S/S 2024 (Spring-Summer 2024) is one half of a series of audio and textile installation-performance works that are inspired by seasonal colour predictions for the spring-summer and autumn-winter seasons.

Silk and cellulose threads are natural-dyed according to the seasonal colours of vegetation observed and photographed at a logging cut near the artist’s home in xwesam/Roberts Creek. The fabric covering the speakers is based on colour predictions made by Premiere Vision, a French textile trend forecaster. The speakers play texts written and performed by the artist, alongside audio collected between their childhood home near Burnaby Mountain and the logging cut.

The installation will be shown in-process at different events throughout the spring and summer, with the colour palette evolving in parallel to the seasonal vegetation. Each presentation includes collaboration with local artists. The current installation features calligraphy by artist and composer Martin Reisle.

Other Events by Barbara Adler

S/S 2024, Artist Talk with Barbara Adler: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/ss-2024-artist-talk-with-barbara-adler-tickets-609073052897

S/S 2024, Process Design, Hyperbolic Crochet Workshop: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/process-design-hyperbolic-crochet-workshop-with-barbara-adler-tickets-615306898497

ARTIST BIO’S

Barbara Adler is an interdisciplinary artist and performer, whose practice incorporates text, music, event making and design. She lives in xwesam, colonially known as Roberts Creek, on the unceded territories of the shíshálh and Skwxwu7mesh Nations. Adler’s recent projects use intricate textile objects to reorganize work around relational time and seasonal cycles, drawing parallels between human exhaustion and environmental precarity. She is the owner of an old horse named ‘Monet’, who has taught her a few things, but mainly this: in early May, clear days are a currency beyond any other. She holds an MFA in Interdisciplinary Studies and a BA in Art and Cultural Studies, both from Simon Fraser University.

Martin Reisle makes musics and messes; often they are indifferentiable. Problems no one has ever heard of and solutions no one else needs. Warm hearts, wool work, indian ink trails and oak trees. Cloud Scaffolding, joyful disasterpieces, and spells for freedom. Go make something beautiful; go make beautiful something new! Martin lives in Vancouver B.C, and practices Calligraphy and Music in equal measure.

ARTIST’S STATEMENT

Spring-Summer 2024 project is structured as an endless goal-setting exercise, where I use slow craft methods to meet deadlines inspired by seasonal colour predictions. For this installation, I would start work in January 2023 with the goal of matching colour forecasts for early May 2023, when the festival is on. The installation is the first public stage in a longer process leading to a performance in spring-summer 2024 (as referenced in the title).

The colour predictions I use have two contrasting sources: the natural world and the mass fashion industry. The crochet will be based on the spring/summer colours of vegetation I’ve observed and photographed at a logging cut near my home in xwesem, colonially known as Roberts Creek. The fabrics I use to cover the speakers and rocking chair will be based on colour predictions made by Premiere Vision, a French textile trend forecasting company.

It takes me 300+ hours of work to create the crochet to cover a small set of speakers, and home sewing takes additional time. The idea behind this extremely labour-intensive process is to capture the demand for constant productivity that drives contemporary work, especially in the arts. I want to evoke the feeling of always running behind in our schedules and goals. I also want to consider contrasting rhythms of work: the growth and decay of vegetation, slow craft and artistic creation, and industrial/commercial production. Through these contrasts, I invite the public to consider how an extractive, production-focused attitude to human and more-than-human labour is a core driver of climate change.