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.

Craft Is Dead . . . Long Live Art

There is a great (and by "great", I mean fantastic!) exhibit at the Renwick Gallery in DC on display until February 3, 2013. Titled, 40 under 40: Craft Futures, it features forty artists under forty years old and has been assembled as an anniversary show in celebration of the museum's fortieth year of operation. Though it was conceived as the Smithsonian American Art Museum's home its "craft and decorative arts" program, I've always wondered how or why certain pieces are deemed "craft" and assigned to the Renwick Gallery, and how other pieces are deemed fine art. Certainly, a Sam Maloof chair, or an Edward Moulthroup turned vase are classical craft pieces, but why are iconic Renwick pieces like Wendell Castle's Ghost Clock or Larry Fuente's Game Fish so deemed? Likewise, why is an artist like Alexander Calder, who worked in metal and wood, and made many works of jewelry, deemed a fine artist. Or why is an artist like Martin Puryear, who uses boat building and furniture making techniques in his wood sculptures, never seen along side pieces by someone like Matthias Pliessnig , who uses similar techniques to create furniture? Is Roy Lichtenstein's Brush Stroke Chair fine art and Judy Kensley McKie's Monkey Settee craft? The truth is, there is no way to define fine art or fine craft that is exclusive of the other and trying to do so only sets up a false dichotomy that has no useful purpose. In the end, art is art and we should evaluate it based on our reaction to it, not by the materials used, the market value, or the history of the artist.

So I was elated to see the current exhibit at the Renwick -- one that I hope everyone should see (and by "everyone", I mean everyone) because the curator, Nicolas Bell, has totally ignored the dichotomy, selecting work based on quality and ignoring, all together, any definition of "craft" other than one that embraces work that is well made.

For example, Shawn Smith's pixelated sculpture of a camp fire, made with small cubes of plywood, titled Between 1 and 0, is much more conceptual than it is aesthetic, and in no way would one normally expect to find it in a show of "craft". 

Between 1 and 0

plywood, acrylic paint, ink

2011
Shawn Smith
Smithsonian American Art Museum collection
Gift of the Washington Design Center; Museum purchase through the Richard T. Evans fund

(photo: Teresa Rafidi)

And Dave Cole's piece, Evolution of the Knitting Needle Through Modern Warfare, is also conceptual, though it does have a tangential association with craft in that he has sculpted a crafting tool, knitting needles, in it. The sculpture is a hypothetical historical look at what knitting needles would have looked like if they had been issued by the US military since the Civil War. It is an amusing and thoughtful piece that you can best see it on his website here.

As an interesting twist on craft versus art, Stephanie Liner's work is a craftcentric conceptual piece that is, in part, about the furniture industry in the south eastern US as well as the fashion industry. For the exhibit, she has a giant egg shaped upholstered furniture/dress on display that a woman can "wear." It also has a window in which viewers can voyeuristically look in (the images on her website give a better understanding of the sculpture).

  Mementos of a Doomed Construct (closeup)
upholstery, plywood, fabric, sequins, yarn, embroidery, adhesive, cardboard
2011
Stephanie Liner
Courtesy of the artist
(photo courtesy of John Michael Kolher Art Center)
  

And then there is Melanie Bilenker's amazing drawings with hair, like Dresser Drawer. Yes it is technically a brooch, and yes, she is technically a jewelry maker, but her work is so much more than jewelry -- it is contemporary art that just happens to be wearable. Its functionality seems to be more of an afterthought or coincidence. By wearing it, the owner becomes a walking art exhibit. Incidentally, the piece is much smaller in person than the image below would imply. To make this "drawing," Melanie would have to have the manual dexterity of neonatal heart surgeon.

Dresser Drawer

2" x 2" x 1/2"

hair, paper, wood, gold, crystal, brass

2011

Melanie Bilenker

 Smithsonian American Art Museum collection

(photo: courtesy of Sienna Gallery)

In contrast to other conceptual artists in the exhibit, Laurel Roth uses a traditional "craft" technique (crocheting) for conceptual purposes. With her Biodiversity Reclamation Suits she has created costumes to disguise common urban pigeons as extinct birds, thereby reclaiming them.

