Folk Costume Fashion traces the story of my mother’s folk costume and her journey to meet family in Finland and Sweden. Her trip started at Vancouver’s Pacific Central Station on Main Street, a building that has marked important arrivals and departures in my family’s history. My mother’s folk costume carries with it stories, memories and strong ties to the past.
The value of a garment like hers can be measured by how long it has lasted, its handcrafted construction and the number of people who have owned and worn it. It is my hope that the video Folk Costume Fashion will call attention to the beauty and detail of Nordic folk costumes as well as honour the women who, through making and wearing them, continue a colourful, vibrant tradition.
Credits
Created during grunt gallery’s 2020 Mount Pleasant Community Art Screen Digital Storytelling workshops with Mount Pleasant residents. grunt gallery was founded in 1984 in Vancouver, BC with the vision to become an internationally renowned artist-run centre and further the practice of contemporary art. Through the exploration of our diverse Canadian cultural identity, we are able to offer public programming in the form of exhibitions, performances, artist talks, publications, and other special projects in the community. Our mandate is to inspire public dialogue by creating an environment conducive to the emergence of innovative, collaborative, and provocative contemporary art.
We gratefully acknowledge that we live and work on the unceded, traditional territories of the Coast Salish peoples sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), sel̓íl̓witulh (Tsleil-Waututh), and xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) nations.