- ST-HENRI -
Juin 2014 - Octobre 2014
@ La Ruche D'art - St-Henri
St Henri Town Hall, Police and Fire Station, (1910?)
Collection Bibliotheque Nationale, Quebec |
History of the NeighbourhoodSt-Henri is a tiny neighbourhood on edge of the Sud-Ouest borrough of Montréal. The community dates back to 1685, when a tannery workshop was set up along the river. In 1825, the population was just 400 inhabitants, most of whom worked in the leather tanning industry. By 1874, the population had reached 2,500 and St-Henri was incorporated as a municipality. Its location between the rail yard and Lachine Canal made the neighbourhood ideal to manufacturers and the workers followed.
By 1905, the mostly working-class and migrant population had increased to 25,000. While the neighbourhood provided work opportunities in the factories, the environment fostered poor working conditions including long working hours and low wages, and the neighbourhood was ripe with exploitation of child labour. Many of the homes that house one family each today housed several families together at that time. The town merged with the city of Montréal municipality to help relieve the stress of such a densely populated area. The Great Depression hit St-Henri hard. Many of the factory workers lost their jobs as demand for textiles and manufactured goods fell. When the economy began to recover, many of the factories relocated to other regions, leaving a gapping hole in the community. The Lachine Canal was closed for shipping when the South Shore canal opened in 1959. |
Throughout the last couple of decades, cheap rent has drawn artists of all types to the neighbourhood. I found myself in St. Henri because of cheap rent. I had no connection to this neighbourhood other than a listing posted to craigslist. Within the first couple of weeks though, everything in my life was coming up serendipitous. Unknowingly, my cousin and her partner moved in across the street from where I was living; totally by chance I met a neighbour who was also heading to Cuba for the International Permaculture Convergence that fall; and while looking for free access to a sewing machine in the neighbourhood I stumbled upon the busting and vibrant community at La Ruche D'art St-Henri. It was like the Universe was sending me signs "This is where you are meant to be!"
In recent years, the main drags in St-Henri have become a scene of gentrification. Condos and swanky restaurants are popping up like wildflowers along the railroad tracks and the canal. New folks are moving in to the neighbourhood, leaving a rift between once established community and the new comers. So what better time to come together to create a colourful patchwork, bringing together new and old neighbours around art.
Quilted/Quartier St-Henri
The first Quilted/Quartier was assembled in my own neighbourhood of St-Henri. After to the neighbourhood in 2013, I found myself charting new ground as I wandered the veins of my new community - along the canal, the railroad tracks, the back alleyways, and the ruelle vertes, I came across La Ruche D'art - St Henri, where I began using the sewing machine to assemble family patchwork quilts.
This entire project began as a single collaboration with my neighbours and the participants at La Ruche D'art. As they saw me stitching my patchwork quilts, several folks asked me to teach them. I proposed that we assemble a community quilt together, as a first foray into patchwork. The process of assembling a quilt from start to finish can be long and tedious, why not make a first quilt all together, to share the work! I suggested that we make a map of the neighbourhood, something fun and inclusive that might inspire story-telling and help me get to know the geography and social history of my new neighbourhood a little better.
I drew the pattern free-hand and set out the invitation, not knowing exactly what kind of project I was about to embark upon. I divided the pieces by the streets and parks of our neighbourhood and pinned them to the wall in the art hive.
As I began to learn the geography and the history through this collective collaboration, I came to know St-Henri as home in a whole new way. And as the pieces began to pop up on the wall at La Ruche D'art, I was continually taken-away, so inspired by the visions of my neighbours.
As the months went by, the quilt pieces began to come together. Every contribution marks a memory of the neighbourhood: artisanal pop-cycles on a summer day sitting on the grass in front of the swimming pool; the streets we've danced along with our giant marionettes and musical instruments singing; the whispers of the ancestors of our neighbourhood who worked in the Tanneries and who lived in these apartments; the weeds growing between the pavement and the ripples expanding over the fountain in the park and the Lachine canal.
Some participants took the opportunity to learn a new skill (how to use the sewing machine for example) while others pushed the boundaries of what a map-quilt might look like, by employing their puppetry experience, cutting out the pocket of their leather jacket, adding tennis-ball-appliqué and other textures to bring this textile to life.
This entire project began as a single collaboration with my neighbours and the participants at La Ruche D'art. As they saw me stitching my patchwork quilts, several folks asked me to teach them. I proposed that we assemble a community quilt together, as a first foray into patchwork. The process of assembling a quilt from start to finish can be long and tedious, why not make a first quilt all together, to share the work! I suggested that we make a map of the neighbourhood, something fun and inclusive that might inspire story-telling and help me get to know the geography and social history of my new neighbourhood a little better.
I drew the pattern free-hand and set out the invitation, not knowing exactly what kind of project I was about to embark upon. I divided the pieces by the streets and parks of our neighbourhood and pinned them to the wall in the art hive.
As I began to learn the geography and the history through this collective collaboration, I came to know St-Henri as home in a whole new way. And as the pieces began to pop up on the wall at La Ruche D'art, I was continually taken-away, so inspired by the visions of my neighbours.
As the months went by, the quilt pieces began to come together. Every contribution marks a memory of the neighbourhood: artisanal pop-cycles on a summer day sitting on the grass in front of the swimming pool; the streets we've danced along with our giant marionettes and musical instruments singing; the whispers of the ancestors of our neighbourhood who worked in the Tanneries and who lived in these apartments; the weeds growing between the pavement and the ripples expanding over the fountain in the park and the Lachine canal.
Some participants took the opportunity to learn a new skill (how to use the sewing machine for example) while others pushed the boundaries of what a map-quilt might look like, by employing their puppetry experience, cutting out the pocket of their leather jacket, adding tennis-ball-appliqué and other textures to bring this textile to life.