CrossCraft Pattern Systems

Exhibition Details

CrossCraft Pattern Systems is a research-creation project that explores how traditional craft techniques can be transformed into new visual and structural pattern systems in contemporary design. The exhibition presents a series of tufted rugs, each displayed alongside a handmade craft reference piece such as a quilt block or a macramé panel. By pairing these objects, the exhibition shows how the logic within each craft practice can be carried across materials and reinterpreted in another form.

At the core of the project is the idea that traditional crafts contain their own systems of repetition, structure, and pattern-making. Each rug in the series draws from the key elements of a specific craft, abstracting those foundations into a bold, graphic textile. When visitors compare the rug to its reference piece, they can clearly see how the design grows out of the underlying craft techniques. This offers an accessible introduction to craft processes and a way to understand how making can serve as a method of inquiry.

This is a collaborative project involving researchers and makers from four academic institutions in Ontario and Alberta. The team includes faculty members, researchers, and a graduate student, each with their own craft practice.

• Steven Pong, School of Industrial Design, Carleton University; KITE Research Institute, Toronto Rehabilitation Institute, University Health Network
• Jennifer Hohnson, Department of Family Medicine, McMaster University
• Iris Levine, KITE Research Institute, Toronto Rehabilitation Institute, University Health Network
• Jennifer Marvin, McLaughlin Library, University of Guelph
• Mackenzie Wallich, Schulich School of Engineering, University of Calgary

Organized in conjunction with Libraries and Cultural Resources, University of Calgary.

Join Stephen Pong for his Nickle at Noon presentation, CrossCraft Pattern Systems, October 29, 12:00pm. More info here

*On display on the 5th floor, north end, Taylor Family Digital Library*