Resistant Fibres: Weaving Memory, Resistance and Radical Joy

Chantal Gibson, Outlines in British History: a/Historical In(ter)vention, 2019-2022. Photography by Brandon Clarida Image Services. Courtesy of the artist.

Resistant Fibres

June 17, 2025 – May 19, 2026
Vernissage: June 17, 5 – 7pm
Âjagemô Exhibition Space, Canada Council for the Arts, Ottawa

What stories do threads carry? What truths do fibres hold?

The Canada Council Art Bank invites you to experience Resistant Fibres—a compelling new exhibition on view in Âjagemô, the Canada Council’s exhibition space. Opening on June 17, 2025, and running until May 19, 2026, the exhibition highlights the radical potential of fibre art and its power to connect and transform. Drawing from the Art Bank’s rich collection of more than 150 textile works, Resistant Fibres brings together powerful pieces by artists who use textile to interrogate history, affirm identities and provoke conversation.

Resistant Fibres features art by Siku Allooloo, Haley Bassett, Bob Boyer, Evelyn Coutellier, Erika DeFreitas, Frances Dorsey, Nancy Edell, General Idea, Chantal Gibson, Murray Gibson, Zoe Lambert, Joanne Lynes, Ann Newdigate, Michèle Provost, Ruth Scheuing, Carl Stewart and Barbara Todd.

Each of these artists employs fibre as a living language—transforming a traditionally domestic medium into a vehicle for protest, remembrance and radical expression.

Bob Boyer, Let the Acid Queen Rain: The White Goop Devours All!, 1985. Photography by Brandon Clarida Image Services. Courtesy of the artist.

At its core, Resistant Fibres is about reclaiming space and invites us to consider how creativity and resistance intersect.

In the softness of a stitched line or the tension of woven strands, there is power—sometimes quiet, sometimes defiant.

The exhibition honours the joy, sensuality, and shared experience that can be embodied through textile. In creating beauty, these artists are resisting erasure. In nurturing connection, they are rebuilding what has been lost or overlooked.

Resistant Fibres is curated by Julie Graff, a researcher, cultural worker and emerging curator based in Tiohtiá:ke (Montréal). With a PhD in art history and social anthropology, she is a postdoctoral researcher at the Laboratoire international de recherche sur l’imaginaire du Nord, de l’hiver et de l’Arctique. Since 2022, she has also served as Artistic Director of Maison MONA, a non-profit organization dedicated to the promotion of public art and heritage. Graff is an active contributor to both academic journals and contemporary art magazines such as Vie des arts and Espace art actuel.

The Âjagemô Exhibition Space is open daily from 7am to 9pm, and admission is free. Register for the opening event on June 17 or come back on June 18 to join the curator to learn about the exhibition. On June 18, bring your own materials to knit, bead, crochet, embroider—and connect with others to share skills and inspiration.

For more on the artists, the exhibition and the Art Bank, visit artbank.ca or find us on Instagram (@artbank_banquedart) and Facebook (@CCartbank).

Those interested in elevating their experience by listening and learning more about the works and artists featured in Resistant Fibres are encouraged to access the Art Bank Web app.

About the Canada Council Art Bank

The Canada Council Art Bank is the largest collection of contemporary Canadian art, with more than 17,000 works of art by 3,000 artists from across the country, including a significant number by Indigenous artists. Through its art rental, exhibitions and outreach activities, the Art Bank creates engaging workplaces, public spaces and communities that contribute to the visibility and vibrancy of contemporary art.

Canada Council Art Bank
921 St-Laurent Boulevard
Ottawa, Ontario, K1K 3B1
artbank.ca
artbank@canadacouncil.ca
613-566-4414, extension 4479

Facebook @CCartbank
Instagram @artbank_banquedart

Âjagemô Exhibition Space
150 Elgin Street
Ottawa, Ontario, K2P 1L4
canadacouncil.ca/about/ajagemo

The Canada Council’s offices, located in Ottawa, are on the unceded, unsurrendered territory of the Anishinaabe Algonquin Nation, whose presence here reaches back to time immemorial. Read the full statement.

Accessibility:
The Canada Council Âjagemô Exhibition Space is fully accessible. For more information, visit canadacouncil.ca/about/ajagemo.

Image descriptions:
1) An open book with the silhouette of a bust shown against an inside page and swirls of black cotton stitched into the page.
2) A blue felt blanket with colourful painted designs, including concentric pyramids under lightning.