A Beaded Universe

×

Expand

Margaret Nazon, ”Saturn” (detail), no date

beadwork on canvas, 29″ x 26″ (photo courtesy Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre, Yellowknife)

When we witness excellent artistry or craftsmanship, it can leave us astonished. We shake our heads in amazement and conclude that perhaps it is not brains that live in the fingertips of craftspeople but tiny gods. Yet as craft theorist Glenn Adamson wrote in 2010, skill is useless in its own right. It is best, he said, “when it gets people talking and puts things on the move.”

To say that Margaret Nazon’s beadwork moves is an understatement. Her freeform creations, on view at the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre in Yellowknife until May, pull heaven and earth together.

Nazon became fascinated with astronomy after seeing NASA images on the Internet. She has been making beaded imagery based on outer space since 2009 – spectacular nebulas, auroras and constellations, influenced by images from the Hubble Space Telescope. Each piece involves thousands of beads stitched onto black velvet or another fabric, often so layered the work becomes three-dimensional. The result is luxuriant: outer space as a shimmering, velvet-lined jewelry box.

×

1 of 2

Expand

Margaret Nazon, "Milky Way Spiral Galaxy" (detail), no date

beadwork on velvet, 23" x 25.5" (photo courtesy Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre, Yellowknife)

×

2 of 2

Expand

Margaret Nazon, "Milky Way Spiral Galaxy" (detail), no date

beadwork on velvet, 23" x 25.5" (photo courtesy Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre, Yellowknife)

Prev

Next

In Milky Way Spiral Galaxy, ladders of yellow, pink and grey beads spin out and away from a circular section of caribou bone. Gas, clusters and dust-clouds are rendered in a kind of pointillism, as sprays of single translucent beads. When viewed from a distance, Tarantula Nebula stretches its legs and feelers into the far corners of the composition. Up close, its structure is revealed as a densely woven lattice. Both views delight the eye.

×

1 of 2

Expand

Margaret Nazon, "Tarantula Nebula" (detail), no date

beadwork on velvet, 8" x 10" (photo courtesy Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre, Yellowknife)

×

2 of 2

Expand

Margaret Nazon, "Old Star Gives Up Ghost" (detail), no date

beadwork on velvet, 14" x 14" (photo courtesy Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre, Yellowknife)

Prev

Next

All Nazon’s pieces have that tension between near and far. It’s unavoidable, really, when unfathomable light years of space are evoked in a medium parsed in millimetres. A less obvious facet of Nazon’s work is the role of place. Nazon is from Tsiigehtchic, Northwest Territories, where the sky feels closer. Many constellations and auroras dance directly overhead. Tsiigehtchic, a primarily Gwich’in community of roughly 180 people, sits at the confluence of the Mackenzie and Arctic Red rivers south of Inuvik, a small speck on the map of a vast territory. In this context, Nazon’s work becomes a call from one remote place to another.

×

Expand

Margaret Nazon, "Mask Galaxy" (detail), no date

beadwork on velvet, 29" x 22" (photo courtesy Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre, Yellowknife)

Her community has many talented beaders, but Nazon stands out for her willingness to experiment. She was taught traditional craft by her mother, and also picked up sewing skills at residential school. “I have always been interested in learning new art forms and techniques,” she says. “I like connecting a traditional medium to new concepts.”

In the first-person narrative that accompanies her show, Beaded Universe, Nazon describes how each work reminds her of something – her first dog, a mask she once wore to a ball, or the fur that rims the hood of a woman’s parka. In her mind’s eye, she is casting an infinite light on daily life, rendering it as magnificent as Saturn. ■

Beaded Universe is on view until May 2018.