Mitchell photo: Katherine Chan / Johnston and MacDowell photos: Dan Kvitka /Johnston photo: Courtesy of a private collector
Opposite:
W ar Boutique
Bak-2-skool,
2008
flak jackets, fabric
31.5
X
71
X
2 in.
Above:
Allyson Mitchell
Hungry Purse:
The Vagina Dentata in
Late Capitalism,
2010
mixed-media
installation
9 x 12 x 12 ft.
Right (top):
Amy Johnston
Did Dolly Dream
of a Bio Morn ?,
2010
cast sterling silver
4x3.5x1m.
Right (bottom):
Kate MacDowell
Taking Root 2,
2010
handbuilt porcelain
4.5 x4.5 x1m.
current relationship with the
natural world.
Still, other works are genu-
inely optimistic. Husband-
and-wife team Paul Roden and
Valerie Lueth, collectively
known as Tugboat Printshop,
produced the woodblock print
America the Beautiful
, 2009;
the painstakingly hand-carved
blocks used to create it cele-
brate skillful production. It also
provides a buoyant, brightly
colored portrait of the nation’s
varied and unmarred
topography.
Other works forgo socio-
political engagement, exploring
instead the ever more-indistinct
boundaries dividing art and
craft. For example, the brilliant
work of Canadian ceramist Julie
Moon, whose multimedia
pieces
Seat, Birdie
, and
Untitled
(Scales With Ruffles),
all 2010,
each recall the anatomically
inspired sculptures of French-
American sculptor Louise
Bourgeois while glorifying
(and feminizing) the inherently
imperfect organic form.
The exhibition’s single flaw
may be its title, which suggests
a survey of craft as the new cot-
tage industry, as an innovative
populist movement. Certainly,
some of these elements are pres-
ent; yet nearly all the artists
featured have gallery represen-
tation or MFAs. Looking deep-
er, the show reveals a meta-
phorical change to architect
Louis Sullivan’s maxim “Form
follows function.” In DIY,
practical function often equals
deeper meaning, which can be
as exceptional as the forms over
which the artists labor. And
such pointed messages, work-
ing in concert with remarkable
designs, surely contribute to a
revolution of consciousness.
+
Savannah Schroll Guz is an art
critic for
Pittsburgh City Paper,
a monthly review columnist for
Library Journal,
and author of
two short fiction collections.
fcb/m arn american craft 027
