Stitched Sculptural Installations of Everyday Objects and Gestures by Amanda McCavour

Toronto-based textile artist Amanda McCavour uses thread and a sewing machine to construct sculptural installations that dance between two and three dimensions. McCavour stitches on a special fabric that dissolves in water to create the surfaces of thread. Through renderings of objects like sofas, kitchen tables, and backpacks, as well as arms and hands engaged in work, she explores connections to home and the fibers of the body. In an artist statement McCavor states she is interested “in thread’s assumed vulnerability, its ability to unravel, and its strength when it is sewn together.”

Amanda McCavour is a Toronto-based artist who works with stitch to create large-scale embroidered installations. She is interested in thread’s assumed vulnerability, its ability to unravel, and its strength when it is sewn together.

McCavour uses a sewing machine to create thread drawings and installations. By sewing into fabric that dissolves in water, she can build up stitched lines on a temporary surface. The crossing threads create strength so that when the fabric is dissolved, the thread drawing can hold together without a base. With only the thread remaining, these images appear as though they would be easily unraveled and seemingly on the verge of falling apart, despite the works raveled strength.

Through an exploration of line and its 2-d and 3-d implications, stitch is used in her artwork to explore various concepts such as connections to home, the fibers of the body and more formal considerations of thread’s accumulative presence. Amanda’s work explores embroidery’s duality- it’s subtle quality versus it’s accumulative
presence and its structural possibilities versus its fragility. Through experimentation and creation within her studio, she continues to investigate line in the context of embroidery, drawing and installation.

McCavour holds a BFA from York University where she studied drawing and installation and has recently completed her MFA in Fibers and Material Studies at Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia, PA. McCavour shows her work in galleries nationally and internationally with recent solo exhibitions in Gatineau (QB), Williamsport (PA) and Vancouver (BC). She has received awards and scholarships from the Ontario Crafts Council, The Handweavers and Spinners Guild of America, The Ontario Crafts Council, The Ontario Society of Artists, The Surface Design Association and The Embroiderers Guild of America for her work.

McCavour holds an MFA from the Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia, and she exhibits widely. Currently, her Floating Garden installation is on display at the Cornell Art Museum in Florida as part of their Flora exhibition, which opens today, March 30th, and is on view through September 9, 2018. Flora also includes Tiffanie Turner, and Miya Ando. You can see more of McCavour’s work on her Facebook page and via Instagram.