CAAMFest 2013—Jin Dan’s masterpiece “When the Bough Breaks,” examines upward mobility’s downward emotional toll on a Chinese migrant family as days, months, years pass
Two young Chinese girls from a migrant family that has relocated to a big city struggle to earn money to pay for their brother’s schooling and are forced to abandon their own studies, putting their futures in jeopardy in “When the Bough Breaks,” directed by Ji Dan, one of China’s preeminent female documentary filmmakers. Image: CAAMFest
It’s hard to top recent Chinese documentary masterpieces like Ghost Town (Zhao Dayong, 2008, 169 min), Fortune Teller (Xu Tong, 2010, 129 min) or Last Train Home (Lixen Fan, 2009, 85 min). And yet Ji Dan’s latest film, When the Bough Breaks (2011), maintains remarkable dedication to its difficult subject: a family of five Chinese migrants living on the outskirts of a city, their fragile state worsening with time. It ebbs and flows with high drama as well, pulling us into a family tragedy involving innocent children that seems informed by the great master storytellers.
In China today, over 120 million migrant workers have sacrificed everything for a country that barely acknowledges them, gambling all their resources on the dream of a better future. China’s dirty little secret: it’s turning its back on these workers and choosing instead to focus on rapid modernization—at their expense. To tell this story, Ji Dan focuses on two girls and their brother, all of whom desperately need and want an education and their parents, two trapped and defeated individuals who are unable to provide it.
Ji Dan is one of the most important filmmakers in China today. Her past works include Spirit Home (2006), Dream of the Empty City (2007), and Spiral Staircase of Harbin (2008), which won prizes at both the Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival and the China Documentary Film Festival. To create such an intimate portrait of this fractured Chinese family living on the outskirts of Beijing, she spent three years following and getting to know them. She even took up residence in the teacher’s dormitory of the school they attended. The film screens today, Saturday, March 23, 2013, at the Oakland Museum of California at 2 p.m. (details here) as part of CAAMFest 2013’s final weekend.
Trash is an active metaphor. The family wades through trash heaps from dawn till dusk and the father collects and sells scrap metal, while family’s three vulnerable children fight against all odds – including their own parents – to continue their education and pursue a better future. But this is no ode to victory at the end of a long period of tribulations, it is instead a compelling examination of how life can leave one with a series of choices that all lead to undesirable outcomes. The parents, especially the disgruntled drunkard dad, do all they can to maintain some semblance of control, while the two pre-teen twin daughters struggle to hold the family’s long-term financial vision, though they too exhibit their father’s impatient proclivity for conflict. As the two headstrong girls try to negotiate a path to independence, security, and adulthood, the film reveals how some children are forced to make their own way in the world, assuming the responsibilities of adulthood long before they should have to.
Here’s what critic Brian Hu of PAC-ARTS (Pacific Arts Movement) said when the film screened at the San Francisco Asian Film Festival —Long, impeccably-shot verbal arguments that seem to into stretch into hours are riveting not so much for the yelling, but for the minutiae, in particular the silence of the son, whose fate motivates much of the conflict. Through it all is a sense of environmental doom: the weather, the military jets, the sounds of firecrackers in the distance. When the film comes to a close following a Lunar New Year unlike any other, a visceral transcendence is achieved that numbs the skin and pounds the heart.
Renowned Chinese artist Hung Liu, who currently has a retrospective at OMCA, “Summoning Ghosts, the Art of Hung Liu” canceled her appearance at today’s post-film conversation, but sent this statement about Ji Dan and her filmmaking—
As a filmmaker, Ji Dan spent a long time working with the family, not just on them. Her film is thought provoking and raises questions about family dynamics, personal and societal relationships, and class issues when people live physically and psychologically on the edge. The film shares a harsh reality and is truly moving. It shows us that there are many families living in isolation on the cusp of society, as if on an island. When the film was screened in Shanghai in 2011, several younger members of the audience asked why the film was long. In response, Ji Dan articulately and eloquently expressed her commitment to the need for longer documentary filmmaking in order to tell the full story. I was compelled to speak up and support Ji’s dedication in the face of Hollywood’s influence to train the viewer to absorb only shorter films. As I shared with Lori Fogarty, the Executive Director of the Oakland Museum of California, I am truly impressed with the dedication of women filmmakers from Beijing who challenge film industry standards with their engaging full—length documentaries. They are bold enough to tell dramatic stories about real life, about real people in the contemporary world. I think we must show that we care about humanity by watching and supporting these female filmmakers coming out of China. Ji Dan made an impression on me, and I hope to bring many female filmmakers and their documentaries to the attention of US audiences. With filmmakers like her, who follow a family for seven years to capture their story, we must respond with support. Hung Liu
Details: CAAMfest 2013 runs March 14-24, 2013 at 8 screening venues in San Francisco and Berkeley. Regular screenings are $12 and special screenings and programs are more. Click here to see full schedule and to purchase tickets online.
