My Saturday of Craft

Sometimes you need to take a day to immerse yourself in things that you love. Yesterday I made Saturday my day of Craft. My first stop was Craft Ontario where I saw a lovely exhibition called “Sensorial Objects.” As someone who studies the senses this was a must see. Any exhibition description that quotes Pallasmaa in its curatorial statement is one that I have to visit. The artists are all either current or former faculty in the Fibre department at OCAD and what was the most fascinating about the pieces were the found and maker philosophy behind them. The tactility of the pieces reinforced a connection that is often lost. It is this lost connection that Janna Hiemstra mentions in the exhibition catalogue: “When walking down a busy city street, we edit out most of the sights, sounds, smells and textures, only attending to indications and gestures that allow us to efficiently navigate between fast moving people and vehicles.” There are three or four pieces in this exhibition that pull me out of my editorial frame and allow me to “efficiently navigate” this space. Monica Bodirsky’s “Hairball” and “Women” reinforces how found pieces can become tactile embodiments of space; each of these pieces creates its own architecture. The attention to detail, especially in “Women,” shows how art does not reside in one space, or solely within a curated gallery, but rather in the everyday sensorial interactions. Eva Ennist’s “Basket of Currency” is a piece that functions on many interpretative planes. The shape and bronze gives a permanence to the piece as she states in the exhibition catalogue, but it also opens itself up to a larger parallels to the body and space.  It is a very thought provoking piece. The highlight for me was Dorie Millerson’s “Key” and “Window.” These intricate pieces reveal the architecture at the heart of craft and I could not help but stare at them for a long while. The lace construction necessarily reinforces the need to assess the unused or liminal spaces that exist in our lived space. Taken together the exhibition was a lovely take on how the tactile is at the heart of craft and it was a wonderful way to start the day. I even had the opportunity to discuss craft further with the person working there that day and I received this really great button which I will be wearing with pride. The exhibit is on at Craft Ontario until May 2^nd.  You can find out more at craftontario.com

                My second stop in my Saturday of craft was the library to sit down and do a bit more research on Ruskin (of course). I found a really great source that discusses Ruskin’s hand which is going to be very usefully when I edit the paper I shall be presenting at Birkbeck in July.

                My third and final stop with the William Morris Society of Canada’s birthday celebration for Morris. It was a lovely day which included a breath-taking cake but I will be blogging about this more in-depth at the Journal of Victorian Culture Online so be sure to look for it!

                I declare Saturday of craft a success and suggest you all find a day of craft to celebrate soon. It does the body and mind good to stop and assess how the work of hands creates the elements through which we negotiate society.