Philadelphia Craft Show 2021 Volume 42.3
SHOW FLOOR from past years of the Philadelphia Museum of Art Contemporary Craft Show. Photographs by Patrick R. Benesh-Liu.
XINIA GUAN, EMERGING ARTIST
Visitors to the Philadelphia Museum of Art Contemporary Craft Show come away with many tactile memories. The thick red carpets that your shoes dig deeply into. High ceilings with air conditioning and heating ducts visible, crisscrossing overhead and interspersed with bright, almost blinding, hanging lights that illuminate the show floor with a warm, intense radiance. And most of all, the artist booths with their black and white drapes, each one unique and distinct, presenting not only the physical work that may be rendered in wood, clay, glass, silver, or fiber, but the artist whose life story is told in each piece. These vivid scenes are painted in the mind of every person who has attended the Philadelphia Craft Show.
Yet for the past year and a half, circumstances have made all of this a mirage, a dream, that exists only in our memories. It is not only this show that has been dream-like; in the cresting waves of COVID-19, so many parts of our lives that are close and intimate have been relegated to the computer screen, to plastic bags of takeout delivered to our door, tinny voices emanating from audio speakers. It is a strange world we find ourselves in, and despite its drawbacks the digital realm has taught us of ways to connect, to converse, to travel that before the pandemic we had only a fleeting awareness of. Instead of traveling three thousand miles across the country to see our grandchildren, we could sit back in a chair or on a comfortable couch, press a button (or, let’s be honest, fumble a bit and swear) and pop! Up comes our daughters and sons, and their children, almost as if they were one room over, and despite the physical distance there was that feeling of relief and love and joy. Now we know that world is possible, but after nearly two years there is the part of us that aches for something that we might once have taken for granted.
SANDRA MILLER, FIBER WEARABLE
As of this moment, the Philadelphia Craft Show is still taking place in person, but whether or not the physical event proceeds there is a conversation to be had regarding how these two worlds will intersect and diverge. Human beings are social creatures, and we need to touch, to talk, to laugh, and to express our hopes, anxieties and treasured experiences just as surely as we need to breathe. The arts and crafts are beloved by those of us who have had the pleasure of intersecting their orbits because they are intricately tied to the human condition. Whether one is speaking with the artist, examining a crafted object, or, in that inexpressibly ecstatic encounter, touching that object, feeling its weight, its heft, the textures that abound on its surface, and the cold and warmth of its materials, it is the conscious presence that brings a smile to our lips and a sparkle to our eyes. That is because in that moment, we are connected with another person, they by our appreciation, and perhaps, understanding, and us, by our wonder at their skill and vision.
There promises to be a great many wonderful artists at this year’s show, one hundred and seventy physically present, with an additional twenty-five participating in the online-only section. Beloved returnees mingle with fresh faces, a joyous reminder that the respect for the handmade passes down from one generation to the next. Take the jewelry of Xinia Guan, a graduate of the Savannah College of Art & Design and an immigrant from Inner Mongolia. Her careful, exacting technique layers geometric folds in mesmerizing ripples. Sometimes these emanate out from a central point, forming a circular brooch; at other times, she deconstructs a form into multiple elements that are composed asymmetrically, producing a waterfall of dark and light.
JUDITH KINGHORN, JEWELRY
Meanwhile, a seasoned artist takes a very different approach to using visual contrast. A welcome and continued presence at the show, Judith Kinghorn is retiring this year, marking the changes that have occurred in the field as the pandemic has disrupted so many lives. In her secret garden, Kinghorn uses the technique of fusing oxidized silver and gold to create spectacular tributes to botanical life. The bright gold and the black silver serve the same goal as Guan’s up and down folds, creating pattern and delineation so as to give our eyes something to feast on. Yet where Guan’s work is abstract, Kinghorn’s jewelry is mostly representational, not simply imitating, but elevating natural forms into Platonic eidos, paying a unique homage to the flowers and seeds that we find such raw beauty in. Ultimately, we are enriched by having these very different languages of aesthetics.
The Philadelphia Craft Show is a showcase for these exotic languages in every media under the sun. Sandra Miller, who has thirty-five years of experience knitting her sublime garments, is a perfect demonstration of the importance of practice. Having iterated, changed and evolved her work over three decades, her current clothes exhibit a slinky, patchwork quality of differently colored panels with visible stitching and over-large wooden buttons that become character elements in themselves. In other examples of her sense of design, sweaters are rendered dramatically in red, purplish-grey or cream, with large black accents slashing across the hems, or bifurcating the piece vertically, separating color and quiet into equal halves. Being able to create both boldness and discreetness is the mark of a skilled and talented maker, and a particularly important quality for one who produces clothing, which must flatter a wide range of individuals and personalities.
