Wendy Maruyama's Executive Order 9066

"Important" is the best one word description for the Wendy Maruyama exhibit, Executive Order 9066, which was organized by, and debuted at, The Society of Arts and Crafts September 8 to November 3, 2012. In this body of work, Wendy has focused her considerable talents on highlighting the internment of 120,000 Japanese Americans during World War II through the executive order issued by FDR. It is a sad, but often forgotten, part of our history, so Wendy has done a great service to bringing the event back to life so that viewers can learn about it on a visceral level through her art. This show is a wonderful example of how art can be used to teach history without being without being dogmatic or preachy.

The first piece to encounter was this representative of The Tag Project in which Wendy recreated, with the help of dozens of volunteers, the tags issued to each of the interned Japanese Americans. Organized by the ten camps to which they were assigned, there are, therefore, ten sets of tags, each with about 12,000 names attached. Because SAC's space is very limited, only one group was displayed for this exhibit, however, all should be on view at the other museum sites the show will travel to. With The Tag Project, Wendy has created an innovative and aesthetic way to convey the enormity of the internment. 

The Tag Project

paper, string, ink, thread

132" x 10" x 10"

2011

One of the things I found interesting about the series is the restraint that Wendy employed in creating the work. Hinamatsuri (Girl's Day) is a great example. For someone like Wendy, who has tremendous skill and talent in working with wood, to create something so stark and "simple" is an amazing feat in itself. Most artist look for opportunities to "show off" their skill and dazzle viewers with works they know their audience could never do. But here, Wendy is showing she cares more about conveying the stark reality internment than impressing us with works of stunning skill and complexity.

Hinamatsuri (Girl's Day)

wood, tar paper, glass, 40's era doll

26" x 48" x 3"

2011

I particularly like how she uses ripped tar paper to create something that refers to cheap, haphazard, temporary construction of the camps while also seeming to refer to abstract expressionist paintings, like Rothko's deeply emotional black series. 

Hinamatsuri (closeup)

In this piece, ID, you can see the image of a child wearing an internment tag behind a "bar" (a reference to imprisonment I assume) inside one of Wendy's art cabinets.

ID

pine, paper tags, ink

33" x 11.5" x 5"

2008

Landlocked is another "simple" piece that uses common materials, like tar paper and plywood, to convey a direct emotional experience to the viewer. 

Landlocked

wood, tarpaper, nails, found objects

25.5" x 48" x 3"

2011

Landlocked (closeup)

Land of the Free is a diptych made with sliding door cabinets, a faux functional form that Wendy has used several times for this series. It creates a variety of viewing experiences, thereby engaging the viewer to be more personally involved with the work and the past. 

Land of the Free (diptych - first section)

fir, pine, ink, plant materials

7" x 120" x 6"

2011

Land of the Free (diptych - second section)

Land of the Free (diptych - second section, second view)

The piece, Manzanar, refers to the best preserved of the camps which is now a National Historic Site. Although it is, technically, not a diptych like the Land of the Free, it also provides many viewing experiences.

Manzanar

pau ferro, fir, ink, wire, encaustic

7" x 61" x 6"

2009

Manzanar (second view)

I particularly like the curly fir she selected for the sliding doors, I assume because it refers to the mountains that over look the site.

Manzanar (closeup)

You're A Sap Mr. Jap is a black tar paper and nail "painting" that plays a continuous loop of the first Popeye cartoon, of the same name, in the lower right corner. It is a completely racist piece of wartime propaganda which you can view for yourself at this link. Again, the lack of elaborate construction of this piece makes an even more powerful statement than if Wendy dazzled us with elaborate design.

You're A Sap Mr. Jap

tar paper, wood, Popeye cartoon video

48" x 48" x 3"

2008

You're A Sap Mr. Jap (closeup)

I saw this piece, A Question of Loyalty, last year at the Fuller Craft Museum's Furniture Divas show and wrote about it here. The piece quotes what I assume was an oath that Japanese Americans needed to sign, pledging allegiance to the US. The door can be slid to reveal an answer of "YES" or "NO." It is one of the more purely beautiful pieces in the exhibit, being made with live-edge, worm-hole infested, ash.    

