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.
Living Room 2, 2014-2015 on display at South Puget Sound Community College Gallery, Olympia, WA. 16’ x 10’ x 9’, Thread/ Machine Embroidery
Floating Garden, 2011-2012. Produced with support of The Surface Design Association, The Ontario Arts Council and Maison des métiers d'art de Québec. 8' x 8' x 10'. Thread/ Machine Embroidery. Photograph by Cheryl Rondeau.
Chairs with chairs with chairs.This selection of Amanda McCavour's embroidered furniture is up at the The Theatre Centre Café/Bar in Toronto. Photographed by Bee Supply.
Neon Bloom, 2014-2015 on display at L’espace PierreDebian, Gatineau, QC.Thread/Machine Embroidery. 23’ x 34’ x 9’. Photographed by Amanda McCavour.
Click here to read the exhibition catalogue for Keepsake with Micah Adams and Amanda McCavour
