R E V I E W E D
Below:
UUa West,
Divided
Heart,
2004, plastic
bags, crochet
{h. 9% in, w. 7% in,
d. 7% in}.
Collectively, the works, by
10
artists, not only
challenge Stylistic assumptions, but also suggest
a rupture with modernist principles.
and shapes. As each form begins to curl in
and enclose, a suggestion of interior spaces,
it quickly opens back up to another exte-
rior. Her work is a rigorous investigation of
interior and exterior, positive and nega-
tive, containment and release, form and
line. But it blurs those perceived binaries,
proposing that not everything need be re-
solved into an either/or.
For Frida Fjellman (Sweden), the
debased associations with kitsch are
a strength. A large ceramic fox lies in the
corner in weary repose, and glass owls
adorn a chandelier that is by turns ornate
and tacky. It’s as if fussy figurines have
been enlarged with the result that all the
sentimental attachments one might ascribe
to them expand to reveal a greater emo-
tional complexity.
Anni Rapinoja (Finland ) and Ulla
West (Sweden) both turn found material
into quasi-functional forms. Rapinoja col-
lects purple reeds and white pussy willows,
but skips any processing step and uses
them straight from nature to create a coat,
hat, shoes and purse. The forms are alter-
nately stylish and fragile, inviting us to
wear them, but threatening disintegration
should we do so. By contrast, West col-
lects postconsumer waste such as discard-
ed plastic shopping bags and crochets
them into ropey tangled networks with lit
tips. They look like organs—a heart, a
stomach, intestines. Examining Rapinoja’s
work next to West’s, the viewer is invited
to reconsider the strategies through which
we interact with our natural and our man-
made surroundings.
A cross-culural form is achieved by
Trine Mauritz Eriksen (Norway), who
subjects Norwegian wool to the Japanese
shibori dyeing technique and then mounts
thin woolen strips vertically on a metal
frame, some hung flat, some twisted. The
result is like an activated Bridget Riley
painting. But instead of flat paint, Eriksen’s
form rises up and twists away from the
picture plane so that as the viewer shifts
position, so does the image. It unfixes any
proposed singular viewpoint of a “paint-
ing” and reveals that multiplicity
Against
fhe Grain
S T O R Y B Y
Erik Scollon
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
Irreverent: Contemporary Nordic Craft Art
January 23-April 12,2009
San Francisco, California
ybca.org
For manjr, the idea of Scandinavian craft
evokes simple but elegant lines, an emphasis
on functionality and a modernist aesthetic
that generates objects for an everyperson
ideal. “Irreverent: Contemporary Nordic
Craft A rt,” at the Yerba Buena Center for
the Arts, asks us to reconsider those pre-
suppositions. Collectively, the works, by to
artists, not only challenge stylistic assump-
tions, but also suggest a rupture with mod-
ernist principles. Democratic design, like
modernist aesthetics, can be alternately
liberating and oppressive, promising equality
for all, but sacrificing the quirks and plea-
sures of individual personality. This show
makes a case for those idiosyncrasies.
The work of Eva Hild (Sweden) bears
the trace of the sleek lines and sensuous
curves usually associated with Scandina-
vian modernism, but taken to the nth de-
gree. Her white stoneware constructions
are a symphony of interwoven lines, spaces
038
american craft
apr/may09