A Question of Loyalty

ash, ink

9.5" x 50.5" x 14"

2010

Watch Tower is another deceptive faux cabinet. With the door closed, it looks like just another nice decorative, Asian-inspired wall cabinet that any fine cabinetmaking might build. With the door open, it becomes a work of art that makes a powerful statement.

Watch Tower

pine, sitka spruce, fir, painted wood bowls, glass, ink

31.5" x 17.5" x 7.5"

2008

Zenmetsu is, again, an aesthetically beautiful piece that plays with the concepts of function, art, decoration, and meaning. The English translation of the title is annihilation. In the center, behind some glass, is a pile of broken porcelain.

Zenmetsu

tamo, ash, paper, porcelain shards

7 x 72.5 x 6

2011

Wendy used tamo, a highly figured Japanese ash, for the top and bottom of the "cabinet."

Zenmetsu (top view)

The exhibit also includes historical artifacts from the camps, including some of the art of gaman, crafts and sculptures made by Japanese Americans during their internment, as well as these pieces of historic luggage. They are much more powerful when you read the names on them: June T. Watanabe; Lillian Sasaki; Gii Yoshioka; K. Hongu. I read the names and I think, "Really? Lillian Sasaki intimidated you so much you had to ship her off to an internment camp in the middle of a desert? What could she do? Knit a sweater with her coordinates in morse code?" It helps to clarify how irrational and senseless this part of our history was, and a good reminder to how vigilant we need to be against letting our fears create such irrationality in the future.

Executive Order 9066 will travel to four additional venues into 2015 and I highly recommend seeing it if you get a chance. Here is the schedule:

Arkansas Arts Center, Little Rock, AR, February 1 to April 21, 2013

Arizona State University Art Museum, Tempe, AZ, September 28, 2013 to January 4, 2014

San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, San Jose, CA, March 1 to May 24, 2014

Museum of Craft and Design, San Francisco, CA, October 2, 2014 to January 4, 2015.

Understated Beauty @ Society of Arts and Crafts

In visiting the Society of Arts and Crafts to see their 2012 Artist Awards Exhibit, I was captivated by Abigail Anne Newbold's work, particularly her excavation tools.

Homemaker Series, Transportation with Excavation Tools

Bike and panier with accompanying tools

Paniers: leather, sheepskin, and linen

Tools: walnut with found steel tool heads, brass

2010

©Abigail Anne Newbold

Her combination of finely crafted but old, forgotten (and reclaimed) steel tool heads with gorgeous hand-made wooden handles is simple in concept and understated in execution but stunning to experience. If you get a chance to look at them up close or, better yet, get to touch them, they really are memorable.

Pickax

steel and walnut

Pickax (closeup)

These textured surfaces that she has uncovered from what must have been discarded and rusty tools are just wonderful. In most circumstances, they would probably be overlooked, but she has brought new life into them by celebrating their years of neglect and combining them with beautiful new handles (you can feel their hand-made facets as you hold them).

pitch-rake?

steel, walnut, and brass

pitch-rake? (closeup)

She has also added some fine brass elements to the pitch-forkish rake-like tool (pitch-rake?) above as well as the shovel below. Along with the walnut lumber, it provides an interesting contrast of impractical elegance against utilitarian design.

shovel (closeup)

 

shovel and mini-hoe(?)

steel, walnut, and brass

 I like how the steel raps around the handle on this hoe. I think it reminds me of some kind of old-fashioned candy but I'm having trouble remembering exactly what it is, hard candy? taffy? toffee? I'm not sure, but the style definitely indicates care and fine craft in its making. I think it is wonderful that Abigail could combine it with something impractical so that the work could finally (after so many years of toil and abuse) be appreciated for what it is rather than what it can do.

mini-hoe(?) (closeup)

Whether intended or not, I read her work as a metaphor for life. How scars and toil can be transformed into beauty and how people (not just tools) can and should be appreciated beyond their "practical" value. It is subtle work but I read a real powerful message behind it. 

