Canada Council Art Bank

The Art Bank collection holds over 150 fibre pieces, which have been in high demand with clients of both the art rental and the loan programs. Today, we shine the spotlight on Kaija Sanelma Harris, a Finnish-born textile artist who emigrated to Saskatoon in 1973 and whose continued exploration and experimentation in weaving is being recognized by collaborative exhibitions at the Remai Modern and the Saskatchewan Craft Council (SCC).

The SCC’s exhibition highlights the creative, personal and technical shifts in Harris’ extraordinary work, while the Remai Modern’s exhibition will situate her work within the context of visual art history and include three works of art on loan from the Art Bank collection. Together, these exhibitions tell the story of one of Canada’s most important textile artists.

Kaija Sanelma Harris, Wild Goose Chase No. 3 (1992)

Below, Michelle Jacques, the curator of Warp and Weft at the Remai Modern, reveals more about the artist’s process and what visitors can see and do in the exhibition space.

Can you tell us a bit about one of the works of art that the Remai Modern borrowed from the Art Bank collection and why you wanted to include it in this exhibition?

The Art Bank has collected some wonderful works by Harris. I was particularly excited to bring Counterpoint II – Winter Morning (1982) to Remai Modern, where we have in our collection Counterpoint I (1982), a work from the same series. Harris was immediately impressed by her surroundings upon her arrival in Saskatoon and began working to develop techniques for incorporating the colours, light and textures from her environment into her work. At first, she did so by hand-sewing together separate pieces of tapestry, but she found this tedious. In search of a more efficient method to create dimension, by the 1980s she was creating relief directly on the loom and had developed a double-weaving technique that allowed her to produce multiple layers of textile simultaneously. The Counterpoint works were crafted using this process, showcasing the technique’s potential for creating stunning, dimensional landscapes.

Kaija Sanelma Harris, Counterpoint II – Winter Morning (1982)

You recently won the Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Arts for your contribution to the arts. In your GGArts video portrait, you talk about how you work at making the museum more accessible and a place of connection for all people. Can you talk about how you do that in the context of the Warp and Weft exhibition?

Harris’s work starts at a place of accessibility and relevance. It navigates the distinction between craft made for the domestic setting and visual art made for the gallery space, helping us realize that we are often surrounded at home by many of the elements of abstraction, i.e., line, colour, form. That said, there have been efforts made in the exhibition to invite connection. The artist’s biography unfolds through a series of interpretive texts and extended labels. There is also a rare opportunity to hear the artist’s own voice and listen to her talk about her work in a Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity radio interview from the 1980s. There are vitrines that contain archival materials that invite us into the details of the artist’s working life, and weaving samples are displayed on a “touch table,” so that we can not only view, but also feel the structure of Harris’s textiles.

When and where?

Warp and Weft runs from September 28, 2024, to March 9, 2025, at the Remai Modern, and the accompanying exhibition at the Saskatchewan Craft Council runs from October 12, 2024, to February 8, 2025. Both are located in Saskatoon. Are you interested in having a work by Kaija Sanelma Harris displayed in your office? Get in touch with the Art Bank team!