FLEET: Edmonds

Intersection of Humphries St & Rosewood Ave, Burnaby

August 8 to September 29, 2025

In August and September, two art collectives will be sharing the FLEET: Edmonds studio

UNNAMED BAND (Barbara Adler, Anju Singh, Toni-Leah C. Yake, and Julia Ulehla)
& Other Ways (Tristan Sober-Blodgett, Sena Cleave, and Ysabel Gana)
UNNAMED BAND - ‘ENSEMBLING’ is an interdisciplinary collective of four artists - Anju Singh, Toni-Leah C. Yake, Julia Ulehla, and Barbara Adler - who will experiment with music, sound, writing and textiles. While in studio they will engage the public in sharing sessions, with the aim of fostering relationships with ancestors, stories, dreams, technologies, natural processes, and care labour. The soft poetic nature of textiles offers the artists a format for collaboration that ‘perforates the self,’ allowing for mutual exploration, and an interest in the influence of unseen forces that surround them. The collective is starting the project with research led by Yake. Inspired by 19th century poet E. Pauline Johnson/Tekahionwake’s retelling of the story "Deer Lake" shared by Chief Joe Capilano.  The artists will be experimenting with ‘proto-scores’ inspired by Tekahionwake’s regalia.

& Other Ways is a textile-focused research project by three artists: Tristan Sober-Blodgett, Sena Cleave, and Ysabel Gana. The artists gather knowledge on sustainable material practices and relationships between textiles and land. They research the ecology, historical uses and stewardship of fibre and dye plants, creating an understanding and rapport with their local ecosystems. They share information and best practices to encourage others to learn textile crafts and deepen their relationship with the land.  Doors will be open for the public to engage with activities, or artists may be working outdoors near the FLEET studio, making weaving and sculptural fibre artworks that the public may engage with or observe.

Open Studios
& Other Ways                Saturday, August 9, 12:00-5:00pm  

Unnamed Band            Thursday, August 14,1:00-2:00pm  

& Other Ways                Saturday,August 16, 12:00-5:00pm

& Other Ways                Saturday,August 23, 12:00-5:00pm

Unnamed Band            September11, 1:00-2:00pm              

Unnamed Band            September 18,1:00-2:00pm              

Unnamed Band            September 25,1:00-2:00pm

Public Performances & Activities

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Workshop and Performance Saturday, September 13

12:00-3:00 pm: Visualizing Our Fibreshed workshop with Tristan Sober-Blodgett
3:30-5:30 pm: Performance by UNNAMED BAND

What are our clothes made of?

Where do the materials come from?

What happens to them when we are done using them?

What happens to fibers that don’t biodegrade?

Ina workshop discussion, we will create a landscape tapestry from discarded fibres, unwanted yarn, used clothing, and other second-hand materials. Turningthese items into artworks with new life reduces the waste stream and sequesters dangerous petrochemicals that otherwise end up in the environment.  No experience or previous knowledge is necessary. Participants will learn basic tapestry techniques on simple equipment that they can replicate on their own. Minimum recommended age 14.

Maximum capacity 6-8

After the workshop, using experimental scores inspired by& Other Ways’ textiles, the Unnamed Band will perform improvised music and sound. There will be an opportunity for discussion. Drop-ins welcome. Materials will be on hand for audience members who wish to continue working with their hands.

Workshop and Performance Saturday, September 20
12:00-3:00 pm: Making Monsters Experimental Needle Felting workshop with Isabel Gana
3:30-5:30 pm: Performance by UNNAMED BAND

The Making Monsters workshop will teach basic techniques in needle felting and explore different ways to incorporate/play with non-felting elements. Thinking through how we relate to, value, and choose to discard everyday materials, we will learn to transform wool into different shapes, play with the unique properties of different fibres, and create little material monsters that participants can bring home. This workshop is open for beginners and materials will be provided. Minimum recommended age of 13.

Participants are encouraged to bring small amounts of any fibrous or decorative matter (e.g.old yarn, scrapbook papers, dried flower petals) to play with and explore as experimental material.

After the workshop, using experimental scores inspired by& Other Ways’ textiles, the Unnamed Band will perform improvised music and sound. There will be an opportunity or discussion. Drop-ins welcome. Materials will be on hand for audience members who wish to continue working with their hands.

 
Workshop and Performance Saturday, September 27
12:00 - 3:00 pm: Fold, Knot, Dye workshop with Seana Cleave

3:30-5:30 pm: Performance by UNNAMEDBAND

Join & Other Ways artists for a free fabric dyeing workshop at FLEET Edmonds Park. Participants will be folding, tying, and knotting fabric in shibori patterns, and will dye the fabric using plants and food scraps grown locally or that are easily accessible. Shibori is a Japanese dyeing technique that creates repeating patterns of circles, lines, grids, and more. Like tie-dye, it involves creating a resist by folding and knotting fabric so that only parts of it take on colour. Participants can take home their dye experiments. No experience needed. All materials will be provided until they run out, just come prepared to get messy! Minimum recommended age of 10.
After the workshop, using experimental scores inspired by & Other Ways’ textiles, the Unnamed Band will perform improvised music and sound. There will bean opportunity for discussion. Drop-ins welcome. Materials will be on hand foraudience members who wish to continue working with their hands.

