Vol. 18 No. 1
Spring / Summer 2023
Putting together each issue of Studio involves different types of labour, reflecting a wide range of talents. It begins, as always, with the labour of the craftspeople, makers, artisans, designers and artists we feature. But it also includes the work of writing, editing, copy editing, designing, coordinating and communicating internally and externally, managing projects and deadlines, and constant decision-making. When deciding on the theme and content for this issue, which focuses on labour, we wanted to consider what it takes to make craft work, and what impact work in craft has.
Our feature article this issue looks at the important and under-examined topic of aging in crafts. Craft labour is physical work. Craftspeople use their bodies to interact with their chosen medium in constant, repetitive and sometimes physically challenging ways. As craftspeople grow older, their work inevitably shifts to reflect their accumulated knowledge of their material, their familiarity and comfort with processes and the experience gathered over decades of making. Their output also adapts to the constraints of their aging bodies. What happens when decades of making inevitably take their toll?
This conversation has taken on renewed urgency at this moment in time, especially as funding sources shrink during a time where mass production, fast convenience and economic precarity come together. Writer Daniela Payne talks to older artists about the challenges of aging in craft, how their work has changed as a result, and their concerns for the future. There is a wider Canadian context here, too: how do we figure out how to take care of our aging artists — and by extension, ourselves and our communities — in an increasingly uncertain economic future?
In this issue, we also celebrate the labour of ceramicist Grace Nickel, who received the 2023 Saidye Bronfman Award. Nickel’s career began in Manitoba in the 1980s, and since then, she has produced an expansive body of work that reflects a committed and curious engagement with material, technology and esthetics. Her sculptures both represent and commemorate the natural world and hint at possibilities for regeneration, making her work a timely, thoughtful and beautiful commentary on our current moment.
A profile of Caroline Monnet by Napatsi Folger explores the Algonquin artist and filmmaker’s commitment to Indigenous methodologies in addressing the impacts of colonialism. Neil Price takes a look at Nigerian-Canadian artist Oluseye’s sculptural confrontations of Blackness in Canada through his chimeric Ploughing Liberty series. In response to Meghan Price’s acquisition of a digital Jacquard loom, Erica Whyte interviews Price about how her approach and process reflect her engagement with new technologies and found materials. Artist and curator Bruno Vinhas responds to our questions about his career path and work. And Michael Prokopow asks us to look at how we assign value to the labour of craftspeople.
Curator Sequoia Miller writes about Azza El Siddique, who was shortlisted for the 2022 Sobey Art Award in recognition of her large-scale installations. Her work brings together clay, steel and water to create dynamic systems of transformation, informed by ancient funerary practices and creation stories.
What labour goes into making a crafted object, a magazine, a world, a life?
Nehal El-Hadi Editor-In-Chief
CONTENTS:
Editor’s Note
FOCAL POINT AZZA EL SIDDIQUE
Sequoia Miller writes about the artist’s evocative engagements with ceramics, sculpture and transformation. read article
ENTANGLEMENTS & ETHEREAL CONNECTIONS
Napatsi Folger profiles the multidisciplinary artist and filmmaker Caroline Monnet.
SAIDYE BRONFMAN AWARD WINNER: GRACE NICKEL
Tammy Sutherland describes how thoughtful considerations of material, process and subject matter are reflected in the ceramicist’s work. read article
MAKING OVER TIME
Daniela Payne talks with makers and artists about how aging has affected their creative practice. read article
THREAD COUNT
Erica Whyte interviews Meghan Price about technologies and materials. read article
ON LABOUR, LIBERTY AND ART
Neil Price writes about multidisciplinary artist Oluseye’s confrontation of Black labour’s place within the history of Canada. read excerpt
THE WORK OF THINGS
Michael Prokopow considers the labour that goes into making. read article
HOUSED AND FORMER HOST
Poetry by multidisciplinary artist Ashley Qilavaq-Savard.
PORTFOLIO Renaud Sauvé (Irlande, Que.), AdrianMartinus (Calgary, Alta.), Samar Hejazi (Toronto, Ont.)
INQUIRIES BRUNO VINHAS
The Gallery Director and Curator for the Craft Council of Newfoundland and Labrador draws from his background in theatre to inform his curatorial approach. read article