Oakland Museum releases photos of the historic 19th century gold jewelry box stolen on January 9, 2013
This Gold Rush-era quartz and gold jewelry box (7 x 9 x 7 inches, ca 1869-78) was stolen from the Oakland Museum’s permanent collection on January 9, 2013. It was made by San Francisco goldsmith A. Andrews and is signed. Photo: courtesy OMCA
The Oakland Museum of California (OMCA) has just released photos and a detailed description of the Gold Rush-era quartz and gold jewelry box stolen from its permanent collection on January 9, 2013. The historic jewelry box, was made between 1869 and 1878 by A. Andrews, a San Francisco goldsmith, and is signed. The artifact features a rectangular moulded top and base that rests on four feet formed of four miniature female figures depicting allegorical California. It is seven inches in height; nine inches on length; and seven inches in depth. The top pilasters and mouldings are of veined gold quartz in tones of grey and cream with veining of gold. The interior of the top is recessed and engraved in full relief with scene of the early days of the Union and Central Pacific Railroads, mounted Native Americans, herds of buffalo, and a train of cars. The gold quartz is cut and set in mosaic fashion in the top of the lid, exterior and the sides are gold veined quartz. (Read ARThound’s 1.9.2013 coverage here.)
Reward: A reward of $12,000 is offered for the safe recovery of the stolen artifact.
Anyone with any information about the burglary is encouraged to immediately contact the Oakland Police Department’s Major Crimes Section at (510) 238-3951 or the TIP line at (510) 777-2805. The reward is subject to certain terms and conditions required by the insurer, including that the reward claimant not have any involvement in the theft or any previous or post-theft complicity. Questions about the Jewel Casket artifact or the Oakland Museum of California should be directed to 510-318-8460 or info@museumca.org.
In an open letter to the public appearing on the OMCA website January 9, 2013, OMCA director Lori Fogarty, wrote—“We are appealing to the public for assistance in recovering the artifacts stolen in November and in this latest incident. Beyond their monetary value, these objects convey the story of California and our heritage and are held in the public trust to be cared for into perpetuity for the learning and enjoyment of Museum visitors. We hope that, thought this broad media effort and the attendant reward, we will be successful in gaining assistance in bringing these objects once again to the Museum and our community.” More information can be found at museumca.org/reward.
Looted! Valuable artifact—a Gold Rush-era box—stolen Monday from the Oakland Museum—there’s a $12,000 reward
A historic box made of California gold and said to be valued at more than $800,000 was stolen from the Oakland Museum of California (OMCA) early Monday morning, the second break-in in two months, the museum reported Tuesday evening. The museum is always closed to the public on Monday and Tuesday and both thefts occurred on Monday, and is it believed that the same thieves may be responsible for both break-ins. The OMCA announced this morning it is offering a $12,000 reward for the box’s safe recovery.
Museum spokeswoman Kelly Koski said the California Gold Rush era quartz and gold box with ornamentation depicting early California was taken from an alarm-fitted plexiglass display cabinet in the museum. Museum Executive Director Lori Fogarty did not confirm reports that the box was worth up to $800,000, which SF Gate reporter Henry K Lee reported this morning he had been told by Anne Campbell Washington, chief of staff for Oakland Mayor Jean Quan (here). Fogarty did disclose that the 7 x 9 inch shoebox size box was an anniversary gift from a San Francisco pioneer to his wife from the 1800s and was lined with rare quartz and gold. It weighs about three pounds. The museum has had it since the 1960’s.
At a press conference this (Wednesday) morning, held by the museum, the Oakland Police Department, and Oakland Mayor Jean Quan, it was announced that OMCA is offering a $12,000 reward for the safe return of the box. Further details of the theft were also released. As with the incident in November, this was a strategic theft. Once again, the museum’s security team and the Oakland Police Department responded quickly, but the thief got away. The suspect was caught on surveillance video and Oakland police suspect an African-American man 5 foot 9 inches to 6 feet tall with a medium complexion, who was wearing dark clothes and a white mask. They believe the man broke in through a garden door. A police team is searching the Oakland estuary, which is close to the museum, in the event the object was dumped near the water. There is also concern that object could be melted down for its gold.
Police and the museum are not yet releasing a photo of the items or surveillance video because it is part of the investigation.
The box was insured. The City of Oakland is the owner and carrier of the collection. The museum upgraded its security system following the November theft and further security enhancements are underway that will be in place in the coming days.
The last burglary occurred about 11:30 p.m. on Monday, November 12, 2012 when gold nuggets and other undisclosed artifacts, some more than 200 years old, were stolen. Both the box stolen Monday and these objects were part of the same OMCA Gold Rush display. Video surveillance tapes were reviewed but no arrests have been made, nor have the items been recovered from the November theft. In that robbery, someone broke a door to get inside the museum and then exited the building through a different door. The alarms went off, the guards followed protocol and called 911 and police arrived within three minutes, said the museum’s executive director Lori Fogarty. (as reported by Kristin Bender in the Oakland Tribune (here).
