Grenville + Fille (Bruce Grenville and Alice Mackenzie)

Ann Newdigate, Sentences: Fanakalo and the Vanishing Signs, 1993. Cotton warp, Mixed Media, weft: silk, linen, cotton, wool, synthetic blends 167.64 x 137.15 cm and Ann Newdigate, Sentences: She had never touched a camera before, 1986. Cotton warp. Mixed media, weft: silk, linen, wool, synthetic blends 198.12 x 198.12 cm. Photography by Byron Dauncey.

Bruce Grenville is a researcher and art consultant based in Vancouver. Together with Alice MacKenzie he formed the art consultancy Grenville + Fille in 2023. Prior to that he spent 30+ years as a senior curator at Vancouver Art Gallery, the Edmonton Art Gallery, and the Mendel Art Gallery, Saskatoon. Alice MacKenzie is an art consultant, multi-disciplinary artist, and co-founder of BAD ART, a radical approach to creativity and accessibility.

Grenville notes, “The goal of our residency is to support research and documentation of the art and practice of Ann Newdigate (b. 1934, Makhanda, South Africa; d. 2023, Hornby Island, Canada). The study of artistic legacies is a crucial curatorial activity with the goal of documenting and preserving the complexity and diversity of artistic production across a lifetime in all cultures. Newdigate was recognized for her large and small tapestry works, mixed media installations and works on paper. Her art resonates deeply with themes such as anti-apartheid histories, the global impact of colonialism, the emergence of second wave feminism, the persistence of regionalist voices, and the significance of material practices and aesthetics.”

Ann Newdigate “…spent her life between worlds – born in Makhanda, South Africa in 1934 to a settler family that had originally arrived one hundred years earlier with the 1820 Settlers scheme (a British government program of mass settlement intended to strengthen the eastern frontier of the Cape Colony).” She received a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature and African Studies at the University of Cape Town in 1964 and worked for the Progressive Party, “the legal opposition to Apartheid within the all-white government of South Africa, until the ruling government’s political suppression of all opposition to the apartheid system made life untenable.” The family moved to Canada in 1966.

Newdigate began visual art studies at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon, majoring in painting and receiving a BFA in 1975. Grenville + Fille note, “At the time, the universities in Saskatoon and Regina were strongholds of formalist abstract painting, and Newdigate whose early interest in art while in Cape Town was excited by the emotional potential of German Expressionist painting, printmaking and sculpture, was compelled to focus strictly on form and style. Following her BFA, Newdigate became interested in the formal qualities of woven cloth, and taught herself to weave in the Navajo method.

“This was supplemented with a study of tribal kilim rugs and ancient textiles [and] post graduate year studying tapestry at the Edinburgh College of Art in the early 1980s…she completed an MFA in 1986.

“Newdigate maintained an active and rigorous practice in Saskatoon from the mid-1970s until 1999 [and] explored the boundaries of tapestry, at some times considering new uses for yarns and threads, at others exploring the intricate and long standing relationship between tapestry and digital media. At its root Newdigate saw an intimate connection between drawing and weaving: 'I find tapestry to be a natural extension of drawing. Drawing, which preceded writing, is a basic method of communication. Tapestry adds a dimension of ritual for the maker and for the viewer because it can signify the presence of time and convey the drama of mythology through its physical presence.' "

This residency project continues our focus on South Africa at Griffin Art Projects this season.

**Sources and quoted texts courtesy of Bruce Grenville and Alice Mackenzie, 2024.

Please also join us for Live from the Studio with Grenville+Fille via Zoom on December 7th, 2024! Registration below.

Meet residents Bruce Grenville and Alice Mackenzie on December 15th, 2024! At Griffin Art Project Studios.