitches, and drawn elements. These
extraordinary pieces are essentially abstract and seem to suggest
meditations on rocks that express the natural forces that created
them. [….] Curiously, these works are uncomfortable within
the borders of frames, challenging the very convention of the
picture within which they were conceived - cloth paintings where
the 'painted' elements are the result of various processes of
bleaching and altering the colours of purchased fabrics. [….
] Beyond the staggering amount of detail that is suggested or
represented, there lies the rock and the record of the forces
and processes that created it.
[ … ] There are no more barriers between craft and art.
These are rendered meaningless by the essential organization
of mind over material, over matter, which is characteristic of
the human species. It is the capacity to aspire to an altered
state based on the contemplation of living things that grow,
that decay and, in a spring that always returns, are reborn in
a never-ending cycle. We are a small and insignificant part in
that cycle. At least, we have the capacity to contemplate this
ever-unfolding mystery, an ultimate design that we are yet unable
to fully fathom."
Paul Crawford, Director/Curator, Art
Gallery of the South Okanagan (now Penticton Art Gallery)
[ … ]
a selection of her fabric and mixed media works. All the hangings
are hand appliquéd and hand quilted with a small amount
of machine piecing. Painting with commercial dyes, chlorine and
paint she manipulates the material to acquire the desired effect.
This combined with the creative use of stitching, needlework
and printed textiles all work to create something that goes way
beyond what is normally considered quilting and elevating to
a whole other level. In her most recent work she collages fabric
in combination with drawing to create these microscopic portraits
of the inner structure of rocks. […It is ] my sincere hope
that this exhibit will change your perception and notion of what
has been traditionally labelled as quilts and elevate them from
the realm of craft to the position of fine art.
Catalogue: Soft Rocks
Kootenay Gallery, 2007
Langham Cultural Centre, 2007
Summerland Art Gallery, 2008
Revelstoke Visual Arts Centre, 2008
Excerpts from the essay by
Sandra Flood, 2007
" Beverley
considers herself a late starter, and a closet artist to boot.
I would say that every aspect of her training, professional experience,
her years as a curator, her exposure to many kinds of creative
arts, and the slow accumulation of expertise gained in making
gardens and quilts, comes together in the richness and confidence
of these works.
[ ..... ] These are sophisticated, accomplished works both aesthetically
and technically, from the conception of a visually interesting
image, through the selection and manipulation of fabrics, to
the meticulous, slow, meditative stitching to piece together
the fabrics, and the final quilting and stitchery embellishment."
Catalogue: Hanging by a Thread
Gallery 2, 2013
Excerpts from the essay by Bettina Matzkuhn, 2013
"Beverley Reid's language of process, comes from her
meticulous observation of her surroundings. Professors often
ask students to do a "close reading" of a text, to
pay attention to language, syntax, context and progression. Reid's
works are close readings of the environment outside her door:
certain orchids won't grow anymore because the summers have become
too hot; a creek that once dried up in summer, now runs all year;
rain, when it arrives, has become more insistent. Informed by
the process of gardening, she brings her sharp eyes, willingness
to experiment and sheer work ethic to her art work. Reid focuses
on her textile images in the winter when the garden is dormant,
but itches to get outdoors when the ground warms up. Her stash
of fabrics is neatly piled in shelves, the layers and folds form
a backdrop to her studio the way the terraced layers of her garden
form a backdrop to her life.
In the title
piece, Hanging
by a Thread,
Reid evokes fragility through colour, line and concept. A large,
pale, diagonal tree trunk leans across a thin white fabric covered
with a delicate print pattern one might see on a crazed ceramic
surface. A group of ghostly flowers hang before it by white threads,
the loops and straggly ends at the rod that suspending them are
echoed by the fibrous roots below. The white speaks of winter,
of mourning. Hand stitching can be repetitive and predictable,
or, in Reid's hands, a true form of mark-making. The area around
the tree is covered with a shorthand of faded stitches varying
in length, colour and density. They describe a jittery, nervous
tension, some foreign writing whose meaning we can only guess
at. On the back of the piece, small dusty green plants have stems
and no flowers: all is not well.
[ .... ] It is important to see and to contemplate the continuous
inquiry Reid has made, to be engaged by her visual language and
to follow her paths and predicaments -in the garden or on cloth.
The breadth and eloquence of Reid's exhibition is a force of
nature: unpredictable, persistent and possessed of a generous
power."
Excerpts
from catalogue foreword by Ted
Fogg,
Director/Curator
"Beverley Reid has been making artwork for more than five
decades. Following her graduation from the University of Manitoba
School of Art in 1956, she worked in Vancouver and England as
a display designer for many retailers and television. Subsequent
to her return to Canada, she began making traditional quilts
in the mid-70s. Over the past 43 years Reid has refined a distinct
relationship with fabric, revealing an intimate appreciation
for its qualities. Although mainly known for her fabric assemblages,
Reid's work on paper - her drawings, monoprints and watercolours
- stand on their own as wonderfully composed works, as well as
becoming stepping stones into experimentation and expansion for
her fabric practice.
[ ....] Some
of her more recent works take on the nature of interior landscapes,
or what Malcolm Andrews refers to as 'inscapes'…. "what
emerges when 'landscape' is penetrated, intellectually and emotionally…",
and she reveals a more intimate and private relationship between
her inner and outer worlds.
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