Biodiversity Reclamation Suit: Carolina Parakeet

suit: cotton, silk, bamboo, wool, acrylic blends; mannaquin: hand-carved basswood, acrylic paint, gouache, glass eyes, metal legs, walnut stand

8" x 9" x 13"

2009

Laurel Roth
Courtesy of the artist and Frey Norris Gallery

(photo: Andy Diaz Hope)

 Biodiversity Reclamation Suit: Carolina Parakeet (closeup)

The quality of her "craft" in sculpting and crocheting is exquisite, but the loving/bittersweet humor in the concept of the work is what makes it really special. (Note: The Renwick is hoping to purchase at least one of these birds for their permanent collection through micro donations of $10 or more from the general public. They are really great pieces so, hopefully, they will reach their target. You can learn more at this link.)

Biodiversity Reclamation Suit: Passenger Pigeon

suit: cotton, silk, bamboo, wool, acrylic blends; mannaquin: hand-carved basswood, acrylic paint, gouache, glass eyes, metal legs, walnut stand
8" x 9" x 17"

2008

Laurel Roth
Courtesy of the artist, Frey Norris Gallery, and Schroeder Romero and Shredder Gallery

(photo: Andy Diaz Hope)

 Biodiversity Reclamation Suit: Passenger Pigeon (closeup)

And in Food #6, Pistols, you can see the beauty of her unadorned wood sculpture -- in this case a jaw bone of a fairly small cow that references a pair of dueling pistols. Is it craft because it is made of wood? No, it is in a "craft" show because it is made so darn well!

Food #6, Pistols

pistols: walnut, gold leaf, Swarovski crystals, bronze

case: velvet, walnut

20" x 15" x 3.75"

2009

Laurel Roth

Courtesy of the artist, Frey Norris Gallery

(photo: Andy Diaz Hope)

Thankfully, the curator also included works in the show that are classically seen as "craft," thereby further helping to tear down the false dichotomy of art and craft. Matt Moulthrop's untitled wood turning is an example of this,

Untitled

red maple

2008

Matt Moulthrop

Smithsonian American Art Museum collection

Gift of Dan Greenberg and Susan Steinhauser

 as is Jamin Uticone's black ash woven basket.

Urban Pack Basket

black ash, vegetable-tanned hide, brass fittings

2011

Jamin Uticone

Smithsonian American Art Museum collection

Gift of Martha G. Ware and Steven R. Cole 

Both of these artists apprenticed for long periods to learn their chosen fields (Matt for nine years and Jamine for six) but, regardless of the functionality, or lack there of, of their products, their work is remarkable as much for its devotion and vision as it is for its artistry.

Likewise, there are a number of participants in the exhibit that straddle the line between traditional craft and fine art. Including Jeffrey Clancy, whose Tea For One at first appears to be just a funny looking gun but in reality is an art teapot. Technically, it is functional but its function isn't the point, rather, its high level of craft helps the artist make a statement. It is beautify, humorous, and poignant all at once.

Tea For One

silver and mahogany

6" x 10" x 4"

2002

Jeffrey Clancy

Smithsonian American Art Museum collection

purchase made possible by the Charles and Margret Craver Withers Bequest

 

Andy Paiko's exquisite Spinning Wheel also falls in this category. It is a beautiful and delicate sculptural object that is perfect on its own, without being associated with any function, but it is also a fully functional object that can be used to spin yarn. The combination of the seemingly contradictory elements make the viewer see the object in a new way. 

Spinning Wheel

blown glass, cocobolo, steel, brass, leather

2007

Andy Paiko
Smithsonian American Art Museum collection
Gift of Peg and Bob Van Andel 

(photo: Andy Paiko)

 Spinning Wheel (closeup)

A video of the piece in action can be seen here. 

There is also work that leans more to function but that is designed to such a high level that it is equally fine art, such as Christy Oates' ingenious Crane Chair that, when it isn't being used as a chair, folds up and functions as a wall hanging (see more images here to understand how it works).

 Crane Chair

laser cut and engraved plywood, maple veneer, bungee cord

acrylic paint, wood dyes

2009

Christy Oates
Smithsonian American Art Museum collection
Gift of Leon and Miriam Ellsworth 

(photo; Christy Oates)

Along the same lines is her Mosquito Lamp (more images here).

Mosquito Lamp

laser cut and engraved plywood, maple veneer, bungee cord

acrylic paint, wood dyes

2009

Christy Oates

Smithsonian American Art Museum collection

Gift of Myra and Stephen Kurzbard 

(photo: Christy Oates) 

There were also two representatives of the new movement of ecologically conscience good design. Daniel Michalik's 3/1 Chair is one such object because it uses reclaimed cork (there by recycling an already renewable resource) and formaldehyde free FSC-certified plywood with low-VOC paints.