In an open letter to the public appearing on the OMCA website this morning Fogarty, wrote—“We are appealing to the public for assistance in recovering the artifacts stolen in November and in this latest incident. Beyond their monetary value, these objects convey the story of California and our heritage and are held in the public trust to be cared for into perpetuity for the learning and enjoyment of Museum visitors. We hope that, thought this broad media effort and the attendant reward, we will be successful in gaining assistance in bringing these objects once again to the Museum and our community.”
Anyone with any information about the burglary is encouraged to immediately contact the Oakland Police Department’s Major Crimes Section at (510) 238-3951 or the TIP line at (510) 777-2805. The reward is subject to certain terms and conditions required by the insurer, including that the reward claimant not have any involvement in the theft or any previous or post-theft complicity.
The story is now being covered in the major media.
Margaret De Patta lecture and curator walk-through on Sunday, March 25, 2012 at OMCA
De Patta's nontraditional use of gemstones and her use of simple lines and structure to create elegant architectural forms are key to understanding her influence on contemporary jewelry design. Margaret De Patta. (American, 1903–64). Pendant, 1959. Collection of the Oakland Museum of California, gift of Eugene Bielawski, The Margaret De Patta Memorial Collection. Photo: Lee Fatherree
Jean DeMouthe, senior collections manager for geology at Cal Academy, will discuss the basics of gemology, focusing on the types of stones used by jeweler Margaret De Patta, followed by a guided tour of Space-Light-Structure: The Jewelry of Margaret De Patta with Julie Muñiz, Associate Curator of Craft & Decorative Art at The Oakland Museum of California (OMCA). The event will take on Sunday, March 25, 2012 at 2 p.m.
Studio jeweler Margaret De Patta (1903-1964) blended Constructivist principles with Bauhaus design to create miniature sculpture that moved with its wearer. Based in the Bay Area, De Patta, who studied with Bauahus sculptor Moholy-Nagy in Chicago is credited with starting the American studio jewelry movement on the West Coast. The Oakland Museum holds the largest collection of De Patta’s work, most of which was donated by her (third) husband Eugene Bielawski after the artist’s untimely death by suicide in 1964. “Space-Light-Structure” features more than 60 of De Patta’s iconic jewelry pieces as well as ceramics, flatware, photographs, pictograms, and newly released archival material. The exhibition also features stunning Moholy-Nagy photographs, some never exhibited publicly before. Space-Light Structure is a collaboration with the Museum of Arts and Design (MAD) in New York and is co-curated by Ursula Isle-Neuman, MAD’s Curator of Jewelry.
Discover Margaret De Patta’s work online by exploring OMCA’s online collection of De Patta creations.
Stay tuned to ARThound for coverage of “Space-Light Structure” and an interview with Julie Muñiz.
Details: The De Patta lecture begins at 2 p.m on Sunday, March 25, 2012. The Oakland Museum of California (OMCA) is at 1000 Oak Street, at 10th Street, in Oakland. General Admission to OMCA is $12.00.
Reflecting on Margaret De Patta: San Francisco’s Velvet da Vinci Gallery exhibits new jewelry with old stones acquired from De Patta’s estate through February 29, 2012
Brooch with Margaret De Patta Stones, created by artist Petra Class for “The De Patta Project” at Velvet da Vinci Gallery, San Francisco, through February 29, 2012.
This evening while The Oakland Museum of California celebrates tomorrow’s public opening of “Space-Light Structure: The Jewelry of Margaret De Patta,” the highly-anticipated retrospective of modernist jewelry pioneer Margaret De Patta’s work, San Francisco’s Velvet da Vinci Gallery will launch “The De Patta Project,” it’s own celebration of De Patta’s creative legacy from 6 to 8 p.m.
Studio jeweler Margaret De Patta (1903-1964) blended Constructivist principles with Bauhaus design to create miniature sculpture that moved with its wearer. Based in the Bay Area, De Patta, who studied with Bauhaus sculptor Moholy-Nagy in Chicago is credited with starting the American studio jewelry movement on the West Coast. The Oakland Museum holds the largest collection of De Patta’s work, most of which was donated by her (third) husband Eugene Bielawski after the artist’s untimely death by suicide in 1964. “Space-Light-Structure” features more than 60 jewelry pieces as well as ceramics, flatware, photographs, pictograms, and newly released archival material. The exhibition is a collaboration with the Museum of Arts and Design in New York.
Pendant with Francis Sperisen Cut Rutilated Quartz, created by artist Dawn Nakanishi for “The De Patta Project” at Velvet da Vinci Gallery, San Francisco, through February 29, 2012.
