SHIFT CONFERENCE
Saturday October 21 & Sunday October 22, 2023 | LIVE OVER ZOOM
SHIFT: Ecologies of Fashion, Form and Textile is an exhibition, residency, and online conference that address the intersection of visual art, fashion and textiles, to consider these practices as worldmaking forms of knowledge production, and as a rare form of human encounter that comprises every aspect of daily life. Embracing embodiment and powerfully shaping social, cultural and political gestures and movements, this knowledge ranges from conceptual development and design, to ecological engagements, ceremonial and spiritual purposes, cultural expression and their attendant appropriations, to the animating energy of queer joy in fashion.
To explore these concerns, the SHIFT Conference, co-curated by Dr. Karen Tam and Dr. Lisa Baldissera, will engage academics, museum specialists, collectors and artists including keynote speaker, Alexis Walker, Associate Curator of Dress, Fashion and Textiles at the McCord Stewart Museum (Montreal) and features three panels: Fashion Ecologies, Histories of Fashion and its Futures and Sticky Pictures: The Intersection of Art and Fashion on Griffin’s recent publication produced in collaboration with Figure 1 and the Musee d’art contemporain, Montreal (MAC).
Conference Schedule
DAY 1
October 21st 10:00am to 11:15am PST – Parachute: Subversive Design and Street Fashion Keynote Speaker: Alexis Walker, Associate Curator, Dress, Fashion, and Textiles, at the McCord Stewart Museum. Moderated by Dr. Karen Tam
Join us for the virtual opening event of the SHIFT: Ecologies of Fashion, Form and Textile conference: a keynote presentation by Alexis Walker, Associate Curator of the Dress, Fashion and Textiles collection at the McCord Stewart Museum. Moderated by Griffin’s Adjunct Curator, Dr. Karen Tam, this engaging and insightful talk will feature the iconic Montreal fashion brand Parachute, subject of the 2021-2022 exhibition Walker curated at the McCord and its accompanying publication.
October 21st 11:30am to 1:00pm PST – Histories of Fashion and its Futures | Featuring online presentations by artist and scholar Dr. Wessie Ling and textile designer and scholar, Vanessa Mardirossian, followed by a discussion and audience Q&A moderated by Dr. Karen Tam
The conference panel, Histories of Fashion and its Futures, brings together scholars Dr. Wessie Ling and Vanessa Mardirossian who will share their unique perspectives on the dynamic interplay between fashion's historical evolution, its current complexities, and its future possibilities. Professor of Transcultural Art and Design at London Metropolitan University, Dr. Ling, an artist and a notable figure in fashion studies, explores themes like the cultural property of fashion, transcultural locality, and identity construction within the fashion system. Her historical research focuses on the evolution of the Chinese dress and its transnational links, shedding light on issues such as global capitalism, postcolonialism, and cultural hybridity. Joining her on this panel is Vanessa Mardirossian, a textile designer with over 20 years of experience across various fashion sectors, and current doctoral candidate at Concordia University. Advocate for textile ecoliteracy to address toxic materials in the fashion industry, she takes an innovative biomimetic approach by cultivating pigments from bacteria that thrive on food waste, providing a sustainable alternative to conventional and ecologically damaging dyeing processes. Together, Ling and Mardirossian's distinct yet complementary practices and research promise a thought-provoking dialogue that will uncover the multi-faceted nature of fashion beyond its visual aesthetics, delving into its cultural, economic, and environmental potentials.
DAY 2
October 22nd 11am to 12:30pm – Fashion Ecologies | Featuring presentations by multidisciplinary artist Caroline Monnet and visual artist Medrie MacPhee , followed by a discussion and audience Q&A moderated by Ashkenazi-Anishinaabe Métis visual artist Mimi Gellman
Presentations by Anishinaabe/French multidisciplinary artist Caroline Monnet and New York-based painter Medrie MacPhee will address the question of how the effects of a globalized fashion industry and its aesthetics have led to enquiries about consumerism and cultural appropriation especially in the face of the evolving climate crisis, where fashion’s carbon footprint represents 10% of the world’s global emissions. The presentations will be followed by a discussion and audience Q&A moderated by Ashkenazi-Anishinaabe Métis visual artist Mimi Gellman.
October 22nd 1:00pm to 2:30pm – Sticky Pictures: The Intersection of Art and Fashion | Featuring artist Janet Werner and independent curator & writer Melissa Feldman moderated by Dr. Lisa Baldissera
This panel discussion brings together contributors to the publication, Janet Werner: Sticky Pictures, which examines and celebrates the evolving work of this Montreal-based painter. Featuring the artist, Janet Werner and independent American curator and writer, Melissa Feldman, the panel explores the constellation of spatial and figurative explorations drawn from fashion magazines and art history that assist Werner in the creation of collage-like composite figures that slip between articulations of beauty, gender, psychology and emotion.
About the publication: Janet Werner’s painterly operations are both unsettling and seductive, revealing the conditions of perception and looking as passageways to understanding the intensity of the world at hand. Sticky Pictures explores Werner’s unique combination of abstraction, fictional portraiture, and the rich history of painting through texts by MAC Curator and Head of Public programs François LeTourneux, as well as an interview with the artist with independent curator and writer, Melissa Feldman.