Permanent Danger | Danger permanent (English/French)
Anna Torma
Anna Torma’s large embroideries are complex expressions of her experiences of family, immigration, joy, and the act of creation. Her richly layered textile narratives draw references from popular culture, thrift shop aesthetics, and traditional Hungarian textiles and demonstrate her deep concern for the world we live in.
Permanent Danger takes its title from Torma’s large-scale 2017 work, making reference to human strife and vulnerability, threatened natural environments, and the highs and lows of daily life. Fifteen large-scale works produced by Torma between 2011 and 2021 are featured, along with essays by curators Sarah Quinton, Anne Koval, and Emily Falvey. The result is a stunning volume that allows readers to appreciate the intricacies and complexities of Torma’s magnificent works.
Born in Hungary, Anna Torma immigrated to Canada in 1988 and lives in New Brunswick. A member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts, she was awarded the Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Arts — Saidye Bronfman Award in 2020. Her work has been exhibited extensively in Canada and abroad, including at the prestigious 16th International Triennial of Tapestry in Łódź, Poland, in 2019, and CONTEXTILE 24, the contemporary textile art biennial in Guimarães, Portugal, in 2024.
Les grandes broderies d’Anna Torma sont des tableaux complexes qui illustrent une expérience particulière de la famille, de l’immigration, de la joie et de l’acte de création. Autant de récits emboîtés, inspirés de la culture populaire, d’une esthétique de friperie et de l’art textile hongrois traditionnel, qui expriment son inquiétude à l’égard de notre monde.
L’ouvrage Danger permanent emprunte son titre à une œuvre de grandes dimensions que Torma a créée en 2017 et qui évoque les combats et la vulnérabilité de l’être humain, les menaces qui pèsent sur le monde naturel, ainsi que les hauts et les bas de la vie quotidienne. L’ouvrage fait la part belle à quinze œuvres à grande échelle des années 2011 à 2021 et à des textes de Sarah Quinton, Anne Koval et Emily Falvey, toutes trois conservatrices. Résultat : un livre superbe qui rend accessibles aux lecteurs la subtilité et la complexité des œuvres magnifiques de l’artiste.
Née en Hongrie, Anna Torma est arrivée au Canada en 1988 et vit actuellement au Nouveau-Brunswick. Membre de l’Académie royale des arts du Canada, elle a reçu en 2020 le Prix Saidye-Bronfman, de l’importante série des Prix du Gouverneur général en arts visuels et en arts médiatiques. Ses œuvres ont fait l’objet de nombreuses expositions au Canada et ailleurs, notamment la prestigieuse Triennale internationale de la tapisserie de Lodz, en Pologne, en 2019, et CONTEXTILE, la biennale d’art textile contemporain présentée à Guimarães, au Portugal, en 2024.
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Anne Koval is Professor of Art History, Museum and Curatorial Studies at Mount Allison University. She is the author of Mary Pratt: A Love Affair with Vision, Whistler in His Time, and the co-author of James McNeill Whistler: Beyond the Myth. She has written on Anna Torma for the Textile Museum of Canada and her writing on contemporary art has appeared in several edited volumes, including Stitching the Self: Identity and the Needle Arts, More Caught in the Act: An Anthology of Performance Art by Canadian Women, and The Radcliffe Line and Other Geographies: Sarindar Dhaliwal, which includes a series of ekphrastic poems by Koval. She has curated exhibitions at the Owens Art Gallery, the Mendel Art Gallery, the Banff Park Museum, and the Confederation Centre Art Gallery, which included the work of Ed Pien, Merle McMaster, D’Arcy Wilson, Diana Thorneycroft, Aganetha Dyck, Barb Hunt, Jeannie Thib, Janice Wright Cheney, Cindy Sherman, and Sylvia Plath.
