fibre Quarterly  volume 3 issue 1 winter 2007
  Enter the Garden: Anna Torma, by Carol-ann Casselman  
 

 

Draw me a rose ©2005 130 x150 cm*

“Entering the garden, it’s a living creature, changing every day and in every season.” Anna Torma, spring 2006

Anna Torma turns loose her imagination into dreams of embroidered fantasy with thread drawings. Thirteen large works, from 155cm x 139cm (Draw me a rose 1), to 177cm to 140cm (Random History), hang like banners in a sacred space.

Entering the T.R. MacDonald Gallery felt like meeting dear friends: the fantastical images remembered from a past exhibition at the Craft Gallery in 1995 at the Ontario Crafts Council on McCaul Street. Some of her textile works draw you into a vivid world of the imagination where we become children again in a wonderland of daydreams and scary nightmares. Other works depict a more sophisticated portrait of gardens.

Her embroidery technique is sometimes tight and other times loose and free.

We are witness to work created with rigor that can only be achieved with the relentless act of making each stitch in the timeless language of embroidery. Some compositions are layered with fabric to form ghostly images of animals marching along with birds and figures.

The exhibition showcases the mystery of the garden presenting itself in tangles of foliage. We relive our own experiences as gardeners working close to the ground or strolling through humid greenhouses surrounded by scented flowers and ornamental leaves. Anna’s rich colour sense reminds us of the lush saturated splendour we long for over winter.  

Anna’s images allow the viewer to daydream. I can picture her choosing the pieces of coloured fabric and lace, then assembling and overlapping the layers to make new textures and drawing with cotton and silk threads to create these exotic landscapes. Anna’s textile art gives us breathless beauty in a contemporary form, while displaying the timeless and thoughtful activity of stitching.  

-cac-

 Serenade ©2006 135 x 170 cm *

Red Flowers II,© 2006 171 x 130 cm *

 Anna Torma :Enter the Garden, Art Gallery of Hamilton , September 28/06 - December 31 2006. curated by Sara Knelman, Curator of Contemporary Art,

Biography

Anna Torma was born in Hungary and received a degree in Textiles from the Hungarian University of Applied Arts.  She has exhibited internationally. Anna is the recipient of numerous grants and awards. Recently she was named a finalist for the prestigious Saidye Bronfman Fine Craft Award. She has lived in Toronto, Hamilton and now makes her home in Baie Verte, New Brunswick.  

Carol-ann Casselman is an artist and designer/maker in glass, ceramics, concrete and embroidery. She is an enthusiastic supporter of the visual arts community leading self-promotion seminars focusing on portfolio presentation, and individual creative career development consultations

*images © Anna Torma, provided by Art Gallery Of Hamilton and used with permission 

  

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