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The Love that Remains brings together three Toronto-based artists whose contemporary textile practices recover matrilineal histories of displacement and belonging. Par Nair, Julie Gladstone, and Carol Ann Apilado revitalize ancestral practices to reconnect with their families, genealogies, and homelands. They seek to reconcile with the loss, trauma, and grief tied to their histories in the South Indian, Sephardic, and Filipino diasporic communities respectively. The artists’ acts of weaving, embroidery, and knitting evoke how fabric has served as a material for survival, protection, and resilience. They bring attention to the female labour and creative expressions of their ancestors who endured displacement and/or exile across generations and in different geographical contexts. The artists’ works invite us to develop a deeper understanding of the role and history of women’s cultural work as weavers, embroiderers, and knitters.

Par Nair is an artist of South Indian descent who hand-embroiders letters of affection and melancholia into her mother’s sarees, worn by past generations of women in her family. With respect for her matrilineal ancestors exiled from Spain in 1492, Julie Gladstone creates fabric works and digital videos inspired by Jewish mystical teachings, lullabies and ceremonial textiles. Carol Ann Apilado is a self-taught weaver who creates handwoven installations to reconnect with the textile practices and Ilokano beliefs of her Filipino ancestors. Through intimate and intensive processes, these three artists develop textiles to heal ancestral trauma and carry forward these techniques to the next generation. 

This exhibition is produced as part of the requirements for the MVS degree in Curatorial Studies at the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design, University of Toronto.

Exhibition Resources
Press Release
Exhibition Brochure

Opening Reception: Summer 2024 Exhibitions
Wednesday, May 1, 6pm–8pm
University of Toronto Art Centre

Curatorial Tour with Samantha Lance
Saturday, May 11, 2pm–3pm
University of Toronto Art Centre

Threading Through Time: In Conversation with Par Nair, Julie Gladstone, and Carol Ann Apilado
Saturday, May 25, 2pm–3pm
University of Toronto Art Centre
Register on Eventbrite

Our Supporters
We gratefully acknowledge the additional project support from the Reesa Greenberg Curatorial Studies Award and International Travel Fund.