Evelyn Roth (born December 27, 1936) is a Canadian born interdisciplinary artist who has worked across the arts in textiles, sculpture, performance, dance and interactive fabric arts. Specialising in environmentally sensitive events, festivals, school programs and art gallery exhibits. Roth is based in the town of

Maslin Beach Maslin Beach is a southern coastal suburb of Adelaide, South Australia. It is located in the City of Onkaparinga. The name refers to the town of ''Maslin Beach'', the beach after which it was named and the suburb which contains both. In this ...

, on South Australia's Fleurieu Peninsula.

Early life

Born Evelyn Margaret Yakubow, in 1936 in

Mundare Mundare is a town in central Alberta, Canada. It is approximately east of Edmonton at the intersection of Alberta Highway 15, Highway 15 and Alberta Highway 855, Highway 855, north of the Yellowhead Highway. The Canadian National Railway tracks ...

, Alberta Canada. She moved to

Edmonton Edmonton is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Alberta. It is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Central Alberta ...

, Alberta in the 1950s where she took classes in art, crafts, modern, eastern and classical dance. She also took yoga and fencing classes while working in the local children's library. In 1961, she and her first husband Klaus Roth moved to Vancouver where she worked in the university library. They later separated in the 1960s.

Career

When she moved to Vancouver in 1961, Evelyn Roth joined

Intermedia Intermedia is an art theory term coined in the mid-1960s by Fluxus artist Dick Higgins to describe the strategies of interdisciplinarity that occur within artworks existing between artistic genres. It was also used by John Brockman to refer to ...

and became a key practitioner in the international art scene at the time, focusing on art and technology,

wearable art Wearable art, also known as Artwear or "art to wear", refers to art pieces in the shape of clothing or jewellery pieces. These pieces are usually handmade, and are produced only once or as a very limited series. Pieces of clothing are often made ...

and

video art Video art is an art form which relies on using video technology as a visual and audio medium. Video art emerged during the late 1960s as new consumer video technology such as video tape recorders became available outside corporate broadcasting. V ...

. During the 1970s Roth focused her practice on knitting and crocheting with recycled materials including television video tape and natural fibres. She created wearable art, textile installations and furnishings. In 1974, her book about her work, ''The Evelyn Roth Recycling Book'', was published by

Talonbooks Talonbooks is an independent publisher of Canadian literature based in Vancouver, British Columbia. Its repertoire features authors writing in the literary genres of poetry, fiction and drama, as well as non-fiction books in the fields of ethnogra ...

. That same year, she joined the British Columbia pavilion at

Expo '74 Expo '74, officially known as the International Exposition on the Environment, Spokane 1974, was a world's fair held May 4, 1974, to November 3, 1974, in Spokane, Washington, in the Northwestern United States, northwest United States. It was the ...

, presenting under a sunsail made of woven computer tapes and videotape. She often adapted the motif of wearables, fabricating work from found materials and ingeniously using them in various festivals, events or exhibitions. From 1973 through the 1980s Roth explored the intersections of sculpture, dance and the environment and formed the Evelyn Roth Moving Sculpture Company. Where the award winning film ''Woven in Time'' was created in 1974, featuring Roth's textile work and the company in various outdoor settings. It won an ETROG award (Canadian Film Awards)in 1976. Her work became a catalyst for many creators with a wide variety of interests in different countries. Her first trip to Australia was in 1979. In 1981, she was invited to install an interactive display at the

Adelaide Festival The Adelaide Festival of Arts, also known as the Adelaide Festival, an arts festival, takes place in the South Australian capital of Adelaide in March each year. Started in 1960, it is a major celebration of the arts and a significant cultural ...

Centre Foyer which she created out of discarded TV programs (titled ''Under the Billabong There Lives A Salmon''), then returned to South Australia to work with Pitjitjanjara communities and held workshops in rabbit knit and painted leather garments, as well as crocheting a shade canopy from discarded video tape and play web from nylon. The first showing of ''Nylon Zoo'' in Australia was in 1982 at the

1982 Commonwealth Games The 1982 Commonwealth Games were held in Brisbane, Australia, from 30 September to 9 October 1982. The Opening Ceremony was held at the QEII Stadium (named after Elizabeth II), in the Brisbane suburb of Nathan. The QEII Stadium was also the ...

Brisbane Brisbane ( ; ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and largest city of the States and territories of Australia, state of Queensland and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia, with a ...

. In 1990, she set up the Evelyn Roth Celebration Centre – Point Roberts, USA (artist' studios, art gallery and performance space) This large studio allowed her to expand inflatable structures into mazes, set up a FestivalArts website and to promote her work worldwide. In 2003, ''Evelyn Roth's Wearable Art, 1971 to 2003'', was held at the

Australian National University The Australian National University (ANU) is a public university, public research university and member of the Group of Eight (Australian universities), Group of Eight, located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Its main campus in Acton, A ...

, Canberra, Australia. Her work is in the collections of the

Vancouver Art Gallery The Vancouver Art Gallery (VAG) is an art museum in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The museum occupies a adjacent to Robson Square in downtown Vancouver, making it the largest art museum in Western Canada by building size. Designed by Fr ...

and Surrey Art Gallery, British Columbia. Roth has lived and worked in Australia since 1996. She has an annual residency with the Storybook Theatre Company in Hawaii.

Exhibitions/festivals/workshops

Roth has been featured in many solo exhibitions over the years and participated in various festivals and group exhibitions. In 2022, Roth did a workshop at the Vancouver Art Gallery titled "The Big Recycle with Evelyn Roth".

Solo exhibitions

* 1976 – ''Nylon Zoo'' at Habitat Forum,

Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...

* 1977 – ''Salmon Dance'' (narration by Hannelore) on the

Queen Charlotte Islands Haida Gwaii (; / , literally "Islands of the Haida people"), previously known as the Queen Charlotte Islands, is an archipelago located between off the northern Pacific coast in the Canadian province of British Columbia. The islands are separ ...

* 1981 – ''Under The Billabong There Lives A Salmon'' at the

Centre, South Australia * September 29 to November 7, 1993 – ''Salmon Run'' at the Surrey Art Gallery

Group exhibitions

* October 30, 2015, to January 10, 2016 – ''Between Object and Action: Transforming Media in the 1960s and 70's'' at the

* October 24, 2015, to February 28, 2016 – ''Hippie Modernism: The Struggle for Utopia'' at the Walker Art Center *January 12 to April 8, 2018 – ''Beginning with the Seventies: GLUT'' at the

Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery The Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery is a contemporary art gallery in Vancouver, British Columbia, on the campus of the University of British Columbia. The gallery is housed in a building designed by architect Peter Cardew which opened in 1995 ...

, Vancouver, B.C.

Awards

In 1973, she was awarded Artist of the Year by the

Vancouver Sun The ''Vancouver Sun'', also known as the ''Sun'', is a daily broadsheet newspaper based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The newspaper is currently published by the Pacific Newspaper Group, a division of Postmedia Network, and is the larg ...

. In 1999 and 2006, Roth won the

World of Wearable Art World of WearableArt (WOW) is an international design competition, attracting entries from more than 40 countries each year. The competition features wearable art entries, which are judged on durability, the safety and comfort of the models, a ...

international design competition in New Zealand.

Personal life

She is married to Australian artist John F. Davis.

References

Bibliography

* *

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Roth, Evelyn Artists from Alberta Canadian textile artists Canadian women textile artists Environmental artists 1936 births Living people Canadian expatriates in Australia