MFA Thesis Exhibition 2025

The MFA in Craft Media facilitates the exploration of ceramics, fibre, glass or jewellery and metals through autonomous practice-led research, in an intensive 20-month program. Mentored by internationally acclaimed artists and scholars, students produce a body of work and research that expands the field of contemporary craft.

Mell Edwards –  Tales from Under the Silk Cotton Tree

“Crick Crack!”

Dat is how some people does start ah story. This one tho,

      this one likkle bit different.

      This one doh really have ah start, or ah finish.

It might start in de middle, it might start near de end...but dat is how folklore does work.

Fragments.

      Fragment, an whispers as yuh wander.
 

Natalie Gerber – Becoming

This research and creation project explores the complexity of the embodied feminine experience as it is expressed through the hands of the maker. The field of textiles expands into a post-disciplinary practice including book arts, and ceramics, in which it becomes clear that subjectivity, perception and performativity are not binary experiences; they echo each other. Living in the roundness of life, to be; and within a cycle of transformation, being; makers become part of the becoming. Through this research and creation process I have come to find strength in the unknowing and a sense of resolve. To learn and unlearn yourself is humbling, and contingent on your measure of vulnerability. I have paused, to rest in the work. Unfinished. 

Be.

Being.

Becoming
 

Zeer (Clarence) Liu – Between Us

Jewellery or adornments act as companions, helping to examine and explore relationships while being activated through popular dance movements. Through three chapters—Me & Partner, Me & Parents, and Me & Internal Self—this research explores jewellery as a companion within the concept of healing, examining how wearable art helps navigate love, distance, and vulnerability.
 

Hanxiang (Mathilda) Meng – Pearls are the Tears of Mermaids

My current installation critically engages with the ornamentalization of Asiatic femininity within Orientalist frameworks. Through porcelain cups, pearl curtains, and inverted display structures, I reimagine symbols historically tied to exoticism and objectification as active sites of resistance. Inspired by Anna May Wong’s legacy and motifs like the gaiwan tea set, I challenge the passive containment of identity and transform decorative aesthetics into agents of cultural reclamation. By merging traditional materials with contemporary critique, the work advocates for nuanced, dynamic representations that confront the fetishized and hyper-visible stereotypes imposed on Asian women.
 

Hanxing (Cristina) Wang – Breaking

Breaking: Exploring Frame and Freedom Through Performance Art examines the dynamic relationship between selfhood and social constraints through performance art. This exhibition features three interconnected works. Frame presents three video screens capturing performances in which I wrap myself in red yarn at different locations. Entrance, two installations—a blank canvas structure and a wooden structure enveloped in red yarn—invite audience to experience the fluid frames. Hi, Calgary documents my ongoing performance of walking along Calgary’s boundary. Through material, space, and action, this work traces my MFA journey—struggling, questioning, breaking, and rebuilding.
 

Sanaz Zamani – Notes on the Ordinary 

Notes on the Ordinary is an exploration of the quiet, often unnoticed details that shape daily life. Through handmade paper, natural dyes, and delicate mark-making, the work transforms mundane objects and gestures into spaces of reflection. Repetition, materiality, and slow processes become a way of seeing—inviting attention to subtle shifts over time. This project considers how the familiar can become unfamiliar, how memory and presence intertwine, and how the overlooked holds quiet significance. By engaging with the material and visual language of the everyday, Notes on the Ordinary offers a meditation on care, perception, and transformation.