In From the Garden: An Exhibition of Establishing Makers
6 June – 18 July 2009
Objectspace, Auckland
The introductory wall text for this exhibition says that it is about two main issues: ‘the skilled terrain of craft practice’ that is related to, but not the same as, fine art; and the way in which Objectspace can intervene in the craft sector and support newish makers. The second appears to be the major impulse behind the show, with the text making it clear that ‘In from the garden is intended to look closer at four makers from around New Zealand who, currently at this period in their respective careers, are staying the course and readying to settle in for the long haul.’ The four are jewellers Renee Bevan and Victoria McIntosh, ceramist Blue Black, and sculptor/woodworker Ben Pearce.
Talking of practical things first: the show is nicely installed in the gallery. There is not a huge amount of work – I counted sixteen individual works, some of which are made up of groups of objects – and the gallery feels spacious, but it doesn’t feel underdone or empty, either. Sensibly I think the curator Matt Blomeley has recognised the conceptual and visual complexity of a lot of these objects, and given them plenty of space. There is a catalogue, a foldout brochure with a text about the show and each artist, and a few pictures of their work (inadequate to capture the experience in the case of Black and Pearce, since the photos feature a single object when both are represented in the show by multiple part works). The work is displayed on plinths of different sizes and heights (Black’s large work stands directly on the floor), and there is plenty of wall text. Along with the introduction on the side wall, each artist has an introductory text on a metal stand, providing a reasonably detailed analysis of their work and the kinds of issues they address. All of which is to say that you come away with a very good sense of the exhibition’s agenda, and the agendas of these practices.
Blomeley pays good attention to the first issue spelt out in the introductory wall text, keeping in mind what it means to locate these practices in the realm of craft, rather than art. Black, for example, embraces ‘expressive processes’ as an antidote to a period ‘when it often seems every aspect of the craft process is over-investigated for relevance in order to be vindicated, sometimes stifling free expression’. And ‘Ben Pearce’s practice illustrates the value of tinkering around in the studio with conceptual ideas and technical craft skills ready to be freely deployed.’ There is plenty made of skill, of the fact that these makers persist with the handmade, the highly skilled, the finely worked, as being part of what it means that these individuals (with the exception of Pearce, who did a sculpture degree, a BA in fine art), all graduated from tertiary craft courses (jewellery and metalsmithing at Otago, ceramics and drawing at Otago, and jewellery at MIT).
Of course, the bit where this show fails is in tackling the second agenda; and it fails because this isn’t something that is actually an exhibition theme. The show itself, the event, the publication, the critical dialogue and attention, the (hopefully) extra sales, is how Objectspace can support such emerging craftspeople, and all of this takes place outside of the show, which is the trigger or catalyst only. This is a show about something that can’t be represented or achieved within the gallery, or through the tools of the curator. And what that means is that the show itself never really transcends the presentations of individual practices – we are not expected or really encouraged, beyond an amorphous notion of skill, to draw links between artists and objects. This is like four individual exhibitions that are linked only in that they inhabit the gallery at the same time.
The reason for this is not hard to find: the sad truth is that there just isn’t a great deal of depth in New Zealand craft at any stage of craft careers, and there are obviously hardly any makers of sufficient quality who are not recently graduated (i.e. have been out of school for at least four years), or mid career. As a result, you can’t put together a great craft show on a theme that will assist makers at this point in their careers. If you want to assist this group, you are reduced to making that your theme. Part of me knows that you could get a bit more depth out of jewellery than most other crafts, so another factor must be Objectspace’s desire to embrace more than contemporary adornment. But, like Blomeley, I would err on the side of caution and argue that we lack depth, and that this surely must be a cause for concern. What the show can’t address – and perhaps it needs to – are the sociological issues at play here. What happens to all the good graduates (assuming they exist)? Why don’t they carry on to become mid-career craftspeople? Such issues are of course beyond the scope of an exhibition, which both makes this a failure and a really timely intervention if it assists these particular individuals and gets the rest of us thinking about the causes – and what to do about it.
What happens, though, if we take the show at face value, as a display of four practices? Well, it is a great opportunity to see some nice work. Jewellery-wise, both Renee Bevan and Victoria McIntosh perform credibly. Bevan’s new Favourite Varieties (2009) brooches with the addition of dimensionality are really sweet, perfectly set off by the pastel hues of the plinth surfaces. It is not a radical leap forward within her work, but a satisfying development of the rose, one of her ongoing areas of investigation. Blomeley gets it exactly right when he describes them as ‘kind of clunky yet elegant and not entirely disposed of their former glory’.
And I found McIntosh’s Patty Tin Brooches (2009) to be exactly pitched: interventions with found materials that don’t give up all their secrets immediately, the combination of materials – especially the mother of pearl and pearls – to introduce a resistance to analysis that ensures these works retain our interest. (I might be particularly slow, but it was only on the second viewing that I understood the title and its physical connection to the work.) In Harm’s Way (2008) is not so successful in my opinion: an overly sentimental exploration of McIntosh’s autobiography that, in framing her objects on the wall, denies them all the power they would muster as objects.
The standout would have to be Ben Pearce, whose Great Grandfather Clock (2009) and 28 Various Preservations (2009) are some of the weirdest and most satisfying objects I’ve seen for a while. Hobbyist skills and wood turning get a conceptual make-over and the result is a perfect melding of making and intention. Which I couldn’t say about Blue Black’s Party (2009), but I will own up to not having a lot of time or personal warmth towards this kind of overly expressionist, loose and playful attitude towards clay. Like Jimmy Cooper, who must have taught her, Black’s ceramics put forward a delight in making, but I’m also somewhat suspicious of emphasising the physical sensations of making and its similarities to hoary modernist ideas of how art communicates, and the value of interiority, which do seem to inform this work quite directly. Still, I can see the value in such approaches, and understand why it is represented here a demonstration of clay’s part in expanding craft’s possibilities.
Understood on this level, as individual displays, my only criticism would be that we see so little of each artist’s work, no mini retrospective to enable us to place the most recent production in a larger context of the maker’s oeuvre. If the major thrust behind this show is to provide a boost to these careers – and to address the critical and infrastructural gaps that make it hard to sustain a career – then wouldn’t it be a good idea to present more evidence of these careers? To make this an opportunity to take stock of what these individuals have done to date, and how their practices have developed, and to bring this information to public view, ensuring it enters into the art historical discourse through the infrastructural investment (catalogue, publicity, show, etc) that this project represents?
Still, if Blomeley hasn’t harvested enough from the garden of New Zealand craft, then he certainly has picked some fresh and interesting blooms, and made a convincing case that the garden deserves to be tended.
