May 28 to July 11, 2026
List of available works coming soon
Mylène Michaud
Heather Shillinglaw
Martine Bertrand
The exhibition Retracing Territories brings together the work of three textile artists who expand the definition of territory. For each artist, the act of constructing a territory begins with situating themselves in relation to cultural, geographical, historical or metaphorical spaces. Their territories are constructed thread by thread, moving across fabric, hide, paper, and cardboard making space for their vision, memories and imagination.
Heather Shillinglaw’s work, Amiskwaci Sâkahikan [Beaver Hills Lake] was created in dialogue with scientists to trace the ancient outline of lakes in the artist’s ancestral territory, the size of which has been reduced due to oil sand extraction. With thread and ribbon Shillinglaw makes visible the lost creeks and rivers of this watershed that were formerly territories for nesting geese and ducks. The lines trace the paths her elders used when gathering goose and duck eggs. Using caribou hide, stitching, and upcycled textiles Shillinglaw creates a territory formed of scientific and ancestral knowledge.
Mylène Michaud positions her perspective high above geographical landscapes through the use of satellite images. She is interested in artisanal techniques, their mechanization and their transposition into today's technological universe. Exploring the transfer of data from virtual to material form, Michaud combines computer image processing, jacquard knitting and quilting techniques to create large knitted fabrics based on satellite images of the territory captured on the Web. Her research brings into play the relationship between pixel and image, yarn and fabric, unity and ensemble. Through her work, a language is developed in which tradition and modernity meet.
Martine Bertrand creates mixed media work using embroidery, weaving, and collage—these pieces take the form of aerial views, becoming imaginary cartographies and territories. Drawing from urban landscapes, architecture, atmospheres, and encounters, she constructs mental and sensory territories where reality is reshaped through intuition and memory. Thread becomes a line of thought, an intimate path, a trace of a lived and dreamed experience.
Opening : Thursday May 28 at 5:30 p.m.
Biography
Textile artist Mylène Michaud (Quebec City, QC) is interested in fibres for their strong historical and symbolic charge, but more specifically for their singular materiality. She completed a BFA at Université Laval (Quebec City, QC) and a specialization in textiles at Cégep Limoilou (Quebec City, QC). In her work, she combines computer image processing, jacquard knitting, and quilting techniques to create large knitted fabrics based on satellite images. Although she uses ancestral techniques such as quilting, her subjects remain quite modern, usually referring to the various technological changes happening in the world. Mylène Michaud exhibited her work in several group and solo exhibitions throughout the province, including Centre MATERIA (Quebec City, QC).
Heather Shillinglaw is a visual artist from the Cold Lake First Nations, in Alberta and a graduate of the Alberta College of Art and Design. She is of Newyhin (Cree), Dene (Chipewyan), Saulteaux/Ojibwe and European (Scottish and French) descent. Her practice explores territory and ancestral practices of the First Peoples of Mihkinâk - Turtle Island - and revolves around the themes of environmental protection, nature’s healing power, knowledge of medicinal plants and the importance of Women in the perpetuation of these knowledge. Shillinglaw grounds her practice in Indigenous knowledge tied to the land, medicinal plants, and matrilineal transmission.
Her work is now part of many prestigious governmental and private collections, such as the TD Bank (Edmonton), the Toronto Canadian Native Arts Foundation and the Buenos Aires’ Canadian embassy. Her work has been presented in solo and group exhibitions in Canada, Europe, and South America and she has many pieces of public artwork in her portfolio.
Recognized for her rich and varied career in both visual arts and costume design, Martine Bertrand has developed a practice that weaves together memory, material, and imagination. Her work unfolds in a constant dialogue between manual gesture, texture, and the materiality of textiles, giving rise to abstract and distinctive compositions.
All while continuing her personal artistic production, Martine Bertrand creates for the cinema industry. She notably worked with Denis Villeneuve for whom she created the visual language of the extraterrestrials in the movie Arrival, as well as murals and decorative elements of the sets of the movies Dune and Dune: Part Two. Her work has been the subject of solo exhibitions in Montreal and Toronto. She also participated in the collective exhibition Designs for Different Futures presented at the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. Her works are part of public and private collections including the Bibliothèque et Archives Nationales du Québec, the city of Longueuil and the Sun Life collection.