 3/1 Chair

recycled cork

FSC-certified plywood, low-VOC paint
2011

Daniel Michalik
Smithsonian American Art Museum collection
Gift of Phyllis and Sidney Bresler in memory of Charles S. Bresler and in 
honor of Fleur Bresler
photo by Daniel Michalik  

Also represented in this group is the Cyclone Lounger by Uhuru, the design team of Jason Horvath and Bill Hilgendorf, because is uses reclaimed boards from the Coney Island Boardwalk. In making the piece they did a nice job in referencing the roller coaster of the amusement park from which it came.

Cyclone Lounger

reclaimed Coney Island Boardwalk (ipe), laser cut powder-coated steal base

2010

Uhuru

 Smithsonian American Art Museum collection

Gift of Bill Hilgendorf and Jason Horvath in memory of Cynthia Bricker Hilgendorf; Gift of Fern Bleckner in celebration of Etta B. Brown's ninety-fifth birthday; and  

Gift of Shirley Jacobs

(photo: Uhuru Design)

Christy Oates' E-Waste Project piece is also ecologically conscience but more in a conceptual way than in actual materials used. In creating the piece, a highly detailed work of marquetry, she photographed the process and made a companion stop action video that highlights the issue of e-waste. I had commented on the video many months ago after stumbling across it somewhere and was blown away by the brilliance of the concept, execution, and the shear fortitude in assembling the thousands of small pieces of veneer.

E-Waste Project

12 various wood veneers

2011

Christy Oates

Courtesy of the artist

(photo: Christy Oates)

 E-Waste Project (closeup)

An interesting aspect of the piece, especially in this show, is how she takes a traditional "craft" technique like marquetry and creates it with computers, robots, and lasers. Yes, it is still a "craft," but the techniques used to make it are no more craft than an iPhone. You can view the video below to get a better understanding of the piece. Although interesting and beautiful on its own, I don't think it really makes sense as a stand alone piece without the video.

Additionally, an interesting aspect of the show are the videos that the Smithsonian American  Art Museum asked the participating artists to create videos as a way to introduce themselves to the public and, perhaps also, provide some information about their process. With forty artists, there is a lot to look at but it is well worth viewing, especially if you want to learn more about specific artists. You can see all of them here, but if you just want to look at a few, I highly recommend the videos of Christy Oates, Olek, Gabriel Craig, Shawn Smith, and Melanie Bilenker. If you look at the videos you'll notice many great artists working in many different media. I've restricted my review to works made with wood because I have to draw the line, otherwise I would be spending all my time writing. For example, what would stop me from saying how I absolutely love Vivian Beer's work, and then how do I stop from talking about Olek, or Cristina Cordova, and then it is all down hill from there.

And finally, I just want to emphasize again what a great show this is, not just in terms of the quality of individual pieces, but in the overall selection of the work. The curator, Nicolas Bell, showed a lot of courage and vision in ignoring convention.Yes, each piece in the show is great, but the sum of the works says more than the individual pieces. As a group they make a commanding statement. To me, it says that finally, we can forget about fine craft and fine art definitions and just talk about the quality of the art. Craft is dead . . . long live art.

Building A Canoe: Steps VIII, IX, X

Part VIII - Fiberglass The Outside
After cleaning up the outside, the next step is to seal the wood with epoxy before starting the fiberglassing. I'm using West System's 105 resin and 206 slow hardener. For this size project, Gil Gilpatrick says you would need two containers of the "Group B" units, which is about a gallon container of the 105 resin. I really like West System's measuring pumps, which makes accurate dispensing so easy. The directions say that slow hardener shouldn't be used if temperatures go below 60 degrees (the directions warn about it possibly not curing at all), so it was fine for September, but I switched to the fast hardener, 205, for fiberglassing the inside, which I did in October. Actually, I found that 206 still works with night temperatures going down into the forties, it just takes longer. Anyway, the sealing process is the easiest part of the whole project, it just took a few minutes to mix up the epoxy and spread in out in a thin film over the hull.

After lightly sanding the surface, I reinforced the stems, as Gil recommends, with two layers of fiberglass on the bottom part of the stem and one layer on the front section. This is good practice for learning how to work with epoxying fiberglass. My work wasn't perfect but it can be sanded smooth enough and another layer or two of fiberglass goes over it anyway.

