Crafted: Objects in Flux @ Boston MFA

The Boston MFA's exhibit Crafted: Objects in Flux (August 25, 2015 to January 10, 2016) challenged and effectively obliterated the false dichotomy between craft and art in a way that reminds me of the 40 Under 40: Craft Futures show at the Renwick Gallery in 2012. This exhibit, curated by Emily Zilber, goes even further by including artists of multiple generations and multiple nationalities. The show is also very important in breaking down the barriers between "craft" and "art" because, surprisingly, it is the first time an exhibit of this kind has been held in an encyclopedic museum.

My favorite work in the show were these pyrographs by Japanese-American artist Etsuko Ichikawa.

Etsuko Ichikawa

Trace 2012 and Trace 2112

glass pyrographs on paper

The pyrographs themselves are both beautiful and interesting but what makes them truly great is watching the accompanying video that shows how Etsuko makes them -- by snaking molten glass on paper and using an immense amount of skill in creating beautiful designs without causing the the entire effort to go up in flames. Part dance, part performance, part glass making, the end result is a work that captures a unique moment in time.

Etsuko Ichikawa

still from glass pyrograph video

Etsuko Ichikawa

still from glass pyrograph video

Charlotte Potter's Pending is an interesting conceptual piece. She projected a map of the US on the wall and placed a cameo pendant of her pending Facebook friend requests on their location.

Charlotte Potter

Pending

hand-engraved glass cameos, metal, images courtesy of Facebook

The length of the rod is proportional to the number of their mutual Facebook friends. Additionally, she very skillfully carved the image on the cameos from her friend's Facebook profile picture.

Charlotte Potter

Pending (closeup)

Greg Payce, a Canadian artist, sculpts amazing negative space images with porcelain vases that he throws by hand. Unfortunately, because I hate reading wall text in museums, I totally missed the images he creates and, consequently, didn't get a good picture of the actual vases in the exhibit.

Greg Payce

Adam and Eve

Two lenticular photographs of porcelain vases

Christy Oates often ties the traditional decorative furniture technique of marquetry with conceptual art. Here she has created work that you might expect to be made for the top of high-end furniture but they are designed using a computer algorithm based on the top trending Google news story of the day. There were fifteen pieces on display representing fifteen days in September 2011.

Christy Oates

Kaleidoscope Algorithm

Fifteen segments in various woods

Thankfully, there was an accompanying video to clarify her process.

Christy Oates

still from Kaleidoscope Algorithm video

Similarly, Alison Elizabeth Taylor uses the same traditional technique to "paint" a very different type of contemporary commentary.

Alison Elizabeth Taylor

Tap Left On

wood veneer, shellac

Her work often deals with working class issues, which is an interesting contrast to the "craft" typically used as decoration for economic elites.

Alison Elizabeth Taylor

Armstrong Congoleum

wood veneer, shellac, aluminum

Chien-Wei Chang, a Taiwanese-British artist, created this Huge Ladle (I'm guessing it is about five feet long). With it he plays with the concept of craft objects being functional. Additionally, his ladles are conceptual, relating to his own journey of emigration -- being scooped out of one container and being placed into another. 

Chien-Wei Chang

Huge Ladle

silver plating, padauk wood

Faig Ahmed is an artist from Azerbaijan who uses traditional rug making techniques and styles of his culture as a launching pad to visually tie the past with the present.

Faig Ahmed

Invert

Handmade woven carpet

With her Hair Craft Project, Sonya Clark honors artists that are traditionally overlooked and under-valued. Over a one year period she visited eleven hairdressers and had them create their art in two forms, ephemerally on her head and permanently on canvas.

Sonya Clark

The Hair Craft Project

Hairstylists with Sonya

color photographs

She also photographed the artist with their creation, thereby literally and metaphorically standing up for the work so that it can be seen as museum quality art. 

Sonya Clark

The Hair Craft Project

Hairstyles on Canvas

silk threads, beads, yarn, shells on canvas

Astrid Krogh is a Danish artist who created this beautifully woven optical fiber "fabric." The title, Ikat II, refers to a technique of resist dying that allows subtle bleeding of the colors, similar to how the different color light fibers interact with each other. As such, it is a work that is equally contemporary and traditional.

 Astrid Krogh

Ikat II

woven optical fibers, paper yarn, light monitors

With this closeup you can more clearly see the weaving pattern and the subtle bleed of color caused by the interaction of light.

