Vol. 20 No. 2
Fall/Winter 2025-2026
This year brought a lot of changes — in connections, new opportunities, and a different way of seeing the world — and this in turn shifted our perspective in writing about craft. At Studio we are a small but mighty team, and are privileged to feature craft makers and writers.
Reverberating through everything was “noise” as a guiding theme for Studio, which was decided between former Editor-in-Chief Nehal El-Hadi and myself as our final collaboration with her at the helm, and with whom Studio has grown so much as a publication. With this theme, we wanted to delve into the material and aural aspects of craft, engaging with the lush soundscapes of making. Noise becomes a way of reflecting on sensory encounters and delineating space, how language and production can be provoked with sound.
The issue opens on the work of Ryth Kesselring, whose practice brings together textiles, ecology, and sound to evoke emotion and the power of memory in material. The article is written in French by journalist Claire-Marine Beha, host of the podcast series Sous la fibre, which features artists and makers through audio portraits.
We share the conversation in print between jamilah malika abu-bakare and Soledad Fátima Muñoz, whose practices were brought together through a pull that seemed inevitable, with both attending the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and whose practices engage family histories and lived experiences. The conversation, centred on Soledad’s ongoing textile-and-sound project Woven Memory, is a conduit in building community relationships, in that it shows and voices what has long been silent and suppressed through political terror. Within the ever-present tensions of our current moment, this conversation transforms noise into a wave of voices that join together in solidarity to effect change.
Ethnomusicologist Daniel Neill walks readers through the history of cymbal-making and the creative labour in how Philippe Gauthier-Boudreau makes bespoke cymbals. To transform blanks to instruments requires attention to detail in every aspect of making, from the patina to hammering to a resting period, to translate noise into a rich soundscape.
Cole Swanson’s relational practice explores ecology and more-than-human relationships that expands our understanding of the world, and the cost of materials and the labour associated with them. His use of sound in his installations acts as elegiac gestures, capturing the immersive world of more-than-human relationships.
In an essay exploring the unique lived experiences and approaches to storytelling through immigrant and racialized perspectives, Nehal El-Hadi’s words spark a conversation on the need for a new approach on how we think of craft and making.
Textiles are having a moment in the spotlight, but not every exhibition comes from a place with an informed craft perspective. We have the privilege of featuring a curatorial critique by Armando Perla on four recent textile exhibitions through a relational perspective, in a piece they call a “curatorial reckoning” and an “invitation to shift how we think.”
For Portfolio, we wanted to highlight four makers with different relationships to noise and sound. Michelle Sound uses the drum as a storyteller. Her practice approaches materials and techniques to transform the instrument from a medium to a powerful narrative. The textile and land practice of Katrina Craig evokes sound as a measure of time: the soundscape of the natural world, transcribed words, and textiles shifting and changing how we experience noise. Thierry André’s instrument-making practice, deep knowledge of how sound is transformed by the material it interacts with, and innovative forms explore guitars in new ways. Claire Anderson’s long history with glass emboldens her to push the boundaries of the medium in her sculptures and installations, making us reconsider our relationship to the soundscapes of high, clear notes of glass moving and shifting.
Our partnership with CONTEMPORANIA, a contemporary craft fair in Barcelona, Spain, features makers whose works are acting as ambassadors for Canadian craft. This partnership highlights Canadian makers on an international stage, with writing by Marie-Eve G. Castonguay, and sumptuous photography that is creating a buzz at home and abroad!
With this issue of Studio, we draw attention to the manifold waves that merge and connect Canadian makers, and the many approaches to craft practice that relay its vital importance to not only Canada, but the world.
Lera Kotsyuba, Interim Editor-in-Chief
CONTENTS:
Editor’s Note
RYTHÂ KESSELRING
La journaliste Claire-Marine Beha raconte comment l’artiste multidisciplinaire canado-suisse Ryth Kesselring fait converger le potentiel d’archive vivante du textile et la puissance évocatrice du son.
PERSISTENT OBJECTS
A conversation between artist, writer, and educator jamilah malika abu-bakare and artist and researcher Soledad Muñoz on the political memory work of objects.
THE JOURNEY: CANADIAN VOICES AT CONTEMPORANIA
Jewellery artist, curator, and writer Marie-Eve G. Castonguay highlights the incredible Canadian talent at CONTEMPORANIA Barcelona, taking place from October 2 to 4, 2025, at Palau de Pedralbes. Read Here.
COLE SWANSON: SOUNDSCAPES WITH MORE THAN HUMAN RELATIONS
Interim Editor-in-Chief Lera Kotsyuba examines the soundscapes and material possibilities in the installations of Cole Swanson.
FORM AND TIMBRE: THE CYMBALS OF PHILIPPE GAUTHIER-BOUDREAU
Ethnomusicologist and curator Daniel Neill gives us a glimpse of how cymbals are made.
THE CRAFTED POLITICAL
Journalist and contributing Studio editor Nehal El-Hadi explores politically engaged craft.
PORTFOLIO
Michelle Sound (Vancouver, British Columbia)
Thierry André (Saint-Jean-Port-Joli, Québec)
Katrina Craig (Winnipeg, Manitoba, on Treaty 1 Territory)
Claire Anderson (Vancouver, British Columbia)
UNRAVELLING THE CANON: TEXTILE EXHIBITIONS AND THE LIMITS OF INSTITUTIONAL IMAGINATION
Curator and museum consultant Armando Perla shares their relational curatorial approach through a critique of four exhibitions. Read Here.
