Barb Hunt

Barb Hunt is a Canadian interdisciplinary textile artist based in Corner Brook, Newfoundland and Labrador.
In a November 2013 talk given for the Wendy Wersch Memorial Lecture Series at MAWA in Winnipeg, entitled "We are all of us made by war...", Hunt described how her grandmothers made quilts and her mother taught her craft.
Style and Influence.
Hunts style can be described as domestic, yet rebellious. Each piece has turned classically domestic mediums into hard-hitting, thought-provoking works of art. Her Art focuses on war, the natural environment, mourning rituals (particularly those of Newfoundland), and most predominantly, her work concentrates on gender ideals, stereotypes, and traditional roles. Much of her influence comes from the textile traditions and cultural aspects of textiles from her home of Newfoundland. Many works also feature a form of juxtaposing contradicting elements, thoughts or cultural stereotypes. By using domestic materials to talk about issues that are far out of reach of the everyday ideal housewife, Hunt brings these issues into the everyday world and involves everybody in these issues. 
Career.
Hunt has had solo exhibitions at the Art Gallery of Ontario, The Rooms Provincial Art Gallery and at Exeter and Bath galleries in the UK. Her work has been included in group exhibitions and biennials both national and international. She has also completed residencies throughout Canada, as well as Paris and Ireland.
A core focus of Hunt's practice has been the devastation of war. and creating works from camouflage army uniforms. Hunt's 2010 "Land Mines" series documented the proliferation of antipersonnel landmines through hand knitting replicas in various shades of pink yarn. The work draws on the history of knitting as caring for the body and the use of knitting to create bandages for soldiers. In this context knitting becomes a metaphor for recuperation, protection, and healing, creating a contrast between the materials and the destructive subject matter. The work was included in the group exhibition, "Museopathy", at the Agnes Etherington Art Centre in Kingston, Ontario, and later in a solo show named Antipersonnel at the Art Gallery of Ontario. Her work included in the exhibition "Unpacking the Living Room ("pieces from two separate series titled "Antipersonnel" and "Aprons)" serves as a material protest against the use of antipersonnel landmines. As Hunt describes “I use these associations to contradict the abuse of power and the use of violence by transforming a destructive object into one that can do no harm.” 
In "Toll", her 2011 solo show at The Rooms in St. John's, Newfoundland, she created large installations using camouflage fabric as a central theme and material. 
Hunt's "Mourning series" was a textile-based exploration of the relationships between death, mourning, gender and recuperation.