Much is made of the relationship between fashion and
art—undoubtedly creative, fashion’s link to human necessity
nonetheless makes it forever outside the high-art inner circle (with
the exception, arguably, of couture). That gray distance between
fashion and art might be sweepingly referred to as “craft,” making
Portland’s recently revamped Museum of Contemporary Craft the
appropriate staging area to negotiate such concepts.
Two linked exhibitions opening this week focus on the spectrum of
experiences one commonly has with high fashion, specifically art
jewelry. Though created in reference to the body, art jewelry is rarely
worn, most commonly experienced on the page of a magazine or under the
glass of a traditional museum installation. Framing: The Art of
Jewelry aims to explore the distances this creates between the art
and the viewer.
Framing‘s companion exhibition, Touching Warms the
Art, turns that convention on its head (as indicated by its title,
which takes a playful jab at the “touching harms the art” mentality).
It confronts the fact that pieces created for the body are not really
complete unless they are worn.
“Activated” is the term Museum Curator Namita Gupta Wiggers likes to
use when describing the union of the wearable object to a body. So she,
along with colleagues Rebecca Scheer and Rachelle Thiewes sent out a
call for submissions, and juried the Touching exhibition, which
takes a page from the deep history of the DIY ethic in its emphasis on
non-precious materials.
The artists, some of whose work is also exhibited in Framing,
used everything from gelato spoons to insulation foam to create pieces
that museumgoers are encouraged to not only touch, but try on—a
photo kiosk will also be set up, where you can photograph yourself
wearing the art and post the images to a Flickr site, accessible by the
artists, who will be able to see what their pieces actually look like
on the everyday person. In the event that the exhibit inspires your
creative bug, a casual art bar with simple craft supplies will also be
set up for some impromptu experimentation.
One of the artists who responded to the call for submissions to
Touching was prominent local designer Adam Arnold, which helped
plant the seed for “Action/Re-Action,” a runway show of locally
designed apparel to accompany the pieces in the exhibit on January 30.
(See next week’s Sold Out for more information on the event.) In the
meantime, do your homework. (Framing: The Art of Jewelry
and Touching Warms the Art open Sat Jan 19; Framing
runs through May 11, Touching runs through March 23; Museum
of Contemporary Craft, 724 NW Davis, Tues-Sun 11 am-6 pm, Thurs open
’til 8 pm, FREE)