Skillshare

SKILLSHARE: A day of craft research and discussion at Artexte
With Nicole Burisch and Anthea Black

November 16, 2013, 2:30-7PM

Artexte
 2, Sainte-Catherine East, room 301
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
H2X 1K4
Telephone: +1-514-874-0049
E-mail: info (at) artexte • ca

2:30-3:30pm: Tour of the Artexte collection and presentation of selected materials and items

A guided tour of the Artexte collection and facilities, followed by a presentation on Nicole Burisch’s research at Artexte.

As 2012-2013 researcher in residence, Nicole Burisch has been investigating the presence and position of craft within Artexte’s collection. Recent developments in craft theory have been marked by a shift away from traditional definitions of craft as necessarily linked to specific materials (such as ceramics, textiles, or glass). Burisch’s research at Artexte builds upon this stance to look at how craft’s qualities appear throughout the collection – resulting in an intuitive and highly personal search for representations of materiality, handwork, labour, skill, process, texture, tactility, pattern, function, rural and “folk” cultures. Using this broader view on where craft might be located, Burisch has gathered a selection of items and excerpts from the collection that together raise and respond to the following questions: How are aspects of craft positioned or deployed within other fields? Which of craft’s qualities or knowledges are useful in communicating certain values or ideas? How has this shifted in relation to other art historical moments or movements?

The results of this research have been gathered together in a new publication: a limited edition bookwork that is half database and half zine. Produced through the repetitive acts of photocopying and (re)arranging, the publication traces the presence of craft in Artexte’s collection, while leaving room for gaps, contradictions, and future additions.

Selected craft-based materials and items from the collection will also be on hand for consultation and discussion.

4:00-5:00 Lecture by Anthea Black and Nicole Burisch: From Craftivism to Craftwashing: consuming and co-opting the politics of craft

Craft has frequently been positioned as both a fix and foil for the ills of capitalism and alienating conditions of industrialization. The last decade is no exception, as a recent resurgence of hand-making in the fields of popular culture, design, and art, and the related practices of Craftivism, DIY, urban homesteading, and back-to-the-land, have been dubbed by some as a “craft revolution.” However, this fascination with all things handmade places emphasis on a romanticized notion of crafting (and often textiles in particular) as simple, fulfilling, and politically significant work. These assumptions about the status of craft operate in what is often a false opposition to mass production, consumer culture, and an increasingly technologized world.

In the almost-decade since the word “craftivism” has been used to describe the blending of craft and activism, a number of forces have complicated this relatively emergent dialogue and set of practices. We investigate how the particular qualities of craft have been conflated with notions of authenticity, individuality, and radical politics, and what this might mean in regards to changing notions of activism. If “greenwashing” refers to the use of branding to make a product seem eco-friendly while concealing its negative impacts, we introduce the term “craftwashing” to refer to instances where craft is used to market and perform political and social engagement while obscuring similarly sticky ethical, environmental, and economic impacts of global production and consumption.

5:00-7:00pm: Book launch

Bios

Nicole Burisch is a curator, artist, critic, and cultural worker. She holds a BFA in Ceramics from the Alberta College of Art and Design and an MA in Art History from Concordia University. Through various independent and collaborative projects, her work has focused on contemporary craft and craft theory and she has researched, published, exhibited, and presented on this topic in Canada and internationally. Burisch worked as the Director of Calgary’s Mountain Standard Time Performative Art Festival from 2007-2009, and she was the co-founder/editor of the Shotgun-Review.ca, an arts review website that ran from 2006-2011. She occasionally does collaborative performances with the Ladies Invitational Deadbeat Society and The Brick Factory. Burisch is based in Montreal, QC where she works as Administrative Coordinator at Centre des art actuels Skol. nicoleburisch.com

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Nicole Burisch est commissaire, artiste, critique d’art et travailleuse culturelle. Elle a obtenu un baccalauréat en beaux-arts avec une spécialisation en céramique du Alberta College of Art and Design et une maîtrise en histoire de l’art de l’Université Concordia. Son travail se penche sur l’artisanat contemporain et la théorie de l’artisanat, et ses recherches ont pris forme dans de nombreux projets individuels et collectifs, notamment des publications, des expositions et des conférences, au Canada et à l’international. Burisch a été directrice du festival Mountain Standard Time Performantive Art de Calgary de 2007 à 2009, et a été co-fondatrice et éditrice de Shotgun-Review.ca, un site web pour la critique d’art qui a été actif de 2006 à 2011. Occasionnellement, elle fait des performances collaboratives avec les collectifs Ladies Invitational Deadbeat Society et The Brick Factory. Burisch vit à Montréal, où elle travaille comme coordonnatrice à l’administration au Centre des arts actuels Skol. nicoleburisch.com

Anthea Black and Nicole Burisch have been collaborating since 2005. Their contribution to the dialogue on Craftivism, “Craft Hard Die Free, Curatorial Strategies for Craftivism,” is included inThe Craft Reader (Berg) and Extra/ordinary: Craft and Contemporary Art (Duke University Press) and together they have lectured and presented at numerous conferences, galleries, and institutions in Canada, the United States, and the UK. Black has recently exhibited at the Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives, and the Museum of Contemporary Craft; and she has curated SUPERSTRING (2006), the touring exhibition No Place: Queer Geographies on Screen(2012), and the upcoming exhibition PLEASURE CRAFT (2013-14). She is faculty at OCAD University and Western University. Burisch’s recent writing on contemporary craft has been published by Mille-Feuilles, the Richmond Art Gallery, Stride Gallery, the M:ST Festival and theCahiers métiers d’art :: Craft Journal.