Benjamin Chickadel
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Craft techniques have never been completely absent from fine art. But the influential Arts and Crafts movement, first prominent in the 1880s in England and the United States, may have been the last time anyone really bothered to come up with what could be called a “theory” of handicraft. British artisan William Morris held what appeared to be, given the unstoppable tide of technology, an increasingly nostalgic belief in the dignity of labor. Always conscious of the role of economic class, he had prophetic things to say about the rift between the “fine” and “decorative” arts. Addressing the Trades’ Guild of Learning in London in 1877 he said: “The lesser ones [decorative arts] become trivial, mechanical, unintelligent, incapable of resisting the changes pressed upon them by fashion or dishonesty; while the greater [fine arts]…become nothing but dull adjuncts to unmeaning pomp, or ingenious toys for a few rich and idle men.” A look at the vapidity of most high modernist abstraction on one hand and, on the other, its reflection in the utterly banal vanity crafts displayed at venues like SOFA Chicago proves his point. With low-cost consumer technology ever more available, we now have something of a renaissance in do-it-yourself art forms, from Web pages to zines to DVDs. But it’s not easy to address issues of technique, economics, and history in drag-and-click media.
Completing the trinity of hollowed-out, drooping geometric wall structures is Satellite, a golden drawing of the heavenly telecommunications icon that dissolves into the squares and triangles of its delicate panels and appendages. Chickadel is as deft conceptually as he is technically. An expensive suburban home and an expensive suburban vehicle might go together somewhat too neatly, but the addition of the satellite creates a question. One might think that the Hummer and the satellite are related in their appropriation of military hardware for commerce, or that the house and satellite are the terminal ends of an invisible infotainment beam. However you slice it, Chickadel’s scheme juxtaposes mirages that suggest numerous connections between taste and technology.
When: Through 2/22: Tue-Fri 12:30-5:30 PM
