For Keeps: a mending show

presented by City of Craft 2010 in conjunction with The Toronto Craft
Alert and Worn Fashion Journal

curated by Jen Anisef and Marsya Maharani

with photography by Danijela Pruginic.

Celebrating the beauty in the everyday things we care enough to fix.

Mended works and contributions by Serene Daoud, Becky Johnson, Leah Buckareff, Angela
Turner, Jacqueline Lawson, Mary Kroetsch, Alison L. Pearce and Grant
Heaps.

Exhibit runs December 9th to December 21st, 2010

Opening event Thursday, December 9th
7-9pm mending circle: bring your clothes in need of fixing and learn
new methods of mending
10pm performance by L-CON
DJ Teddy the K all night

Cream Tangerine Gallery 
1087 Queen St W (at The Great Hall @ Queen & Dovercourt)
Toronto, ON

Everyone’s got something they can’t throw away. Sometimes the “why” is obvious – it’s an heirloom or a collectible – but sometimes it’s not clear at all. Maybe you keep stitching up the thumb on your grubby mittens or gluing the handle back on your dollar store mug. For one reason or another you’ve become attached…

For Keeps is an exhibition of ordinary objects made extraordinary by the efforts their owners have made to recognize, save, store, and repair – and our own desire to assign value and meaning in a disposable society. Some of the objects contributed include a 1920s Palestinian dress, ripped open for an emergency delivery (and subsequently restitched), and a pair of  decaying teddy bear passed down and loved through generations. Oh, and socks.

But it’s not just about pondering the void and our own finite destiny… The opening reception features a mending circle from 7-9pm. Now’s your chance to deal with that broken garment and can’t figure out how to fix (facilitators and fabric mending supplies provided on site), plus sweet vocals and stand up bass by L-CON at 10pm. All night there’ll be a dj, too (so if the thing you fixed was a can, you can shake it).