Pair's trip explores Oregon through lens of artisans' work, communities
They decided to take a craft tour of Oregon.
Portlands Museum of Contemporary Craft curators Nicole Nathan and Namita Gupta Wiggers hit the road to meet new makers and build an exhibit of 21st-century Oregon craft. They brought along a film crew and documented the trip, conducting interviews with artists and capturing footage along the way.
More than 50 works by 15 artists and makers and craft-based companies from the across Oregon are represented in the State of Oregon Craft show, open now at the Museum of Contemporary Craft in the Pearl District. Exhibitors include individual artists and those who belong to guilds and collectives. From traditional craft forms to pieces that upend ideas of what craft can be, its all here.
We pretty much cold-called the artists, but people were so welcoming, even as we descended upon them, Nathan says.
The craft-hunters wanted to get off the beaten path, to dig into the dry side of the state. We wanted to look at the state as a whole and get out into different places outside the I-5 corridor, Nathan says. We also wanted to really investigate place, and the effect that it has on the work.
They were also keenly interested in how artists share information within their networks. Portland-based sculptor Eric Franklin has a mainly solo studio practice but has 5,000 followers on Instagram, Nathan says. His flameworked glass sculpture of a human skeleton made of Pyrex and filled with luminous krypton gas is being shown for the first time at the show.
Whatever form craft happens to take, its usually based on communities sharing their skills and knowledge with one another, Nathan says.
A highlight was a trip to Hamley and Co., a heritage leather works store thats been in Pendleton since 1883.
We knew that Hamleys was in Pendleton and that they had been there a long time, Nathan says. And that they also have in-store workshops in leather and silver work that are like residencies.
Parley Pearce, who owns Hamleys, welcomed them with open arms, Nathan says. Two saddles and a pair of leather chaps made at Hamleys have a prominent spot in the show.
The team also traveled to Warm Springs, where artist Natalie Kirk lives. A member of the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs, she is a full-time curator at the Museum at Warm Springs. The day job informs her craft she doesnt have time to make materials from scratch so she uses Walmart yarn and beads to craft small baskets using traditional Plateau methods. A small basket with loops, Momos Wapus is a very physical manifestation of a mothers love. Its made of buckskin, wool yarn and cut-glass beads.
They also visited East Creek Anagama, near the town of Willamina, where ceramics are made in wood-fired kilns modeled after centuries-old kilns from Japan and Korea. Anagama is Japanese for cave kiln, and one of the kilns there is the second oldest of its kind in the Western Hemisphere.
It was intense there, Nathan says. The process takes place over a few weeks, and then you stay up all night stoking fires that burn for three days. Seasoned ceramic artists work alongside high school students delving into ceramic studies, and they all come together over food, conversation and the kiln.
Thirteen East Creek artists are represented in the show.
Studio Art Quilt Associatesis a 3,000-member group focused on the art quilt. Its members are primarily from Sisters and Sunriver. Wendy Hills Autumn Textures is made of cotton, batting and layers of zippers. SAQAs other contribution to the show is a swirling, kaleidoscopic force of nature that also happens to be a quilt.
A quilt from the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show leads up to the gallerys second level. Founded in 1975, the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show is the biggest show of its kind in the world, attended by more than 12,000 people. The quilt is a joyful paean to Central Oregon and depicts the snow-capped Three Sisters mountain range, sunbursts and ponderosa pines.
Craft is funny, too. Brightly glazed ceramic banks an alligator, a pig by Mudshark Studios are ready to display on shelves in the well-curated Oregon home. And the immaculately crafted ceramic growlers? Thats about as Oregon as it gets.