BARBARA OSBORNE, BASKETRY
In basketry, Barbara Osborne brings an ancient artform into a place both familiar and novel. Blending non-woven materials like raw wooden handles and spouts with deeply hued reeds that coil and spiral upon themselves, a nostalgic resonance is formed. Each component is natural and evokes memories of the distant past, yet they were rarely if ever composed in this manner by indigenous and folk artists. This distinction, however, is artificial. Both Osborne and the artists who for centuries have created beautiful yet functional objects lie on a continuum that is unbroken, and tied together by the practiced use of one’s fingers. Her work will be appearing exclusively online.
Another tradition of making that extends far into humanity’s past, ceramics and pottery have provided vessels to store drink and food. Now, they have evolved into sculpture, and when attended to by a careful mind, exhibits wonders. Cliff Lee is such a ceramicist, one who has pioneered traditional Chinese glazes that were once lost to history. He draws strength and inspiration from the vases of dynasties stretching back hundreds of years, but brings his own spirit, sense of beauty and a spot of impish wit that is an unmistakable signature. Texture, hue and shape gives birth to an eternal quietude that emanates peace and joy.
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THOMAS SPAKE, GLASS
The imitation of other materials is also a time-honored practice. While in some cases this was done to deceive, far more frequently in human history it was used to offer less expensive recreations of valuable substances like precious stones. Glass was particularly suited to this purpose, as it could be molded into any shape, and with the right additives achieve any color and transparency. Thomas Spake demonstrates this with his own vessels which pay respect to the earth. Rather than making it appear as if the whole object was made from stone, Spake conscientiously introduces contrasting elements of frosted glass that inject the cool flow of water, or the fiery heat of molten lava. His pieces become three-dimensional landscapes, explorations of places that we cannot see far below the ground that are yet familiar. We know rock and we know stone, deep in our ancestral memory, and Spake’s work conjures these memories, bringing a sweet nostalgia that lingers in our minds.
There is a common thread to all of the artistry thus described, despite the incredible variation and diversity. Here lies the end result of a lifetime of labor, dutifully attended to, with care and curiosity. These craftspeople have pursued their art with a passion that stems from their love for the world around them, whether it be abstract philosophy and ideas, or the wild bounty of nature, or the fruit of human society. In each case, it is their willingness to grow alongside their craft, the many mistakes encountered along the road, the serendipity of chance insights, that have raised their work to these heights. It is hard to imagine the length of time found within a decade, twenty years, forty years, but in these objects you can hold, and even wear, the sum of that vast experience. On a computer or phone screen it is hard to understand the depth of skill imbued into each piece of jewelry, or a basket or a ceramic pot. Those of us who have spent time collecting and studying these artforms may know and be able to appreciate them for what they are, but for so many the context is missing. What a physical event like the Philadelphia Craft Show offers is that missing context; the opportunity to see and potentially touch these wonderful creations.
CLIFF LEE, CERAMICS
While the work they do is exquisite, each of these artists is just a person, just a human being, with lives as storied and complex as you and I. At the craft show, we can interact with each other, ask questions and trade tales that enrich us both. It is this connection that we have missed so dearly during this pandemic, and one that those of us who love the Philly show look forward to with intense anticipation.
How do we square the circle of our need for interaction and the safety of both ourselves and other human beings? This question is being answered a single jigsaw piece at a time, as businesses open, shut down, change, and adapt, and as events like the Philadelphia Craft Show test the waters. We are all parts of this puzzle, and slowly as we traverse this complicated dance, the picture of our future becomes clearer. It is without doubt that it will include both old and new. From digital conferences and online shows comes an ease of access that is invaluable, allowing new audiences to connect with these inspirational people and their craft. For those of us who remember and treasure the intimate connections we forged through visiting the Philadelphia Craft Show, the return of the in-person event is warmly welcomed.
The Philadelphia Museum of Art Contemporary Craft Show hosts its forty-fifth annual event at the Pennsylvania Convention Center, 1101 Arch St., Philadelphia, PA 19107, November 5 - 7, 2021. Visit their website at www.pmacraftshow.org.
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Patrick R. Benesh-Liu is Coeditor of Ornament and a lifelong participant in his parents’ creative journey. From growing up in the Ornament office on La Cienega Boulevard in Los Angeles to his first administrative work in the Vista, California building during high school, Benesh-Liu has had the fortune of being immersed in craft, culture and wearable art. Now as one of the two guiding editors for the magazine, he continues to reflect on the vital work his mother and father have done in advancing the historical chronicling of jewelry and clothing artists for over forty-seven years. One of the strongest memories he holds is of the people who came to visit his parents, whether at the office or at home, and the connections and friendships which they formed. So it was to his great surprise when two Iranian artists contacted Ornament regarding their new jewelry series, which uses fragments of Middle Eastern traditional jewelry to communicate the loss of culture that part of the globe has experienced. He writes on that collection, entitled Hoping Against Hope. In another essay on connections and relationships, he offers his perspective on the Philadelphia Museum of Art Contemporary Craft Show, back in-person this year, and which he very much looks forward to attending.
