Producers of decorative domestic objects have long borrowed from across cultures and time to create their designs. Attentive to that history, Sukaina Kubba draws from various sources in her own textile-based practice, layering and experimenting with materials and motifs. In her solo exhibition, Not Soft by Nature, she oscillates between research and free-association, weaving together fragments from a range of textiles, including a family rug and multiple artefacts from the Permanent Collection of the Textile Museum of Canada.

In this event, the artist will walk through her exhibition with the Textile Museum’s Senior Curator, Roxane Shaughnessy. Together, they will reflect on the historical and contemporary threads that are alive in this exciting new work and the selection of artefacts on display from the museum. Telling stories and posing questions, Sukaina and Roxane will explore the artist’s approach to archival engagement and draw connections between the creation, care, and presentation of the objects belonging to the museum and those produced by Sukaina and her collaborators.

The talk will begin in the exhibition and conclude with continued conversation over tea and treats. Participants are invited to listen, learn, and share alongside our guests.

Seating will be provided.

This event is free and open to everyone. If there are ways we can support your participation, please contact Hannah at [email protected]. Please register for this event here.

Sukaina Kubba is an Iraqi Toronto-based artist whose work is rooted in material and cultural research, material experimentation, storytelling and drawing connections. Kubba has exhibited at Oakville Galleries, Carleton University Art Gallery, Ottawa, Western Exhibitions, Chicago and Patel Brown, Montreal. In Toronto she has shown work at Venus Festival, two seven two gallery, Patel Brown, Greater Toronto Art Triennial at MOCA , Mercer Union SPACE Billboard Commission, the plumb, The Next Contemporary, Art Gallery of Ontario, and Aga Khan Museum. She has also exhibited in Scotland at Dundee Contemporary Arts, Centre for Contemporary Art, Glasgow, Glasgow International and Kendall Koppe, Glasgow.  Kubba has attended residencies at the International Studio and Curatorial Program, New York and La Wayaka Current, Chile. She is a sessional lecturer in Visual Studies at the University of Toronto, and was previously a curator and lecturer at The Glasgow School of Art.

Roxane Shaughnessy, Senior Curator and Manager of Collection at the Textile Museum of Canada, leads the strategic development and advancement of the Museum’s permanent collection of over 15,000 textiles, and promotes public access and engagement, both digitally and through a community-focused approach to object display.  She has over twenty years of experience curating exhibitions from the collection, including Printed Textiles from Kinngait (Cape Dorset) Studios (2019) whichwonthe 2021 Governor General’s History Award for Excellence in Museums. She is the project lead on the articulation of the Museum’s Collection Development Strategic Plan, developed with a commitment to Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion and centered on community consultation. She holds a Master of Arts in Anthropology.