De Patta’s nontradtional use of gemstones and non-precious pebbles as well as her use of simple lines and structure to create elegant architectural forms are key to the understanding the importance of her influence on the field of contemporary jewelry. De Patta and experimental lapidary artist Francis J. Sperisen explored the optical effects of faceting and lenses on gemstones to create wearable sculpture unlike any jewelry of the time.
“The De Patta Project” was born when Velvet da Vinci purchased many of these unset stones from the estate of Margaret De Patta. The lot included beautiful cut stones by Francis J. Sperisen (mainly rutilated quartz and agate), as well as cabochon stones and beach pebbles found by De Patta. Gallerist Mike Holmes explained that many of these stones actually came to him from Eugene Bielawski in packaging especially prepared by De Patta. She had a practice of wrapping individual stones in paper drawings and notes explaining their intended use that were intended for her long-time collaborator and stone cutter Francis J. Sperisen. “This was such a treasure and such a surprise that we’ve made those drawings part of the exhibition too,” explained Holmes.
Margaret De Patta drawing and stones, some cut by Sperisen, were the inspiration for “The De Patta Project” at Velvet da Vinci Gallery, San Francisco, through February 29, 2012.
Sixteen accomplished and well-known jewelers, many from the Bay Area, have now used these select stones to create pieces for the exhibition at Velvet da Vinci which runs through February, concurrent with the Oakland Museum De Patta retrospective. Along with these bold and unique contemporary jewelry creations, the show will also include some of De Patta’s drawings and tools as well as a display explaining how De Patta achieved some of the special effects that made her legendary. With the clever and studied use of aspects of illusion and tricks of perspective that she applied to transparent stones, she implemented Moholy-Nagy’s advice to “catch your stones in the air.” She produced pendants that seemed to both float and have stones within them that also floated. She was also a master of composition, creating pieces that amplified the elements of perspective, the use of blind areas, floating lines and reflected and double imagery through the use of crystals. She also experimented with movement in her works and engineered pieces that had pivoting parts that could be worn in various positions, often covering or revealing stones and changing the color composition of the piece to suit the wearer’s preference.
Pendant with Margaret De Patta Pebble, created by artist Andrea Williams for “The De Patta Project” at Velvet da Vinci Gallery, San Francisco, through February 29, 2012.
The works in “The De Patta Project” make bold and beautiful use of some of De Patta’s concepts. Many of the creations use the native qualities of stones as their focal points─the hairlike inclusions of rutilated quartz being a favorite. Gorgeous pebble pieces too, with fine gold and silver etching, following and accentuating the natural grain of the stone, are popular.
All of the pieces in “The De Patta Project” will be for sale.
Participating artists:
Deborah Boskin, Petra Class, Sandra Enterline, Geoffrey Giles, Joanna Gollberg, April Higashi, Tom Hill, Mike Holmes, Dave Jones, Terri Logan, Deb Lozier, Maja, Dawn Nakanishi, Brigid O’Hanrahan, Julia Turner, Andrea Williams
Discover some of the jewelry in Velvet De Vinci’s “The De Patta Project” online here.
Discover Margaret De Patta’s work online by exploring OMCA’s online collection of De Patta creations.
Stay tuned to ARThound for coverage of “Space-Light Structure” and an interview with Julie Muñiz, OMCA Associate Curator of Craft & Decorative Art. Muñiz co-curated the groundbreaking exhibition with Ursula Isle-Neuman, MAD (Museum of Arts and Design) Curator of Jewelry.
Details: Velvet da Vinci Gallery is located at 2015 Polk Street (near Broadway), San Francisco, CA, 94109. Phone: 415.441.0109. Normal gallery hours: Tuesday-Saturday 11 to 6, Sundays 11-4. Special opening for “The De Patta Project” Friday, February 4, 2012 from 6 to 8 p.m.
“Family Tree” Petaluma Art Center’s Exceptional Fine Woodworking Show through March 13, 2011
Barbara Holmes' site specific installation from re-purposed building lath is the focal point of "Family Tree," the fine woodworking exhibition at the Petaluma Arts Center through March 13, 2011. Photo: Geneva Anderson
In the past two years, the Petaluma Arts Center has delivered several well-curated and immensely popular shows. “Family Tree,” the center’s latest exhibition which runs through March 13, may be its best yet. The show explores the lineage of fine woodworking in California from 1945 onward and is one of its most ambitious shows to date, bringing a number of woodworking masterpieces into the small center along with a bevy of artist demonstrations and talks. If your conception of woodworking runs to bowls, tables and chairs, the show offers plenty of fine examples of these but it will also update you with some of wood’s latest trends. It also makes a compelling case for elevating fine woodworking into museums as a vibrant form of conceptual craft.
“Family Tree” is curated by Kathleen Hanna and presents the works of 25 artists, ranging from pioneers and mid-career artists to new entrants whose work has been influential in the CA contemporary fine woodworking movement. Along side of this show, in the center’s community gallery, stands the innovative work of several students from the Furniture Program at California College of the Arts who are rising stars in fine woodworking.