Modes of Making @ Society of Arts and Crafts

The Society of Arts and Crafts curated an inspiring furniture show that also coincided with the Furniture Society Conference in Boston, titled Modes of Making, and exhibited June 5 to August 14. It features a wide range of art, some functional, some not; some contemporary, some traditional; mostly made of wood, but also some metal.

My favorite piece is, again, one made by Bart Niswonger. His F.O.M. Cabinet, which very much resembles Swiss cheese, is very inventive. I couldn't figure out how he cut the holes so I asked. It turns out he used a vertical mill, a tool I hadn't been familiar with but which is essentially a drill press on steroids used primarily for metal work. Bart made custom cutters for this piece.

FOM Cabinet
Bart Niswonger

I like how SAC painted the wall behind it green, making the piece really stand out. The rest of the gallery was painted off white. They must have thought a lot of it as well since they gave it the prime spot at the entrance.

I also really like this this table by Reagan Furqueron. It is a nice blend of functional and sculptural work with a little bit of humor.

Coffee Table w/Boot
Reagan Furqueron

Another piece with humor is My Casket by Shaun Bullens. The piece includes a video that you can see through a small peep hole on the right side. It shows Shaun pulling the coffin through city streets for about 30 minutes (I didn't watch the whole thing). I was told that the work was inspired by Herman Melville's Moby Dick. It combines fine woodworking, rough carpentry, video art, and conceptual art. The veneer of the base has a fiery motif on the far side as well. I think it is funny that someone would create a casket titled, My Casket, and have offer it for sale. If someone buys it, do you ask for it back when you need it?

My Casket
Shaun Bullens

This sculpture by Sylvie Rosenthal is also conceptual. Titled, Equilibrium: Balance III, it includes sixteen metal cubes engraved with words of emotion -- grief, love, fury, chaos, regret, temptation, joy, terror, compassion, loving kindness, vice, desire, clarity, greed, passion, forgiveness -- below a balance. It entices one to play and find out if these words really create an equilibrium. At least in her sculptural world, they do.

Equilibrium: Balance III
Sylvie Rosenthal

One of the more traditionally designed pieces is this finely crafted chair by Paula Garbarino. The design is original and with the narrow back rest and three legs, it has foot in the contemporary furniture world as well.

Begonia Tripod Chair
Paula Garbarino

Yuri Kobayashi created this purely sculptural piece, Believing. I'm not sure what the title refers to but it reminds me of early Wright Brothers airplanes, perhaps it has something to do with believing and accomplishing the impossible. It is certainly a very complicated construction, looking simultaneously fragile and strong.

Believing
Yuri Kobayashi

I had read on-line that it was made of ash and sterling silver before seeing it in person but couldn't figure out where the silver was so I made a point of looking closely when I got there -- she used silver pins to hold the through tenons in place.
Finally, Will Tracey created these cool Japanesque Flat Head Stools with cherry, poplar, and paint. Seeing them in person once again reminded me how different work looks in photographs. They were chosen for the show post card which somehow gave me the impression that they were much larger. At 18" high, they are actually a good stool height, but they have a very diminutive look that made me double check the dimensions.

Will Tracey
Flat Head Stools

Focus on Wood @ Society of Arts and Crafts: Bizarre, Beautiful, and Dangerous

I was in Boston on Wednesday and got a chance to see the Focus on Wood show at the Society of Arts and Crafts. The show is a really great chance to get a survey of some of the most interesting and inventive artists currently working with wood. I think the stars of the show are Leah Woods' two furniture/sculptures "For Rose Bertin"

©Leah Woods

(for info on Rose Bertin, check here)

and "Undraped"

©Leah Woods

Both are such original designs, and as I've said before, so identifiably feminine. What surprised me the most about "For Rose Bertin" is how large it looks in person. The "skirt/dress" really takes over a room, much more than you would imagine looking at a picture.

Equally unique, and much more bizarre, is this installation piece by Christine Lee.

