Saves Nine at aceartinc is an exhibition that claims to examine a "post-disciplinary" tendency in contemporary craft, particularly as it is expressed in Manitoba. The works are installed in fairly minimal fashion and they range from pieces that would be recognized by most people as craft, to pieces that are conceptual or performative. They bring up tensions between craft and fine art, a field of discourse that has been well trodden over the past decade.
What exactly is post-disciplinary craft? Curator Kerri-Lynn Reeves uses the term to describe an erasing of boundaries between craft and fine art. It is true that boundaries related to media and technique are absent in this show, but some boundaries still exist here – for instance, all of the artists included have some formal education or training in fine arts.
Leah Decter, Five blanket suite: jack pine (detail), 2008-2013, Hudson Bay blankets, wood
Thematically, a commonality is the abundance of blankets visible around the room, a reminder of our need for warmth during the Manitoba winter. Leah Decter's Five Blanket Suite is a series of rug hooking panels done in Hudson's Bay colours. One of them is long and white, and has loose ends spilling onto the ground, reminiscent of blood or diseased skin. Many of the works in Saves Nine play with the idea of technique and mastery, even if the method breaks with tradition. Gaëtanne Sylvester's Delicate Sheathe is a collection of lace-like pieces of clay strung together to form a kind of quilt, which appears at once solid and airy. Work by Stephen Leyden Cochrane also examines materiality. Blanket is a fine, web-like drawing of an afghan, which hangs above Blanket, to Blanket, a sculpture made of the actual afghan covered in chalk ground.
Blankets also appear in Corrie Peters' relational artwork act of trust. Peters has provided free afghans and made "nap zone" signs that can be taken out of the art gallery, and the work is an attempt to encourage different and potentially subversive uses of public space. However, it also brings up questions about intended audience: people who need blankets the most to sleep outside at night are probably the least likely to visit an art gallery.
Saves Nine is a thought-provoking show that brings up questions about materiality, use, and mastery in relation to contemporary craft. To me, the issue of boundaries remains the most contentious. In a blog post, Reeves cited Glenn Adamson's theorization of post-disciplinary craft as an inspiration for the show (Adamson is Deputy Head of Research and Head of Graduate Studies at the Victoria and Albert Museum). This is intriguing, since Adamson has also argued that craft's "lowly," not-quite-art status is what makes it the most interesting. When boundaries are completely erased, craft simply enters the world of overly theorized postmodern contemporary art.
Saves Nine brings up the question of boundaries between art and craft in the sense that there is no distinction being made between craft and contemporary art, while boundaries between artists and other makers remain in place. In my opinion, it would have been interesting to see work included that referenced the abundance of DIY or amateur craft practices in Manitoba, and to have been able to look at the interplay between these works. I'm left wondering if contemporary craft has more subversive potential when it remains slightly outside the world of fine art, when boundary lines still exist, but instead of being rigid like wood or stone, are soft and malleable; like pieces of yarn that might be knitted into new discursive webs.
aceartinc.: http://www.aceart.org/
Saves Nine continues until August 31.
Noni Brynjolson is a writer and curator from Winnipeg whose work has been published in journals, exhibition catalogues, blogs, and zines. She is a recent graduate of the Master's program in Art History at Concordia University in Montreal and currently works as the Distribution Coordinator at the Winnipeg Film Group. She is Akimblog's Winnipeg correspondent and can be followed @NoniBrynjolson on Twitter.
↧
Saves Nine at aceartinc.
↧