 Reinforced Stem

I should have taken a picture of the fiberglass before epoxying the hull. There are actually two layers on the bottom, one being an (American) football shape, the other covering the entire outside. I found the process of wetting out the fiberglass with the epoxy and getting it smooth to be very stressful because of the importance of finishing before it starts to harden. It is probably best done with two people, preferably with at least one person knowing what they are doing, but, all the same, it was doable. The biggest problem I had was in rapping the fiberglass around the stem. I ended up with a bit of a mess, partly because of inexperience but also because, when I read Gil's instructions I didn't turn the page and look at his picture, which would have clarified exactly what to do. Oh well, I figured I could clean it up with my Festool sander when it hardened, which I did. Problem solved.

It ended up taking about 3.5 hours (with a temperature of 77 degrees at 1:00 when I started) to wet-out the fiberglass (with epoxy squeegee cards) and by the time I was done, the first part had set up too much to be manipulated any more. I should have gone over the first part with a roller when I was halfway done, so the job wasn't as smooth as I would have liked.  

 Fiberglass Outside

After cleaning up the purely amerature, but passable, epoxy job, spreading out a second coat of epoxy was easy. Gil says that a third coat may be needed to fill all the fiberglass fibers, and mine were definitely not all filled, but other people I've talked with recommending using as little epoxy as possible because it adds too much weight and just looks bad the more there is. Better to clean it up and add many coats of varnish after the second layer of epoxy, so that's what I'm doing. 

 After Two Coats of Epoxy

Part IX - Clean Up The Inside
In turning the canoe over, I finally had to deal with cleaning up the inside -- not a particularly appealing task given the difficulties I had created for myself.

Start Cleaning Inside

Here is a better view of the hundreds of dowels (approximately 1500) I had sticking through the hull. I trimmed them with my dozuki (Japanese pull saw) before pulling out my Festool sander/grinder again. Because it was impossible to trim them flush, it was difficult to keep the remaining dowels from tearing up the sanding pads. Eventually, I managed to get it reasonably smooth with 40 grit paper before switching to 60 grit. After 60 grit, I started filling gaps with epoxy again, and then cleaned that up with 80 grit paper. I went over it with 120 paper before going back and rubbing it out with 100 grit by hand.

The hardest part was cleaning out the stems. I had to use chisels and coarse paper to get it reasonably clean. As long as no one is inspecting it with a flashlight, it should be good.

Unfortunately, the canoe flattened out as it rested on the saw horses without the forms. I added some support but it really didn't help much.

Part X - Fiberglass The Inside
So I put it on the ground before sealing with a first coat of epoxy. Again, pretty darn easy process. I used one of those cheap disposable Chinese brushes to get epoxy in the stems.

 Inside Sealed with Epoxy

I had to sign it before epoxying the inside and debated how to date it. I'm not sure that I'll finish this year but didn't want to pre-date it either. I decided to be optimistic and sign it 2012.

I decided I'd better pull the sides together before fiberglassing the inside for fear it would be too difficult to do after the fact. I used the forms to be sure I got the dimensions right.

I was fairly nervous about fiberglassing the inside. Gil's description made it seem pretty difficult and he ends the discussion with what I preceived to be hallow words of encouragement -- "You can do it!" I took this to mean, "I can't do it and it will look shitty" and thought it might make sense to do it in two sections that overlapped. My neighbor, who hadn't built a canoe but has plenty of fiberglass experience thought this was a good idea, but luckily I ran into a friend, who has built a canoe, the day I was going to do it and he talked me out of it -- just one piece, one time. 

It went smoother than I expected and only took 2 hours. The inside stems where much easier than the outside because Gil recommended just cutting the fiberglass short and not worrying about getting it in there.

I thought it looked pretty good when I was done and I had time to go over it several times before it set up but, unfortunately, the next morning I noticed a lot of ridges in the fiberglass. I guess I didn't pull the fabric tight enough as I was wetting it out. Oh well, again, this is what the Festool sander is for (and no, they aren't paying me to say this but I certainly wouldn't mind if they did). Of course, sanding it smooth really thinned out, or totally removed, the fiberglass in some small areas, but I'm thinking that on the inside it isn't going to make much of a difference.

Unsightly Fiberglass Ridges  

And here it is after the second coat of epoxy. It has settled a bit again. Though the width should be a little less than 35 inches, and it is about 38 here, I should be able to pull it back into shape when I add the yoke and seats. 

Fiberglassing Done!