Kathleen Hanna curator of "Family Tree" at the Petaluma Arts Center through March 13, 2011. Hanna is an independent curator who has worked with several of San Francisco's leading craft museums. Photo: Geneva Anderson
“Since WWII, the focus of the art world has shifted radically from the New York to the West Coast in the area of fine craft and I wanted to point to the history of what has happened here since WWII,” explained Kathleen Hanna, an independent curator specializing in 20th century furniture and decorative objects who has worked for San Francisco’s Museum of Craft and Design and Museum of Craft and Folk Art . Hanna, a Petaluma resident since 1983, also has a personal connection to fine woodworking through her father, Arthur W. Hanna, a San Francisco boat builder who took up woodworking and furniture design after he came home from WWII. “This is a very small space, so I wanted to work just with wood and trace the lineage back to a very small group of pioneers in wood and fine craft and show how subsequent makers have expanded the dialogue by painting, manipulating and emphasizing wood’s sculptural aspects as well as show some woodworking tools that are being locally made.”
Early Masters: Material Worship
Much in line with modernist principals of clean lines, truth to materials and simplicity, early woodworkers revered the wood itself for its own inherent beauty and didn’t paint it or cover up its beautiful grain. Art Espenet Carpenter’s (1920-2006) “Double Music Stand” is just one of the masterpieces on display from pioneering California wood artists.
Art Espenet Carpenter's iconic "Double Music Stand," in rosewood, is one the masterpieces of wood art on display in "Family Tree."
Legendary for his sleek and distinctive furniture, Carpenter, who had just returned from military service was so inspired by a Good Design exhibition in 1946 at MOMA in New York that he bought a lathe and took up woodworking. He then moved to California, where later he exuberantly embraced furniture design. He taught at San Francisco State and became so popular that over 130 woodworkers apprenticed under him in his Bolinas studio.
His double music stand, fashioned from rosewood, is finely inlaid with metal and exhibits elegant refined curves that show influence of Alexander Calder, Charles and Ray Eames, and Robert Maillart , a Swiss engineer and bridge builder whose startling and original spans influenced 20th century artists of all kinds. The form of this music stand so appealed to Carpenter that he worked with it throughout his life, modifying it and creating many examples.
Carpenter was also a founding member of the influential Baulines Craft Guild, formed in the early 1970’s, which brought skilled artisans together to further their techniques and artistic dialogue. This led to the formation of Dovetail Gallery on Fillmore Street in San Francisco providing a market for their works.
J.B.Blunk’s “Chair” 1978, 36” x 40” x 40,” was carved from a massive block of redwood with a chainsaw. In the 1960’s and 1970’s, Blunk was well-known for his redwood furniture and wood installations which were unprecedented in their size and degree of abstraction. Photo: Geneva Anderson
Sculptor J.B. Blunk (1926-2002) , whose proud and massive carved redwood chair(1978) is also on display, had a strong influence on wood artists in the 1960’s and 1970’s. Using a chainsaw, Blunk created such iconic works as “The Planet” (1969) which graces the entrance of Oakland Museum of California’s Natural Science Gallery (closed for construction until 2012) and is made entirely of one ring of redwood burl thirteen feet in diameter.
Like many early woodworkers, Blunk took up woodworking after military service. After serving in the army in Korea, Blunk was discharged to Japan where he met sculptor Isamu Noguchi and delved into Japan’s rich ceramic tradition, apprenticing with legendary potters Kitaoji Rosanjin (1883–1959) and Bizen style master Toyo Keneshige (1896–1967). After returning to the U.S., Blunk built his own home and studio near in Inverness and remained true to an aesthetic process that sought to release the inherent beauty in the material he worked with. His legacy continues posthumously with a residency program through his Inverness studio.
Several extraordinary wooden bowls by revered wood artist Bob Stocksdale (1914-2003), a long-time East Bay resident, attest to his influence on many important contemporary wood artists. Mesmerizing in their elegant simplicity, they encapsulate the bowl’s transition from a previously crude farm-style implement to a beautiful and functional
Bob Stocksdale’s lathe-turned vessels fashioned from exotic timbers, like this 1979 bowl from Ebony, exquisitely showcase each piece of wood’s unique grain and beauty..
aesthetic object. Stocksdale’s small thin lathe-turned macadamia nut bowl, barely 3 inches in diameter, is a perfect harmony of graceful form and material, as is his larger Magnolia tree bowl. These bowls were once available in limited supply at Gump’s and reasonably affordable as beautiful utilitarian objects. Now, they are highly collectible and fetch thousands.
Stocksdale’s love for exotic timbers, his care in selecting just the right piece of wood, and his gifted use of simple tools to explore the inherent beauty of wood grain were trademarks that gained him celebrity status. Like most artists, he did not arrive at this spontaneously. He was influenced heavily by James Prestini (1908-1993), an engineer turned artist who started to lathe turn wooden bowls in the 1930’s as art objects—bowls so thin they appeared to have qualities similar to glass or ceramics. Prestini’s new way of looking at woodturning, with his emphasis on the design and shape of the object, influenced an entire generation, especially young Stocksdale, who first encountered him in Berkeley.
