13 January—12 February 1994

Neil MacInnis

Main Gallery:

Montreal artist Neil MacInnis seeks to reactivate the form of textiles as a means to provide a social context in which communities may express their identities and tell their stories. MacInnis' textile works serves as one of those voices, relating the people's story of sturggle, journey, and realization. He attempts to deconstruct and reconstitute process and contexts that are often socially expected in the structural execution and surface design of textiles. He embraces the production of new textilesgenerated in both old and contemporary technological circumstances in an effort to emulate those social traditions that value the gift of sharing in contrast to the privilege of owning.

MacInnis' installation +/- consists of an interlacing ribbon of fabric that extends to the outer perimeters of the gallery. The network of cloth consists of alternating squares of computer-aided, hadwoven cloth with a repeating and high stylized graphic representation of an HIV-infected blood cell and a commercially produced brocade fabric of a decorative floral motif. In a layout reminiscent of CEltic patterning, the cloth intertwines around two large central images delicately drawn in graphite on lilac-dyed bed sheets. One represents a highly decorative Victorian floral ornament, the other is a representation of a microscopic image of the RNA coding of an infected cell. Twelve panels of altering tartans designed and woven by MacInnis title Queer Basing and Gay Nineties propose a reclaiming and redefining of the notion of "family" or "community."