Canada's insider blog

annie ross makes her art from the simple act of salvage, from what other people throw away. “Cleaned, torn, bent, rounded into tinklers – grizzly bear skin for a foam bear mannequin…” I will never look at cat food can lids the same way again.

ross, who blogs under the name of Annie Dancer, transforms everyday objects through her weaving and embroidery, and with a nod to her Mayan lineage. But her most ambitious (and, I think, fabulous) project to date is the makeover of a classic 1956 Nash Metropolitan into “Forest One” – fully plaited in plastic strapping tape, wool-wrapped twine, cedar bark salvaged from urban forests clear cut for developments and four dozen polyester roses with plastic thorns left on a morgue’s loading bay (destined for the trash). ross did everything from stripping and pounding the bark, to designing the motifs – all the time documenting the process on her blog. “Where is craft in modern art? Traditional Aboriginal technology in the post-steel era?” 

The answer - this unique and masterful exhibit - Forest One - is on display until May 30 at the Squamish Lil'wat Cultural Centre, in Whistler, B.C.