It's not apparent from its rough-hewn facade, but "Make Me," recently opened at Moss in New York, has a romantic bent. The romance lies in a classic juxtaposition: a tough exterior combined with a sensitive core (think the lumberjack who is a gourmet chef; an ironworker with a PhD in philosophy). These kind of hard-shell with gooey-center contrasts are all over "Make Me." We let the description speak for itself in our announcement, but a reminder: "a cerebral-yet-virile narrative applied to rough work crafted in wood, iron, steel, marble, rust, paint, boiled leather, clay, baked agricultural waste, plant-life, gypsum drywall, and blood, sweat, and tears."
Those last three elements are the keys to this show: a human made this stuff, by hand, and with consideration. Blood, sweat, and tears run through each piece: in process, materials, function, and concept. These elements are evident in the visible shiny gold screws fastening rough planks of Douglas Fir in Peter Marigold's Man Made series, as well as in the charred wood negative providing support for its blown glass bowl in Jakub Berdych's Landscape Series, and they are possibly most apparent in Oscar Magnus Narud's remaining pencil marks created in the making of his Keel Collection of furniture.
Many of the designers created these objects using accessible and traditional craft techniques, and a few even went medieval. The works are not pretty or delicate or austere. They are a little messy and not immediately beautiful, but they are made by hand using simple and classic materials, with complex consideration put into them by their creators. They look rough at the outset, and upon further examination, reveal finesse.
(more...)