crafts

Fine Lines ’12, Jewelry by Yoshiko Yamamoto / Keiko Gallery, Boston, USA
March 3 – April 4, 2012

Opening Reception: March 3, 3:00pm — 6:00pm

Since no theme was suggested by the gallery for this exhibition, I fully embraced the freedom to choose my own materials and subject matter.

As I have quite a few collections of copper, monofilament and silver wire, I decided to use the `domestic crafts` of knitting and crocheting to approach the work. The copper wire was already colored and the nylon monofilament was hand-dyed. The 34 gauge colored copper wire has a silky quality that I could treat as soft, fine thread. When tightly crocheted, the material became stiff and I was able to transform its character into a wearable piece. Just like copper wire, monofilament is a marvelous material for knitting and crocheting. The difference is that nylon needs a more taming approach because of its unyielding nature.

I also decided to make jewelry using wire. One reason is that I wanted to create the jewelry / object based on lines. I used very thin fine silver wire coiled up, then flattered and fused into various shapes that became stronger as I worked. The end product was quite an exciting discovery. The gold wire jewelry required a degree of precision. These works are based on the traditional processes and craftsmanship yet the end product is much different than conventional gold work.

The four self-portraits are important to me as it expressed my physical dysfunction at that time. Annoyingly, a pinch wouldn’t allow me to go to my studio, so I was looking at myself with both frustration and hope. These figures are spontaneously depictions of my feelings.

Keiko Gallery is one of the most appreciated art galleries in the US that focuses on Japanese art - from ceramics to the innovative lacquer art, textiles, jewelry and painting.
View our special feature on Japanese artists from Keiko Gallery, October 2011.

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Swept Away: Dust, Ashes, and Dirt in Contemporary Art and Design / MAD Museum, New York
February 7 - August 12, 2012

MAD (The Museum of Arts and Design) has explored the intersection of traditional or unusual materials and techniques as viewed through the lens of contemporary art and design in a series of exhibitions that include Radical Lace and Subversive Knitting; Second Lives: Remixing the Ordinary; Slash: Paper Under the Knife; Dead or Alive: Nature Becomes Art; and Otherworldly: Optical Delusions and Small Realities.

The next investigation into unusual mediums features an international group of artists whose major materials are dust, ashes, dirt, and sand. Swept Away: Dust, Ashes, and Dirt in Contemporary Art and Design will highlight works that deal with issues such as the ephemeral nature of art and life, the quality and content of memory, issues of loss and disintegration, and the detritus of human existence. Sculptures made from ash by Chinese artist Zhang Huan, life-size sculptures of unfired dirt by American artist James Croak, and works created from city smog by American artist Kim Abeles, among others, illustrate the transformative potential of humble, overlooked, and discarded materials.

Swept Away Projects
February 28, 2012 - May 14, 2012

An extension of the Swept Away exhibition, Swept Away Projects will include a series of “live” installations occurring during the run of the exhibition that will allow audiences to experience and interact with artists and their site-specific installations made of ash, dust, sand, and dirt. The series includes a dust installation by Croatian Igor Eskinja, a sand installation by German artist Elvira Wersche, and a chalk installation by British artist Linda Florence. In some instances, visitor will actually get to sweep away the installations by walking through and touching them, participating in the ephemeral nature of these artists’ output.

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Katharine Morling’s profile on Ceramics Now Magazine - View her works

Katharine Morling is a ceramic artist best known for her life-size black and white sculptures full of quirky, graphic details of domestic objects such as tables, chairs, ladders and lockers. Although she calls herself a ‘3D person’, drawing is very important to Katharine because her sculptures are sketches of furniture items which plays with the viewer’s preconceptions about material and functionality. She crates animated scenes with an unusually dynamic appearance for the medium of ceramics.

The objects can be described as 3 Dimensional drawings, but at first the true nature of the material is not clear: paper or fabric? However, it is clearly ceramic. The eye then re-adjusts within the context of the memories which the material holds. The tactile experience grounds the viewer with the materials solid, cold, hard and fragile reality.

The pieces work together in a tableau staging still lives of everyday objects: table and chairs, tools and cases. Stories start to unravel in the viewer mind: the box that is locked the keys in an open draw. Toys in a case resonate with nostalgia and fantasy. A ladder propped agents a wall suggests that these toys could spring to life and lead an independent existence. A slightly surreal experience is crates when one walks amongst this strange life-sizes tableau.

The monochrome works are mainly porcelain or crank covered in a porcelain slip, before firing a black slip is painted on outlining the works with some details such as a handle or lock painted in.

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