Astrid Krogh

Ikat II (closeup)

In all there were forty-one artists in the exhibit representing an amazing amount of diversity in styles, techniques, and background. The quality of work was great but what I truly loved was seeing a major fine art museum breaking down barriers between it collections and expanding the definition of what "fine art" means. 

Alison Elizabeth Taylor @ James Cohen Gallery

Since seeing Alison Elizabeth Taylor's work on-line several years ago, I've been anxious to see her paintings in person. Thankfully, I had the opportunity in November (2013) during her solo show, Surface Tension, at the James Cohan Gallery in New York.

Taylor has, at a young age, carved out a place for herself in the art world by creating contemporary paintings using a centuries old technique (marquetry) of assembling pieces of wood veneer together, like a puzzle. As a result, her work, by definition, holds a tension between the past and the present as well as between fine art and fine craft. With work like this, so much of the impact relies on the ability of the artist to master the craft, and I know from experience that images on the web can be deceiving, hiding imperfections and sloppy work. However, after seeing these paintings in person, I can happily report that her work is impeccable. Her execution is every bit as good as furniture makers that specialize in this technique.

Taylor's work in this show is particularly interesting in two novel ways. For one, she is now combining tradition painting (with oils) along with veneer. And secondly, she using the veneer to "paint" wood.

I loved all the work in the show, it is all visually interesting on many levels, but my favorite piece, by far, is Silver Fox. With it, she takes what would normally be an interesting contemporary art idea, painting a sheet of plywood, and takes it to another level by using wood to do it. In addition, the concept is simultaneously minimalist and abstract expressionist -- it is "just" a sheet of plywood (both conceptually and in actuality); but it is also chaotic, unpredictable, and visually complex. 

Silver Fox

53" x 51"

Furthermore, as is a theme in a lot of her work, she is taking an object that would normally be over looked as too common to waste one's time examining, and makes it completely fascinating, forcing the viewer to ask why they haven't looked at plywood more closely before. 

Silver Fox (closeup)

Again, with Brooklyn Navy Yard, Taylor is asking the viewer to really look at something they would normally overlook and, by using a desert sky behind it, she makes it particularly dramatic and interesting. I find it fascinating how using wood as her "paint" for this subject really elevates it to another level, well beyond what it would have been if she painted the branch with oils. Perhaps because doing so makes it simultaneously a sculpture and a painting causing mental conflict and confusion. 

Brooklyn Navy Yard

36" x 30" x 3/4"

With Into the Wild, Taylor creates a seductive scene and again makes an interesting tree painting with wood, 

Into the Wild
52 1/2" x 38 1/2"

but what really makes this piece is how she uses the wood grain to form ripples in the water. It is such an important part of the painting, I wonder if it was the inspiration. 

Into the Wild (closeup)

In Kelso, Taylor again focuses on a something that would normally be over looked and creates a fascinating work of art -- a neglected home with layers of paint, wall paper, plaster, and lath falling apart.

Kelso
50" x 47" 1 1/4"

The title seems cryptic, perhaps it is the name of the last family to live in this house, or the town, or street name, or who knows -- interpretation is left to the viewer but, cleverly, the mystery behind the name helps to make the painting more real.

Kelso (closeup)

Laocoon is my favorite of several tree portraits in the show. With its broken branch and multi-directional limbs, it is the most interesting of the series. 

Laocoon
58" x 76"

I assume title is a reference to a Trojan priest that warned against accepting the Trojan Horse as a gift from the Greeks. Perhaps the twisted and broken branches reminded Taylor of a famous sculpture of Laocoon and His Sons at the Vatican.

Laocoon (closeup)

And finally, with The Optimist's Ennui, Taylor again paints a sheet of plywood, but this time with a hole that give a view of an exterior desert scene, leaving the impression that the plywood is being used as an interior wall of a shack.

The Optimist's Ennui
62" x 46"

With the hole in the wall she is able to create a story that is both dramatic and open for interpretation.

The Optimist's Ennui (closeup)

If you are interested in seeing a complete inventory of this show, more and better images are available on the gallery's website here. I'm stilled thrilled at having a chance to see it. Not only is her work unique, fascinating, and well crafted, I also love that she is continuing to evolve, adding elements, themes, and new techniques to her work. It is wonderful to see paintings that combine so many disparate ideas, styles, and media so as to be a part of history and original at the same time.