BRENNA MAAG: "Observation of Wonder," To June 30, The Reach Gallery Museum, Abbotsford

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"Taxonomy (detail)"

Brenna Maag, "Taxonomy (detail)," 2004-2008, cyanotypes on rag paper, each 22” x 15”.

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"Conservatory (detail)"

Brenna Maag, "Conservatory (detail)," 2004-2008, doilies, cotton fabric, thread, spray adhesive, steel, screws, bolts and magnets, 9’ x 16’ x 16’.

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"Taxonomy (detail)"

Brenna Maag, "Taxonomy (detail)," 2004-2008, cyanotype on rag paper, 22” x 15”.

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4 of 5

Expand

"Taxonomy (detail)"

Brenna Maag, "Taxonomy (detail)," 2004-2008, cyanotype on rag paper, 22” x 15”.

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5 of 5

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"Conservatory (detail)"

Brenna Maag, "Conservatory (detail)," 2004-2008, doilies, cotton fabric, thread, spray adhesive, steel, screws, bolts and magnets, 9’ x 16’ x 16’.

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BRENNA MAAG

BRITISH COLUMBIA: Observation of Wonder, To June 30, The Reach Gallery Museum, Abbotsford

By Janet Nicol

When Brenna Maag was browsing in thrift shops a few years ago, she noticed crocheted doilies at rock-bottom prices. “In one display case, the doilies had been lovingly stacked,” she says. “But they didn’t seem to be popular items anymore.” Still, she thought how women must have enjoyed making these elaborate textiles using a hook and one continuous thread and also how the products of their creativity had been abandoned. She started buying doilies at 50 cents to $1.50 each. “I wanted to honour women who made them and their beauty and complexity – their patterns and their mathematical details.”

She knew installation was the right form, but after trying one idea that didn’t work, she put away the doilies and did another project about nature. That project let Maag, a graduate of the Emily Carr University of Art and Design in Vancouver, think about diversity and patterns in the natural world. She remembered the doilies and took another look at her collection. Four years later, she had created a two-part installation, which she showed at the Richmond Art Gallery.

One component, Conservatory, invites viewers inside a nine-foot-high dome made with a collapsible steel frame. Maag glued doilies to fabric panels and attached the panels to the frame with magnets. Viewers can see the intricate designs of more than 700 doilies, illuminated by exterior lights, and contemplate the relationship between human creativity and the phenomenal diversity of nature. Domes can be sacred places, Maag says, and are also like a scientific observatory. “I am conserving the doilies, so the name Conservatory came to mind.”

The second component, Taxonomy consists of 146 doilies captured in cyanotype prints. Each print is named and installed on the gallery wall. Maag’s method is loosely based on principles of taxonomy, the scientific hierarchy used to order plants and animals. Her invented categories and two-part Latin names for each doily are based on their patterns of stars, flowers and spirals. “It gives an opportunity to look at women’s work in different ways,” Maag says. “Science carries weight. It’s legitimate.” Her use of cyanotypes, an early photo-based technique, also fits with her themes as the process was used in the 1840s by British botanist Anna Atkins to illustrate plant specimens.

Maag, who lives in the Fraser Valley, says women’s textile work has always involved mathematical complexities, although some patterns may have developed through intuition. “It’s as though they are subconsciously creating patterns that turn out to be an atomic symbol,” she says. Indeed, Maag wants to encourage a sense of contemplative awe in the face of the humble doily. “I hope people see the wonder and slow down. There’s lots of wonder to observe out there.”