Culture in the time of consumption

Wednesday, December 03, 2008

By Henry Sweets

Jackson Hole, Wyo.-Serendipity can have a hand in seasonal shopping, if you let it. And if you wander into the right venue, you will find the right gifts; the gifts that say “I am perfect for (enter name of person who is hard to shop for),” and prove to be a more nuanced fit with their personality than something “store bought.”

This weekend is a good time for Jacksonites to keep their eyes peeled (or ears open), as hundreds of artists and craftsmen are showing their wares during a series of events this weekend. But it’s not all shopping; along the way there will be some real cultural-social treats.

                                                      •

Something is growing at the Art Association: a community of adults who like to play with mud.

The Teton Mudpots formed in Jackson to support tactile, therapeutic mud habits and raise scholarship money for financially challenged ceramicists. The group has spun out of a renaissance occurring over the last couple of years in the Art Association’s Clay Studio, which has become perhaps the most trafficked studio in the Art Association.

From 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., Thursday, Mudpots is hosting its Christmas pottery sale. They will sell cups, bowls, saucers, sculptures and sundry other ceramics. Works by professional artists as well as hobby tinkerers will provide something for every wallet, and local potters will be around to show the wares.

                                                      •

Would you like to see something that’s really “going on” in America? One rare opportunity will arise at 6 p.m., Friday, when Artlab spreads national and local artists’ works on paper all over their walls. Artlab curator Abbie Miller has brought in art from friends and connections in towns like New York, Chicago and Detroit – towns that have a cosmopolitan pulse and a major contemporary art market.

A number of the national submissions explore emotional posturing though quirky portraiture and/or allegorically mutant human forms – which seems to be a trend in contemporary paper works. It will be interesting to see this work hung alongside that of Jackson’s more provincial artists whose ideas are incubated in a relative vacuum of outside influence.

The show, “Wallpaper,” will cover Artlab’s walls with unframed drawings and prints in a “salon-style” format, where few square inches of wall will be exposed. The works will be arranged according to how they look, and what other works they complement or contrast. Miller said the format removes the hierarchical or categorical statements that curators sometimes make, and lets the viewer make their own connections.

Unframed, the quality works will be available for low prices, in keeping with Artlab’s unwritten motto, “Art for the people.”

                                                      •

At Lyndsay McCandless Contemporary (LMC) a sample of local artisans and artists will be selling work for under $50. The idea is for Jacksonites to support one another in tough economic times, but also celebrate the holidays and the impending paradigm shift in Washington, D.C.

Find work by the Anomaly Farm, Halo Hats, Vannessa Sulzer and Alissa Davies among others. There will be screen-printed shirts, jackets and scarves as well as paintings and sculptures.

The Southside Pizza and Pub, a local organic pizzeria, will serve up pizza and DJ Mister Whipple will serve up jams.

But despite the amount of good art and ceramics available Thursday and Friday, there is no place to forage for Christmas gifts like the Snow King Christmas Bazaar from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., Saturday. Hundreds of vendors will be selling everything from knit caps to hand-turned berlewood bowls to God-knows-what.
And, speaking of the divine, the Presbyterian Church is also hosting it’s own Christmas Bazaar from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., Saturday.

But if you are at Snow King, look outside for Bland Hoke Jr. and other mid-afternoon marauders who will be building a giant (depending on how much snow there is) snow and ice sculpture in Phil Baux Park outside of the Snow King Bazaar. Bring a bucket or sculpting tools and an open mind. Hoke, the art ambassador for the Center for Wonder, is spreading public art while the Artspot is temporarily out of service. PJH

Courtesy
A screenprinted bird scarf by Vanessa Sulzer.

PERMALINK:
Culture in the time of consumption | Planet JH News Article: Arts Beat

Leave a Comment