The Handmade & The Homemade II

This Tuesday we had a class discussion about the articles "Oh Canada" and "Builders", which we had read and written responses on. Since I already did a response to the readings, I sort of feel like I don't have much more to say about that class. I do, however, have more to say about handmade art (surprise!). In my last blog post I talked about the whole movement of hand-making in general, and what I thought of it, but I didn't really get the chance to respond to the art and artists we had looked at in class that day, so I'll do that now. With Germaine Koh's Knitwork, like Professor Kelly said the sweaters that she is unraveling and re-knitting each represent a presumably unique person,
each has it's own stories. At the same time Koh bought the sweaters second hand, and didn't wash them gives her project an "ick factor". To me this is a great example of the messy intimacy that in habits a lot of handmade items and art. It's like the same feeling you get from sharing a drink with your best friend, almost--like, if you think about it on a molecular level too much it's gross, but the intimacy about it makes it special, so the "ick factor" of both things gives them more value, in a way. Maybe this is a weird thing to say, and no one else feels this way, maybe I look like a weirdo now.
Anyway, moving on... I thought Janice Wright Cheney's Widow was one of the most beautiful pieces of art I've seen. I had never thought about the fact that taxidermy could be used in art--probably partially because I don't like the idea of killing an animal just for decoration, which I know is not what all taxidermy is. I'm not sure where she got the bear, but what she did with it was beautiful--she took something dead and made it a thing of beauty. I'm really bad at articulating this but I just really loved it.
I also really liked Eryn Foster's Walking Laundry Line. I actually kind of have this thing for clotheslines. I just think they're one of the most beautiful things to be found in urban spaces. I like the fact that we have dryers now, but some
people still take their wet laundry outdoors, and hang it individually on a line, and led the wind dry it. I love seeing all the colourful garments dancing in the breeze, and looking at the clothing up close, speculating about which of them belongs to what member of the family, and what kind of person they are. This probably also makes me sound like a freak.
Anyway, those were just some of the pieces we looked at that I particularly liked.