Studio 19.2 Spectacle

The word spectacle draws its origins from the Latin specere, to look; an object, a performance, an event or a scene becomes spectacle through its visual impact and draw for attention. Craft occupies a fascinating position in relation to the spectacular, and when a crafted object possesses spectacular elements, this can be perceived to challenge and undermine its purpose, function and status.

There’s a special treat in this issue, that’s also something we haven’t done before. Comic artist Brandon Hicks illustrates the story of the Dark Harbour hermits — two brothers living in Grand Manan, N.B., at the turn of the century. One of the brothers, Lewis “Lucy” Greene, would build detailed dioramas and modify gunstocks, knife handles and cabinets. Hicks animates the brothers’ legendary lives through the voice of one of their descendants.

This past September, six Kinngait artists — Saimaiyu Akesuk, Shuvinai Ashoona, Qavavau Manumie, Quvianaqtuk Pudlat, Pitseolak Qimirpik and Ooloosie Saila — were exhibited in a pavilion at the 2024 Gwangju Biennale. The exhibition Home and Other Places grew out of an exchange between Inuit and Korean artists, and included multidisciplinary collaborations.

This issue’s Focal Point features Sameer Farooq, who was born in Cape Breton to Pakistani and Ugandan Indian parents. Curator and writer Rea McNamara describes Farooq’s systemic approach as revealing “how the theatre of its production frames a subject”; Farooq’s delicate ceramic installations subvert the idea of the spectacle by highlighting the unregarded labour of exhibitions.

I was delighted to speak with curator and craft historian Alan Elder about his work, and learned from him the role of craft and design in the Canadian nation-making project. When I asked him why his work was important, his reply addressed the role of crafted objects: “They’re important as far as what they tell us about the time in which they were made, and they can also impact what that time is.”

Michael Prokopow’s description of Ghanaian sculptor El Anatsui’s towering installation at London’s Tate Modern Museum tackles the heady material of its inspiration. Prokopow writes that “the humbling power of art and craft as mechanisms for authentic and transformative reflection” can be regarded through Anatsui’s use of scale and material complexity.

In a stunning essay for our Provocations series, glassblower Katherine Gray describes how glass not only compels her as a material to work with, but also mediates her relationship with the rest of the world through her acquired celebrity status as a resident advisor on the Netflix show Blown Away. Gray draws attention not only to glass’s spectacularity, but also the transfixing act of blowing glass, a spectacle in and of itself.

Included in this issue are many other delightful reads: poetry by Marita Dachsel, professor and co-editor of the stitching anthology Sharp Notions (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2023); Inquiries with Franchesca Hebert-Spence, curator of Indigenous Ceramics at the Gardiner Museum; and Portfolio features presenting the textile works of AJA Louden, jewelry by Caroline Pham and the wooden sculptures of Djuna Day.

Nehal El-Hadi Editor-In-Chief