by Summer Zickefoose David Medalla’s repertoire of art forms and methods is vast; he is rightfully considered a pioneer of kinetic, earth, performance, participation and conceptual art. Two of his participatory works, Porcelain Wedding and A Stitch in Time, seem particularly relevant to a contemporary conversation about socially engaged and participatory art practices. Medalla’s participatory artworks followed his better-known series of kinetic and ephemeral Bubble Machines of the 1960’s. In the bubble machine works, the machines created forms thatRead more
Posts tagged: #performance
The Role of Performance in Socially Engaged Craft (and Art!)
By Mary Baumstark As a collective, one of the first things we asked ourselves was, almost obviously, “what defines socially engaged craft? Or art?” and this was quickly followed up by the most common second question, “does performance count?” As philosophies and practices, social engagement (practice, SEA, whatever you choose to call it) and performance have similar histories in both art and craft discourses. These lineages are, perhaps, most easily accessed through avant-garde histories, although recent craft history and criticismRead more
socially engaged craft collective 