Berkeley artist Merryll Saylan was one of the early female entrants to wood art and is noted for her polychrome finishes. “Tower, Keep and Besamim Büchse” (2005) are three turned towers she created referencing her husband’s experience on life support.
Second Generation: Women, Color, Form, Experimentation
Looking back at the sexual politics of the mid-century and the immediate post WWII environment, where woodworking and handicrafts were forms of rehabilitation, and the explosion of power tools that became readily available and affordable, it’s easy to see why woodworking was initially a man’s activity. Berkeley artist Merryll Saylan, was one of the early women in the field, emerging as a leader in the use of color and texture in her lathe turned work. She is part of the second generation of California artists who really went beyond worshipping wood for its inherent qualities and began to experiment with color, finishes and sculptural embellishment. This generation of artists introduced a new round of individual expression to woodworking and began to elevate wood to the realm of conceptual craft.
“Tower, Keep, and Besamim and Büchse”(2005) are three turned wooden towers forming a powerful installation that incorporates the actual nitroglycerin bottles used by Saylan’s husband when he was on life support. Aside from its highly personal nature, Besamim and Büchse (Jewish spice box) are a conceptual reinterpretation of Jewish ritual. The towers have an opaque hard finish that Saylan has created with polychrome “milk paint” which she makes by adding colorants to caseine (processed from the curd of soured milk). Milk paint is water soluble when wet but it becomes virtually intractable when dry and forms a very stable and attractive protective finish—an apt metaphor for what it must have taken to gain recognition in a predominantly male field.
Griff Oakie, from Santa Rosa, began working with wood in the early 1970’s and initially rebelled against color and the trend for painting wood that emerged in the 1980′s. In “The Hand of the Maker,” for fun, Oakie put a very expensive bright red lacquer on a bench he’d made, completely covering the beautiful figurative aspect of the wood, and embellished it with a carved wooden hand left unpainted.
Ashley Jameson Eriksmoen’s “Fledge” 2006 is a table set based on the artist’s observations about how various young animals huddle near their parents’ legs. Constructed from various woods, acrylic and milk paints, casters, 36”x45”x14” and 24”x3-“x11.” photo: courtesy Ashley Eriksmoen
Gary Knox Bennett (born 1934)v has attained legendary status in the field of furniture and is well-known for his subversive humor. In the 1960’s he created lines of roach clips along with his lucrative large-scale furniture and he also started a metal-plating company and has since imbued his wood furniture with decorative metal. Hanna selected one of his satiny redwood tables for “Family Tree” and encourages viewers to browse through any of the 10 artist statements he prepared for the show.
Ashley Eriksmoen’s “Fledge” is a very gestural duo and amongst the most imaginative pieces on display —a solid wood parson’s table and end table set– highly organic in form and suggestive of a bird wing. “Fledge” is based on Eriksmoen’s observations of various young animals (including humans) as they huddle near their parents’ legs. “A gosling will find shelter under the mother goose’s wing as it peers at the world, just as dogs lean into their guardian’s shins when feeling shy,” writes Eriksmoen. “In ‘Fledge,’ the parent table takes a protective stance as the young table leans out, contemplating leaving the nest on a solo flight while still needing the parent.” Each “feather” of the table is an independent segment, shaped and fitted curve to curve. The legs have lap joints in the “knees.” Casters on the hind feet allow these winged creatures to have faster takeoffs and smooth
Russell Baldon’s table “Bad Digital” is a hallucinogenic exploration the possibilities of digital furniture design. Baldon is chairman of the Furniture Department at CCA and encourages his students to embrace technology. Photo: Geneva Anderson
landings, and to be moved easily with one hand. Eriksmoen, who teaches at California College of the Arts (CCA) in San Francisco, has travelled the world studying ancient techniques which she applies in conjunction with state of the art design practices taught at CCA. The result is a thoroughly refreshing body of contemporary work imbued with life, movement, whimsy, and stunning craftsmanship.
Highly creative approaches to woodworking are being nurtured in CCA’s Furniture Program and instructors Russell Baldon, Donald Fortescue and Barbara Holmes also figure prominently in “Family Tree.” Russell Baldon’s “Bad Digital” is a digitally-designed and executed table that resembles a Victor Vasarely painting in 3-D. Baldon, current chairman of CCA’s Furniture Program, intentionally designs his work so that it straddles the line between furniture and art, science and art, and between function and nonfunction.
