Curated by sculptor and curator Zoë Schneider, the exhibition Scutelliphily explores the popularity and meaning of artist-made patches. Patches, machine-made and hand-made, are seeing resurgence in youth culture, connecting wearers and makers through pop-culture, politics, activism and DIY culture.

Artists from Alberta, Manitoba, Nova Scotia, and Saskatchewan are participating in this group exhibition which includes beadwork, embroidery, felting, and silkscreen techniques. Patches are textural and symbolic objects. The making of patches through embroidery and other domestic textile techniques draws on and adds to the history of Craftivism: a political art movement focused on anti-capitalism, environmentalism and feminism.

“A patch has a rich history and can cover a wide variety of subjects, as well as being rooted in craft and fibre based technologies. Patches have served as an assertion of political alliance, aesthetic adornment, an ode to pop-culture, music promotion, branding, craftivism, etc.” ~ Curator Zoe Schneider

Listen to Curator Zoë Schneider speak about the exhibition on Un-framed Radio on CFCR.

When an artist makes a patch, what happens to the value of that object? A wearable object, moved into the institution and off of the body, changes it: the object becomes a discussion, a long-standing conversation on art, craft and commerce.