Exploring place and time: where fashion and art collide

Fashion professors Colleen Schindler and Grahame Lynch have dedicated their lives to contributing culturally by making art and are making waves with their newest solo exhibitions currently on display at Gallery Stratford (external link) . Rooted in their respective interdisciplinary approaches, their newest bodies of work exemplify the path to finding one’s purpose while also bringing new meaning to place, time and space. With artist residencies in Canada, France and Ireland, both professors have received international praise for their work. 

Permission to be still, by Colleen Schindler 

Schindler is an award-winning contemporary interdisciplinary artist who explores themes surrounding memory, identity, place, and time, and combines the disciplines of drawing, textile-based media, and photography.

The inspiration behind Schindler’s Permission to be still series came about while doing her artist’s residency in France and continued residencies in Canada and Ireland. Allowing the natural and built form of her surroundings to inform her work, Schindler’s paintings are reminiscent of her experience nestled away in these places on sabbatical. Objects that at first glance might seem mundane, like peeling wallpaper, stained rugs or lichen on rocks, are used as inspiration to remind viewers to take time to appreciate their place in time and space.

“These drawings represent intentionally taking time to be in one’s place — to push out the business of our lives and just be still ­— and to notice that which is usually unnoticed,” states Schindler. “This work is about allowing oneself to be slow.”

Of breath and water, by Grahame Lynch

Lynch is a multi-disciplinary artist whose body of work is rooted in lifelong conditions of visual disability. His work often encourages audiences to engage in ways that challenge their own visual and spatial perceptions, as well as their emotional connections to sight.

Lynch presents a compelling series of self-portraits and fragmented depictions of waves and stormy skies. Rooted in his experiences of visual disability, Lynch's work explores themes of internal dialogue, chaos, and resilience. Through innovative photographic processes and collage-based methods, he creates images that challenge traditional perceptions of time and space, inviting viewers to reconsider their emotional connections to sight.

Interested in seeing both series in person? Catch Permission to be still and Of breath and water at Gallery Stratford (external link)  until June 9, 2024.

The Creative School at Toronto Metropolitan University

The Creative School is a dynamic faculty that is making a difference in new, unexplored ways. Made up of Canada’s top professional schools and transdisciplinary hubs in media, communication, design and cultural industries, The Creative School offers students an unparalleled global experience in the heart of downtown Toronto.