can craft save america? (Metropolis)
I AM THE NIGHT RIDER (2015) Ben Venom
Venom explores the political history of quilt making in I Am the Night Rider, a handmade quilt crafted out of recycled fabric. By pulling from subcultural movements like punk rock, heavy metal, and biker gangs, the quilt is said to function as “an allegory of present-day America.” Courtesy of the Gregg Museum of Art & Design
can craft save america?
Article commissioned by Metropolis Magazine, Published in print and online (June 18, 2021)
Link: Can Craft Save America? (Metropolis)
A trio of exhibitions seeks to rediscover something about our nation through the work of its makers and artists.
Excerpt:
During the first residency of the critical craft studies graduate program I direct at North Carolina’s Warren Wilson College, our students and faculty asked, “Can craft save America?” This was also one of the 100 questions asked in a 2018 workshop led by Lisa Jarrett and remains top of mind as I think about a trio of exhibitions that connect craft and nationhood in these troubling times: R & Company’s Objects: USA 2020, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art’s Crafting America, and the Whitney Museum of American Art’s Making Knowing: Craft in Art, 1950–2019.
All three signal a new interest in the connection between craft and national identity; however, given curator and independent scholar Glenn Adamson’s engagement with the first two, in addition to his recently published book, Craft: An American History, this may be more about curatorial coincidence than the zeitgeist. Regardless, making through craft and making a nation go hand in hand, and the instrumentalization of craft to “Save America” is not new. . . .