Objects Redux at Santa Fe's Form & Concept gallery

Fifty years ago, a hugely impactful exhibit of studio craft, Objects:  USA, opened at the Smithsonian's American Art Museum.  The work of three hundred craft artists was featured, and the exhibit traveled around the US and Europe.  This show is credited with sparking a wave of craft collecting by both museums and private collectors and a new openness to showing fine craft alongside fine art.  The artists in that show were and are legends in their field, and many of them taught future generations of craft artists.

Now to mark the anniversary of that show, the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft has organized the exhibit Objects: Redux: Fifty Years of Craft Evolution and traveled it to Santa Fe, bringing together work by artists from the first show alongside work by contemporary artists working in craft and mixed media.  I attended the opening of the show in Santa Fe, a gallery talk the next day by Houston curator Kathryn Hall and William Dunn of Form & Concept gallery. . . and I will return for a third visit to study these works some more.  Hall and Dunn emphasized that the Redux exhibit is not intended to present "the best" artists or work from then and now.  Rather, the intent is to present work from both periods that shows artists experimenting with materials and responding to the issues and events of their time.

For me the show is intriguing for several reasons.  First, there are stunning works by renowned weavers such as Hal Painter, Trude Guermonprez, Kay Sekimachi and Chinami and Rowland Ricketts.  There is a gorgeous chest by George Nakashima, three glowing knitted wire collars by Arline Fisch, and a luminous mahogany charger by Bob Stocksdale.  This work responds above all to the limits and possibilities of materials.  All of these works show the fine finishes, expert skill, and elegant unity of, well, form and concept in pure craft media.  These are qualities that I was taught to venerate in fine craft.  (I am the daughter of a woodworker who taught me to appreciate the precise, perfect dovetails and the silky finish of fine cabinetry.)  These works are perfectly executed and visually gorgeous.

Hal Painter, Wedded Rocks, 1980. Handwoven tapestry. 

detail, Hal Painter, Wedded Rocks, 1980. Handwoven tapestry.

Trude Guermonprez, Banner, 1965.  Silk hanging. Courtesy Forrest L. Merrill collection

detail, Trude Guermonprez, Banner, 1965.  Silk hanging. Courtesy Forrest L. Merrill collection

Kay Sekimachi, Ogawa II, 1969.  Nylon monofilament, glass beads, clear plastic tubes.
Courtesy Forrest L. Merrill collection

detail, Kay Sekimachi, Ogawa II, 1969.  Nylon monofilament, glass beads, clear plastic tubes.
Courtesy Forrest L. Merrill collection.  Photo by Sam Elkind

Chinami Ricketts, Noshime Plaid, 2019.  Indigo-dyed brown cotton, plain weave.

detail, Chinami Ricketts, Noshime Plaid, 2019.  Indigo-dyed brown cotton, plain weave.

George Nakashima, Kornblut Case, c. 197o.  Black walnut, maple burl.
Courtesy of Hunt Modern

Bob Stocksdale, Charger, 1986.  Mahoghany.
Courtesy Forrest L. Merrill collection
Nut with Spoon and Dish, 1970, silver, by Robert Ebendorf (left).
Untitled Vase, 1990s, silver by John Marshall (right). 

Just look at the beautiful detail on this silver vase! 

detail, John Marshall, Untitled Vase, 1990s, silver.
photo by Sam Elkind

Arline Fisch, Knitted Round Beads, 2017.  Coated copper wire, silver magnet clasp. 

Objects: Redux includes the work of contemporary artists that is for me at least a little more challenging to love on first sight, though I may eventually come around.  These artists have in many cases moved away from precious materials, away from a focus on a single medium or process, away from perfect finishes and elegant aesthetics toward something rougher, funkier, more mixed-media, ironic and critical.  These works challenge me to move beyond my expectation that work in craft media must be visually appealing above all (which is another way of saying it must please me and conform to my expectations if it wants my approval, right?).  These works pose questions and provoke puzzlement, consternation and conversation.

And yet all of this is of course characteristic of the broader movement in modern and contemporary art on the whole, away from "the beautiful"  toward a fraught engagement with issues other than perfectly elegant form and finish.  These artists whose work is more prickly are offering stories about their own identities and communities and investigating the history and culture around their materials.

Yuri Kobayashi, Curio, 2015.  Ash. 

detail, Yuri Kobayashi, Curio, 2015.  Ash. 

Josh Fought compiled a textile as an imaginative portrait of an ex-boyfriend.  It's meant to be discontinuous, puzzling, and multi-faceted.  It might be tempting to dismiss it as "sloppy" craft,  but there's more to it than that.  Faught is opening up textiles to voices, narratives, and ways of telling a story that haven't been so overtly included before.

Josh Faught, Max, 2014.  Handwoven silver lamé and hemp, nail polish, sequin trim, spill (resin) with broken Cathy mug, giant clothes pin, denim, silk, wine glass, toilet paper on cedar support

detail, Josh Faught, Max, 2014.  Handwoven silver lamé and hemp, nail polish, sequin trim, spill (resin) with broken Cathy mug, giant clothes pin, denim, silk, wine glass, toilet paper on cedar support

The Rickettses, Rowland and Chinami, grow and harvest indigo in traditional ways.  Rowland's work references the complicated role of indigo in American history and the integral part it played in the "triangle trade" that included human trafficking.

Rowland Ricketts, Unbound-Series 1 No. 4, 2016-2018.  Indigo and madder-dyed linen, undyed wool. 

detail, Rowland Ricketts, Unbound-Series 1 No. 4, 2016-2018.  Indigo and madder-dyed linen, undyed wool. 

Jennifer Ling Datchuk, recently awarded a United States Artist Fellowship in Craft, has done a take on macrame plant hangers that repays close examination.  The fibers she uses for the macrame are synthetic brightly colored human hair sourced from China via e-Bay.  The plant containers are blue and white ceramics chosen to reference Chinese and Dutch porcelain.  Datchuk says her use of "handwork, hair and ceramics [is] emblematic of the small rituals that fix, smooth over and ground women's lives."

Jennifer Ling Datchuk, Loving Care, 2019.  Porcelain, fake hair, porcelain beads from Jingdezhen, China, rope, ferns.  Made in collaboration with Marta Francine.
Background:  Arline Fisch, Knitted Round Beads and Silver and Lavender

MJ Tyson makes metal objects and jewelry from jewelry and household goods sourced from estate sales.  The pieces are formed from an unstable blend of metals--she fully expects them to degrade and fall apart over time.  The curator mentioned how disconcerting it was to unpack the crate containing Tyson's work and find bits and pieces that had fallen off the work.  Old stories are subsumed in new ones, and very concept of what is precious is called into question.

MJ Tyson, 102 Garden Hills Drive, 2017, personal objects belonging to the deceased residents of 102 Garden Hills Drive
On wall:  Rowland Ricketts, Drawings, 2019, composted indigo leaves, wood ash, lime, wheat bran, wool felt

MJ Tyson, 16 Summit Road, 2018, personal objects belonging to the deceased residents of 16 Summit Road

Those of us who work in craft media are continually re-assessing our approach to our materials, our subjects, and our methods.  Today we can make and show work that is startlingly raw, rough and confrontational if we choose.  If we are lucky our work contributes meaningfully to the wider conversation always going on between artist and artist and artist and viewer.  Objects: Redux will run through March 17 at Santa Fe's Form & Concept gallery.