SHOW REPORT: CHEONGJU INTERNATIONAL CRAFT BIENNALE 2009, KOREA

Brian McArthur, Canadian Offering II, mixed media.

Contemporary Canadian craft received a gift of sorts during the 6th Cheongju International Craft Biennale — works from Canada were showcased in a special exhibition and program devoted to Canadian artists. This was no small matter. It was an invitation from a country with its own well-developed crafts tradition stretching back over a 5,000 year period, its artists honoured with a special title for outstanding contribution to Korean craft, and an official website (Korea.net) devoted to its craft heritage.

Cheongju is touted as the world’s largest exposition of craft, and while the H1N1 flu was a crowd-killing factor for the 6th edition, you could still imagine that in the Biennale’s six-week run more Koreans were exposed to contemporary Canadian craft than has ever been possible for a Canadian audience. They saw the largest exhibition of juried Canadian craft objects ever mounted on an international or national stage. Titled Unity and Diversity, the show included more than 200 objects from across the country, a testament to not only the healthy number of artists who labour imaginatively in this area but also to the astonishing range and combination of materials and techniques used here.

Malcolm Zander, Out of Africa and True Love, African blackwood and pink ivory, 2006.

Works in ceramic, glass, metal, fibre, wood, textiles, stone and paper were prominent, but the show also included more contemporary materials — a delicate brooch and bracelet made of recycled plastic by Bridget Catchpole, Colin Schleeh’s vase of coiled 16mm film. The eye of the viewer was fooled as well. Andrew Goss’ elegantly slender bracelet was made of cement, of all things, and Jason Holley’s gritty chain-link sculpture was fashioned, chameleon-like, out of clay.

Conceptually too, there were moments of real engagement. From Marcus Bowcott, the militarism of the Bush era was cogently encapsulated by a celadon vase-like object cleverly hand-built from several Humvee shapes, while Brian McArthur continued his witty interaction with Canadian symbols like the canoe, the beaver and, for this work, the Canadian donut. On this latter point, there was no shortage of works falling under the appealing category of “Oh Canada”.

The result of six regional juries and ably curated by Dr.Sandra Alfoldy for the Canadian Crafts Federation, Unity and Diversity had its shortcomings — mid-career to senior artists not represented by their best work, jewellery and small objects not well-displayed and too many artists with one work each. But it establishes a standard that could be enhanced with more deliberate focus on the very best Canada has to offer. To prove it, Unity and Diversity comes with a beautiful 300-page catalogue courtesy of a host country that made possible something almost unheard-of in Canada.