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Artist Bios

Unnamed Band

Toni-Leah C. Yake (European; Kanien’kehá:ka, Six Nations of the Grand River Territory, Turtle Clan) is a composer-performer and media artist residing on xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, and səlilwətaɬ territories. Her work extends to explore the land, memories, subconscious materials, world building and embodied response. Informed by dream interpretation and Kanien’kehá:ka epistemology Yake submerges into liminality with compositional practices illuminated by archival recordings, synthesis, and noise. Toni-Leah C. Yake’s practices are influenced by the research of kanyen’keha (Mohawk language), the interplay between conscious and unconscious realms, symbolism, and experiences of sound that generate mnemonic experiences, relationships with unseen dimensions, and connections to archaic human memories.

Anju Singh is a composer, musician, and media artist based in Vancouver, BC who works with traditional instruments, electronics, found sounds, custom-built instruments, photography, video, serigraphy, and film to create works that explore tension and conflict. Anju's practice is an exploration of texture through the use of extended or experimental techniques, use of electronics, experimenting with musical and non-musical materials, and electronic processing. One of the core processes in her practice is to use methods of deconstruction and reanimation to repurpose and contextualize materials in new compositional environments. Anju’s work has been presented across Canada, in Europe, Brazil, Mexico, and the United States at festivals, galleries, and events in a variety of spaces including Fylkingen in Stockholm Sweden, Send + Receive Festival in Winnipeg, Vancouver Jazz Festival, The Polygon Gallery, Sled Island, and more recently in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Julia Úlehla is an interarts performer, composer, scholar, and cultural worker who lives on the unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) people. Her performance practice and research engage with "living song" and other forms of more-than-human life, ancestry, traditional culture, and forms of experimentation. She received a BA in Music from Stanford University, an MMus in Vocal Performance from the Eastman School of Music, a PhD in Ethnomusicology from UBC, and a SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellowship in Cultural Studies at Queens University. Julia was a member of the laboratory theatre the Workcenter of Jerzy Grotowski and Thomas Richards, and now regularly performs throughout North America and Europe with her ensemble Dálava, and in a variety of other performance milieus. Her scholarship has appeared in the journals Performance Matters (2023) and Ethnomusicology Translations (2018), and as a co-authored chapter in Research and Reconciliation: Unsettling Ways of Knowing through Indigenous Relationships (2019). As a composer and vocalist, she has recorded on Pi Recordings (2025), Songlines Recordings (2017), and Sanasar Records (2014).

Barbara Adler is an interdisciplinary artist and performer, whose work has been presented through multiple solo and band albums, publication in spoken word anthologies, theatre and dance productions and performances at major music and literary festivals. The daughter and sister of Czech immigrants, Barbara now lives in xwesam, colonially known as Roberts Creek, on the unceded territories of the shíshálh and Skwxwu7mesh Nations. Her recent projects centre slow and process-led creation, using intricate textile objects to put a wrench in productivity culture and focus work around relational time and seasonal cycles. In 2023, she joined The Only Animal Theatre as its Artistic Director. She holds an MFA in Interdisciplinary Studies and a BA in Art and Cultural Studies, both from Simon Fraser University.

& Other Ways

Tristan Sober-Blodgett is a multidisciplinary artist with three decades of experience working with fiber and textiles. He learned traditional fiber arts skills from family and community elders in his Southern California community. His work ingeneral focuses on orienting oneself culturally, socially, historically, and geographically. In his textile work, he includes ecological practices such as the use of natural materials and dyes, and re-use of discarded fiber materials. Because the processes used in traditional spinning and weaving are slow, they allow the artist time to meditate on the work. This is invaluable to Sober-Blodgett’s process. Sober-Blodgett holds a Master of Fine Arts from the University of British Columbia. He lives and works in the unseeded territory colonially known as Vancouver.  

Ysabel Gana is a visual artist born in Manila, Philippines and currently working and residing in unceded lands of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Nations (also known as Vancouver).Through poking, prodding, painting, and carving, they explore how objects imprint themselves within our collective and personal histories, exploring how objects attempt to bridge or manage emotional, migratory, and interpersonal distances. They have received a BFA in Visual Arts from the University of British Columbia.

Sena Cleave is an artist working in sculpture and language. Using found and readily available materials, they draw on personal history and cultural knowledge to explore alternative methods of support and sustenance. Cleave lives in the unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, and səlilwətaɬ Nations. They hold a BFA from Simon Fraser University. Recent exhibitions include Centre A, The Fifty Fifty Arts Collective, Seymour Art Gallery, Mónica Reyes Gallery, and Audain Gallery. Their writing has appeared in Contemporary Art Gallery's Timelines, The Only Animal Theatre's Slow Calendar, and various self-published projects. From 2021 to 2023, they curated DIY exhibitions in galleries, a lobby, and their living room.

Image (above): Hyperbolic Duvet by Barbara Adler. Photo by James Meger.

Images (below, left to right): Photo of Barbara Adler, courtesy of the artist. Photo of Toni-Leah C. Yake, courtesy of the artist. Photo of Julia Úlehla, courtesy of the artist. Photo of Tristan Sober-Blodgett, courtesy of the artist. Photo of Ysabel Gana, courtesy of the artists. Photo of Sena Cleave, photo by Sungpil Yoon. Photo of Anju Singh, courtesy of the artist.

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