Looming Genes and Rooted Dreams, 2009, by Dustin Farnsworth. Photo: Peter McDaniel.
Houston Center for Contemporary Craft on Main St. Photo: Mary Beth Woiccak.
Construction #3, 2008, by Nancy Nicholson. Photo: Artist.
Superhighway Brooch, 2011, by Andrea Zeuner. Photo: Artist.
Detail of Cities: Departure and Deviation, 2011, by Norwood Viviano. Photo: Cathy Carver.
Detroit Foreclosure Quilt, 2011, by Kathryn Clark. Photo: Artist.
Note: SPRAWL features 16 emerging and mid-career artists whose work responds to the urban landscape. Arranged in three sections, “Infrastructure of Expansion,” “Survey, Plan, Build,” and “Aftereffects,” which loosely define the phases of urban growth, the exhibition is intended to present a non-polemical view. It will be open through January 19.
I am unaware of a previous show in which the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft stepped out in this vigorous a way, but that could be my ignorance. The curators, Susie J. Silbert and Anna Walker, situate the show within the city itself, in its problematic, unfinished state. The artists begin with our piecemeal idea of the city which is seen almost always from within. They locate it in an individual piece of debris, in an effect of aging material, or in an impossible scale shift.
The works that succeeded for me did so through frictions between material, scale, and reference. In many cases the rough scene on Main Street outside the Center pressed in on the individual artworks. Utterly elegant, a piece of body ornament on the wall at the show's entry seems to crumble slightly. It is clearly built to move with the wearer's body. Its meticulous interwoven loops form highway interchanges. Trays are ghosts of concrete overpasses, and they are filled with tough, mute asphalt.
One striking work by Norwood Viviano graphs population growth in American cities. That's the what. The how is most unexpected: a series of sleek cast-glass solids. Hung to form a line at approximately the adult viewer's eye level, they are suspended white, smog-colored forms. Delicate, underscaled and still, they smoothly show no record of craft. With the mystery of colored glass, they are portrayals of the surging population shifts in Philadelphia, Detroit, New York, Houston, Atlanta.
New York is a large and robust volume. It looks heavy and unspeakably dense. One notes the many cities where population is seen to decline. Some flare again in recent times. There is a marvelous tension between the city as whirlwind and vessel, a bucket in which single grains heat, fuse, and glow.
Kathryn Clark's Foreclosure Quilts are just that, a series of quilts. Understated, even homely-appearing, the patterns form maps of the few occupied colored rectangles in a quilt of brown city. Here, the friction is between chaotic real-life scenarios, precise mapping, and traditional, home-bound craft. I'm not sure, but these might also be strong in larger scale. I'd be curious to see this work in the current Contemporary Arts Museum show focusing on abstraction. The quilts would jolt that show's view of abstraction in opposition to portrayal.
This show is quite a pleasure and deserves considerable credit. It was refreshing to see no stifling of art here in deference to the promotion of craft. Each work, and the body of the show, would have survived a move to the Blaffer, DiverseWorks, or another venue. The curators were open to a thorough exploration of their topic, and the works included are largely outstanding.
My feeling, though, is that the gallery space is a very awkward one. An absence of natural light is worsened by a vague spatial plan. The gallery, unlike the art, feels cut off from the world, and not in any way that promotes focus. A few blunders of placement, such as weak floor work at the entry, clutter the unfolding view. I hope the recent RDA RE-CRAFT Design Charrette addressing the Center's overall planning includes the galleries.
By David Miller
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Click here for a recap and photos of projects from RDA's 2013 design charrette, RE-CRAFT; read Harbeer Sandhu's OffCite essay on DiverseWorks.