Donald Fortescue's "Pike" (2001) were painstakingly formed by gluing rings of plywood together and turning and hand-shaping it to form a smooth minimalistic tower. In 2001, Fortescue became the first artist to win a design award from SFMOMA. Photo: courtesy Donald Fortescue
Australian born Donald Fortescue, previous chairman of CCA’s Furniture Program, was one of the first artists to receive the Experimental Design Award from SFMOMA (San Francisco Museum of Modern Art) in 2001. “Pike” (2000) are two impeccably made sculptural vessels that comment on the potential of non-rectilinear processes now common in design applications of all types. Each was made by gluing innumerable rings of birch plywood together, then lathe-turning and painstakingly hand-finishing it into a single smooth layered form. These layers, like sedimentary strata, stand as a perfect commentary on art’s cycle. In the long run, almost everything in America that starts out at the pinnacle as a coveted art/design object in galleries or design stores cycles downward until it reaches Target and then ascends in large consumer markets.
Barbara Holmes, a fine woodworker and CCA instructor from Oakland, has created the site specific “Tacoma” from reclaimed redwood lathe specifically for the Petaluma Arts Center. This lyrical, spiraling 12 foot long line of lathe unfolds like a melody across the gallery wall. The technique of stacking slats, nailing them and creating spirals is recent and springs from a residency Holmes did at the dump where she discovered how much lathe was a discarded by-product of demolition. The repurposing of wood and wood objects has become particularly popular in Northern, CA, because of our strong interest in sustainability and eco-consciousness. Wood artists like Holmes are exploring the material in new ways and creating pieces with a strong conceptual element behind them.
Sparks and shavings flew as Jerry Kermode demonstrated turning techniques to a packed house at the Petaluma Arts Center. Photo: Geneva Anderson
In late January, Jerry Kermode, a full time wood turner from Sebastopol, gave one of the center’s most action-packed artist demos ever on problem solving for wood turners. ”I love the lathe because it’s really the only tool in the shop where you are the blade,” Kermode told a packed house of wood enthusiasts. Kermode teaches wood techniques out of his home studio and is featured in Sunset’s The Ultimate Garage: Getting Organized, Outfitting Your Garage, Creative Use of Space.
Like many artists, Kermode studies ancient techniques and finds solutions for problems that are a blend of old and new. While living in Hawaii, he encountered the cherished calabash (bowl) culture of the Islands and discovered that old calabash bowls were often repaired with wooden inserts, or kepa. Kermode began experimenting with biscuit joiners used in cabinetry to hold together included or fragile wood while turning it and refined this into a signature technique of stitching (bowl repair). Kermode, collaborates with his wife and business partner, Deborah Kermode, who finishes the bowls he has carved, and the couple has a number of natural edge of bowls in “Family Tree.”
David Keller’s dovetail jigs, revered in wood circles, are on display at the Petaluma Art Center’s “Family Tree” through March 13, 2011. Keller worked for Art Carpenter in the early 1970’s who demanded that all casework be dovetailed, a task that was painstakingly done by hand. Together Art and Dave recognized a need for a jig that could precision dovetails and Dave subsequently designed it, along with the first flush-trim router bit . His model 3600 jig that he designed long ago is still a best seller and his bit has revolutionized tool work.
Tools of the Trade
“All these makers love tools” says Hanna, “whether it’s a bandsaw or a new industrial design machine. Over the past 25 years, there have been major changes in the tools associated with achieving sculptural processes, in most cases designed by makers to meet a specific design need.”
Dave Keller, of Petaluma, who apprenticed and then worked with Art Carpenter in the early 1970’s, refined Carpenter’s technique for uniform dovetail joinery into the Keller dovetail system in 1976. Hanna has created a display of three of Keller’s aluminum templates and examples of different ways that dovetails are used.
In "Alumination," Andrew Perkins painstakingly layered aluminum and maple and then cut and sanded to achieve exquisite patterning in his table. Photo: Geneva Anderson
John de Marchi is a Petaluma sculptor and machinist/welder renowned for his finely-designed hand tools for woodworking. De Marchi fabricates new tools from scratch out of the finest steel available and also elegantly refurbishes old tools.
Rising Stars
The community gallery presents a snapshot of some of the latest developments in furniture design through student artists from the Wood Furniture Design Program at California College of the Arts. These rising stars were asked to respond to various design problems posed by their instructors and you’ll see cutting-edge works in a variety of style, materials and intents.
Andrew Perkins’ stunning table “Alumination” is a clever use of aluminum, a very flexible material, which has been layered with maple wood and then cut and sanded to expose elegant metal patterning whose exposure increases as the table leg tapers downward. Perkins is a 2010 CCA student recipient of the Ronald and Anita Wornick Award for exceptional talent in furniture design.
Noah Brezel’s “percival” (2009) is a functional seat with 12 legs that looks a lot like a spider. Brezel took cherry edgebanding and glued it and bent it over a curve to create some highly complex intersections. Brezel is interested in creating functional furniture with a perceived frailty and uses traditional hand-craftsmanship along with 3D computer modeling and laser cutting.