©Christine Lee

The piece is titled "Shims:Thousands of Uses - Use #21". I'm sure she is correct, there must be thousands of uses for shims and it seems she is making it her life's mission to find them all. Clearly, there is an element of tongue in cheek irony to her work, using one of smallest elements of a construction project to create the subject of construction - walls, buildings, windows. Check out her website and get some design ideas for your next kitchen renovation. A lot of her work focuses on making furniture from recycled, unexpected objects. The shims in this installation will be donated to a home construction charity; Habitat for Humanity?, I don't remember.

Equally bizarre are Matthias Pliessnig's "ad lib" sculptures.

©Matthias Pliessnig

©Matthias Pliessnig

©Matthias Pliessnig

In isolation these small sculptures could be easily dismissed as the strange, unsophisticated ramblings of a madman; but put in context with his breath-taking series of sculpture and furniture, these small pieces can be understood as creating balance in the universe - in artistic form - for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. My theory is that with these sculptures, Matthies is mentally balancing his exquisite, refined, easily appreciated work with things that are more difficult and less "beautiful." It takes a lot of mental energy to create his "beautiful" work; with these "ad lib" pieces, there must be a mental release of tension, a time to relax and use a different part of his brain.

Perhaps the most dangerous piece in the show is this longboard by California furniture maker and architect by Miki Iwasaki. Made with bamboo and various hardwood highlights, but, please note, it is lacking breaks and a seat belt. There should be a warning posted on the underside (perhaps there is) saying (as if one were needed) that one shouldn't race down the side of a mountain a top one of these. You'd think this was self-evident, but apparently not. As much as I've thought about it, I can only think of one way that you can stop this thing once you get going down hill. Great work, but it gives me the willys just looking at it.

©Miki Iwasaki

Jason Schneider's sculptures are the only ones in the show that are both beautiful and bizarre. He calls these "Plungers" although they look an awful lot like his "Wobbly Tops." Maybe he got tired of seeing people try to spin them; with as much time as they take to make, I'm sure it isn't fun having to touch up the paint all the time.

©Jason Schneider

I was also enthralled with Michael de Forest's constructed/deconstructed/sutured/painted vessels. They are very folk arty with none of the simplicity or ease of construction. The two pieces are "Cat Skull Bowl: messenger, stopper of time" and "Storyteller: New Beginning, Teacher, Hoarder".

©Michael De Forest

©Michael De Forest

There is much more to the show than I can describe here; more work that is bizarre, beautiful, and challenging (but, thankfully, no other dangerous work). You can see a portion of these on SOAC's current exhibit page.

Leah Woods at Gallery NAGA

I was in Boston yesterday and was surprised to see Leah Woods work at Gallery NAGA. She designs and builds beautiful, elegant, and feminine sculptural furniture using a lot of elaborate wood bending. She won a Niche Award last year for her wood furniture and I've seen pieces in several magazines. She will also be showing at the Society of Arts and Crafts in Boston next month. I find these two pieces at Gallery NAGA interesting in how it takes items (shoes) that are usually hidden in a closet and takes them out for display as part of a sculpture. I don't think too many men would have thought to do this. It is also a great idea in that shoes that don't get used very often can still be enjoyed as art.
This top one is obviously the woman's shoe version, the one below is the man's version.

Although I can see women's shoes working as art and being on display, I'm not thinking that it works so well for men's shoes. Men just have boring shoes. I think men's shoes start becoming art when they get so over used and worn out that going barefoot is an improvement -- like this (below) Janet Van Fleet sculpture with my old shoes (although I don't think Leah's sculpture would be an appropriate display for it). When I finally stopped wearing them, barefoot was definitely more comfortable. But then, I'm not really the best person to ask about men's or women's fashion. There probably are very nice men's shoes out there that are worthy of display, I would have no idea.

Below is an image of Leah's piece that is featured for the Society of Arts and Craft show. In addition to being very well designed and constructed, I find her work interesting in how feminine it is. I just don't think you could ask a man to design something that would do the same function as that and get something that is so "girlie." Right down to the fine point feet, it just gives you the sense that it was designed by a woman for a woman.