Iced Fishing
Fibre art installation with yarn, foam, ice. 2020
In her piece Iced Fishing, Lavoie employs her fiber art practice to reflect on feminist tradition and the environment. Tapping into Canadian folklore and combining materials and manual labour, she builds a fishing hut made out of ice. To give a feeling of comfort, warmth, and relaxation she decorates the interior of the shack with crochet made items and floor, making the hut cozy, as is the custom among fishers. Her work underlines the importance of expression and play, but at the same time she mines her medium’s politically charged connotations. She uses crocheting as both material and as a feminist tool to raise awareness about the contamination of waterways, rising temperatures, and increasing water levels. In the fabrication of this structure the artist ultimately pays homage to the irrepressible human will to make the best of situations, engaging with and enjoying nature even in less desirable weather.
Trisha Leigh Lavoie is an Acadian artist born in Moncton, New Brunswick, who currently resides in Hamilton. Her work is an intersection of fibre arts and installation, generally using crochet art objects as a primary source to recreate environments and create small narratives. Her work has been shown at Hamilton Artist Inc, Hundred Dollar Gallery, the Niagara Artist Centre and the Larry Spring Museum of Common Sense Physics. Lavoie has also been a participant and/or creator of performance based works in Vancouver, Toronto and Hamilton.