Artwork: Doves Wear White, Jana Ghalayini

The Looms We Resemble

The Looms We Resemble” is a group exhibition showcasing textile-based works by 6 artists who bring topics of belonging, the body, healing and ancestry. This unique exhibition is a work in progress as the artists developed their artworks during a weaving class led by instructor Jana Ghalayini. How can collective production of artworks precede curatorial themes and concepts, while we follow the slowness of weaving? 

Weaving ideas, actions, memories, and stories together is a practice of care that we all share in time and space. This exhibition includes works by Aga Forfa, Apanaki, Tara Hakim, Merle Harley, Saretta Khan and Helen Kong. Our public programming includes a Storytelling Circle led by Sarah Abusarar and Tea Gathering by Helen Kong

ABOUT JANA GHALAYINI

Jana Ghalayini (b.1993, Jeddah) is an artist based between Tkaronto, Canada and Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Ghalayini holds a BFA in Printmaking from OCAD University and is a self-taught weaver who draws inspiration from her Palestinian heritage. Between intuitive weaving, mixed-media work and printmaking, she is interested in repetition and mark-making as process-based forms that act as rituals leading up to the final form of an artwork.  She consistently investigates and reflects on the connection between tangible materials and fragmentation while exploring layers in her work and mindfully uses her practice to keep a record of gestural marks documenting personal memory, experience and ideas that can evolve as time goes on.

November 3 - December 9, 2024

Youngplace Hallway Galleries (180 Shaw Street, Third Floor, Toronto)

Opening Reception:
Sunday November 3, 3 – 5 PM 
Curatorial Tour:
Saturday, November 30, 2 – 4 PM 
Led by Fatma Hendawy

PUBLIC PROGRAMMING

Saturday, November 23, 2024 | 12-3 PM
WA Offsite Gallery – 180 Shaw St. Unit 302
Registration Required
Maximum Capacity: 14

Storyteller, Sarah Abusarar will be accenting the exhibit by weaving Palestinian stories of long ago. The Palestinian traditional stories were told by women in the villages. It is a tradition that was passed down from generation to generation. Often the women would tell these stories while engaging in other folk art such as embroidery and weaving.

Saturday, December 7, 2024 | 1-3 PM
Hallway Galleries, Youngplace, Third floor, 180 Shaw St. 
Free Entry

In this tea gathering, Helen will demonstrate a Chinese tea ritual and serve teas to the participants and attendees. This will serve as context to her piece “Tea by the Apricot Tree” made during the “Way of Weaving” course facilitated by Jana Ghalayini. 

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Agnieszka (Aga) Forfa is a Tkaronto based artist, working mainly in the material culture of her ancestors, practicing textile, paper and straw craft.  She was born on the Baltic shores of Soviet-occupied Poland.

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Tapestry for the Dead, 2024

Apanaki Temitayo is a Toronto-based, disabled, mixed-media textile artist, art facilitator, and mental health advocate. Her work combines African fabrics and storytelling, often exploring themes of identity, heritage, and resilience. She has exhibited in various galleries and her workshops focus on the therapeutic aspects of art, aiming to foster mental wellness and community connection.

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Arokin Iwure, Yoruba for Griot’s Prayer, 2024

Originally Palestinian, born and raised in Jordan with an Austrian grandmother, Tara Hakim creates public displays of vulnerability that invite the viewer to meditate on notions of self, diasporic existences, and spaces in between – both physically and mentally. Her first short film ‘Teta, Opi & Me’ screened in festivals around the world including RIDM, and won Best Documentary and Audience Choice at MOMO in Zurich 2019. Since then, Tara has been creating short films, experimenting with gallery spaces and currently exploring tactile mediums including ceramics, Tatreez, weaving and glass work.

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Merle Harley is an artist and maker who continuously creates visual alternate realities balancing the line between beautiful and uncanny. With no specific fixed media they work eclectically with what is readily available or collected. Using mediums such as drawing, painting, knitting, weaving, comic books, videos, built structures, as well as working in theatre and TV. They have exhibited work across Canada and beyond, in galleries and outdoors in site-specific locations and are particularly interested in stories based in nature, animals, mental health and queer themes.

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Saretta Khan is Bangladeshi-Canadian born and raised in Toronto. Ever since being a child she has always been doing some form of art such as drawing and painting. She’s heavily influenced by her mother who is also an artist/painter. Her mother recognized Saretta’s talents at an early age and allowed her to explore and discover her passion for art. Currently, Saretta is a multidisciplinary graphic designer/artist who graduated from an advanced graphic design program at George Brown. She is also teaching art for The GEM (Giving Education Meaning)community program which allows her to introduce the wonders of art to students with learning disabilities. Her goal is to facilitate an inclusive space for them to express their creativity.

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Helen Kong is a second generation Chinese Canadian living and working in Tkaronto (Toronto). She studied her first ritualized tea while living in Japan. Chado (the Way of Tea) is a meditative life journey through tea and hospitality. It is the gateway into art, culture, and philosophy. After returning to Canada, she studied ceramics as a way to better understand tea vessels. She established Secret Teatime, a clay studio where people play with clay and sip tea. She has expanded from making tea wares for Japanese teas to also studying and making wares for her own heritage of Chinese tea.

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Tea by the Apricot Tree, 2024

FOR QUESTIONS, PLEASE CONTACT:
FATMA HENDAWY
fatma_hendawy@workmanarts.com