Noah Brezel’s “percival” (2009) is a functional seat with 12 legs fashioned from cherry edgebanding and cherry veneer, 32’ x 41’ x 17’. Brezel has attempted to bridge the gap between craft and design and strives for clean lines. Photo: Geneva Anderson
Michele Marti deconstructs Victorian furniture and then reconstructs it for her own purposes. “The Curious Sofa” has been formed by joining two Victorian chairs together to form a single sofa that forces two people sitting on the chair together to rub knees, a very un-Victorian thing to do. “Victorian’s Spread” similarly co-joins two chairs and indelicately references America’s weight gain. Marti and student colleague Brezel led a chair- making workshop at SFMOMA last year as part of its 75th anniversary celebration.
Wood’s Rising Stature:
In the contemporary craft world, wood is still a little bit of an underdog that has yet to be discovered in the big way that glass or ceramics have been in craft collecting and museum circles, explains Julie Muniz, Associate Curator of Crafts and Decor, Oakland Museum of CA. “Today’s wood craftsmen are really exploring the material in new ways and pushing the boundaries beyond the vessel and chair and into some very interesting installation pieces with some sort of commentary and conceptual element behind it. All this speaks very well for wood’s repositioning as a vibrant conceptual craft form.”
Michele Marti's "Curious Sofa" is a gorgeous spoof on Victorian morays as well as furniture design. Two people sitting on this plushly upholstered seat are forced to touch knees, a very un-Victorian thing to do. Photo: courtesy Michele Marti
Muniz has worked closely with Ron and Anita Wornick of Healdsburg and San Francisco, whose wood collection was the basis of the Oakland Museum of CA’s 1997 show “Expressions in Wood: Masterworks from the Wornick Collection.” Having amassed one of the most important conceptual craft collections in the country, and enthusiastically nurtured and supported wood artists through purchases, endowments, and fellowships, the Wornicks are now pushing to get wood its long due recognition in the country’s leading museums. “Wood will only be elevated to the level of fine art when the best of the work gets into fine arts museums and gets the exposure and recognition it deserves to stand beside other things that are more readily accepted as fine art,” said Ron Wornick.
In 2007, the Wornicks bequeathed 250 pieces from their conceptual craft collection to Boston Fine Arts Museum, including the 120 works in the MFA’s 2007 exhibition “Shy Boy, She Devil and Isis: The Art of Conceptual Craft.” In 2009, they gave several wood pieces to the Oakland Museum of CA’s wood collection. Earlier this year, they gave 100 pieces to Racine Art Museum (RAM) in Wisconsin in conjunction with its “Knock Wood” exhibition celebrating wood’s entrance to RAM’s permanent collection. Their collection includes pieces by many of the master artists in “Family Tree.”
Ron and Anita Wornick attended “Family Tree’s” opening and were impressed. “Shows like this one here in Petaluma are critical in raising public awareness about how far wood has come,” said Wornick. “I ended up spending a lot time there. Normally an exhibition is a little more horizontal in terms of a certain time frame or artist, but this one went all the way from Gary Knox Bennett, who is as old as tree and one of the originals, to Barbara Holmes and Chris Loomis (who are mid-career) and these three represent a 40 to 50 year time span of making in this language. There was real discernment in the selection of pieces too. And not only did it have a range of artists and works but there were also some inexperienced collectors there too and it was fun to see all of this unfold.”
Artist Talk: Saturday, March 5, 2011, 2-4 pm Ashley Eriksmoen: From Vikings to Lasers: One Woodworker’s Journey Seeking Appropriate Technologies for Creative Work
To construct complex, asymmetrical, organic forms, sometimes the best technology involves 21st century lasers, and sometimes it requires hand methods used by 9th century Vikings. An understanding of both can bring the best possible solution in Eriksmoen’s sculptural furniture work. Ashley Jameson Eriksmoen has exhibited at galleries and museums nationwide including the Fuller Museum and Pritam and Eames, and is the recipient of numerous awards and grants including the Norwegian Marshall Fund. She has taught woodworking and design courses and workshops at several schools, including College of the Redwoods and California College of Art (and Craft). Eriksmoen currently creates in her woodshop in Oakland. Fee: $5 suggested donation.
Recommended Reading:
Woodturning in North America Since 1930 (Yale University Press, 2003) complete history of woodturning
The Maker’s Hand: American Studio Furniture, 1940-1990 (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 2009)
Made in Oakland: The Furniture of Gary Knox Bennett (American Craft Museum, now Museum of Arts & Design, 2001)
Expressions in Wood: Masterworks from the Wornick Collection (Oakland Musuem of CA, 1996 available at the museum store at the Oakland Museum of CA and online.)
Details: The Petaluma Arts Center is located at 230 Lakeville Street, at East Washington Street, in central Petaluma, 94952. Gallery hours: Thursday- Monday, noon to 4 pm. Phone: (707) 762-5600 or www.petalumaartscenter.org
