On 1 October 2022 the City of Toronto opened Nuit Blanche, their highly anticipated all-night celebration of contemporary art. Featured at the Humber College Lakeshore Campus was the impressive, collaborative work ‘Wagari: Dabiyil, Biram – Vessel: water and sky’ by Sonja Carmichael, Elisa Jane Carmichael and Freja Carmichael.
Imbuing this city-wide event with the essence and power of Quandamooka country, the trio presented a large-scale cyanotype textile featuring imagery of handwoven forms, string and found objects, as well as an upscale vinyl application onto the venue’s façade.
Although Nuit Blanche occurs over the span of a night, we hope the documentation of this significant achievement, as well as the translation of the Carmichael’s work across the Northern-Hemisphere, brings as much enduring joy to you all as it does for us.
The artist’s state: “As a family of Quandamooka women, weaving has become our intergenerational expression of saltwater identity and culture. This work represents woven forms that continue knowledge of past generations and the stories and experiences of today…The layering of woven forms and found objects onto the cyanotype is a metaphoric expression of stories, experiences and histories that are embedded within sands, land, water, and sky of Quandamooka country, and are carried in the vessels of Quandamooka weaving.”
Image: Sonja Carmichael, Elisa Jane Carmichael, Freja Carmichael, Wagari: Dabiyil, Biram – Vessel: water and sky, Nuit Blanche Toronto, 2022 (Humber Lakeshore Campus). Photographer: Patrick Leung
