Window Gallery:
Worn & Torn, Broken or Blue, Something Something, Tired & True
Margaret Joba-Woodruff
February 22 – March 22 | 2025
Worn & Torn, Broken or Blue, Something Something, Tired & True is an exhibition which hosts a collection of prints from, or on, objects worn, used, and discarded in the processes of printmaking. Alongside a series of familiar slogans, both found and fabricated, these objects are unified by their role as mediators between the body and the materials it works with. Suggesting barriers, objects like gloves and aprons separate chemicals from skin, simultaneously protecting and deteriorating through repeated gestures of wiping, rubbing, and cleaning. Together, the familiarity of these objects and phrases present a discordant narrative of gendered labour, empowerment, and domesticity.
Born in Tiohtià:ke (Montréal) and raised on the island of Noepe (Martha’s Vineyard), Margaret Joba-Woodruff is an artist currently based on the island of Kqtamkuk (St. John’s, Newfoundland). Joba-Woodruff’s practice considers intersections of land, body, family, memory and labour through a multidisciplinary approach to printmaking.
After receiving a BFA in Visual Art from the University of British Columbia in 2020, Joba-Woodruff became a worker-owner of the Vancouver Artist Labour Union Cooperative, before relocating to St John’s to be the 2022-23 Don Wright Scholar at St. Michael’s Printshop. Her work has been exhibited in Canada, the UK and Taiwan and supported by the Canada Council for the Arts. When not behind the wheel of an etching press, you can find her looking for the people and places that feel like home.
Image: Dollar Store Drama Queens (Careful! My Nails…), Margaret Joba-Woodruff, Monotype on Kozo, Photo credit to the artist
