SPRAWL
SPRAWL Organized by Houston Center for Contemporary Craft Curated by Susie J. Silbert & Anna Walker On view at HCCC October 4, 2013 – January 19, 2014
© 2013 Houston Center for Contemporary Craft. All rights reserved. This book or any portion of it cannot be reproduced without the express permission of the publisher. Edited by Mary Headrick | Designed by Jenny Lynn Weitz For more information, please contact: Houston Center for Contemporary Craft 4848 Main Street, Houston, Texas 77002 713. 529. 4848 www.crafthouston.org
Houston Center for Contemporary Craft Houston Center for Contemporary Craft (HCCC) is a nonprofit arts organization founded to advance education about the process, product and history of craft. As one of the few venues in the country dedicated exclusively to craft at the highest level, HCCC is an important cultural and educational resource for Houston and the Southwest. HCCC provides exhibition, retail and studio spaces to support the work of local and national artists and is a vital resource for art educators, providing mission-related programs in schools and underserved communities. Visitors enjoy viewing innovative exhibitions, exploring artist studios, and shopping for one-of-a-kind gifts and home décor in the Asher Gallery. Houston Center for Contemporary Craft is funded in part by grants from The Brown Foundation, Inc.; Houston Endowment, Inc.; the City of Houston through the Houston Arts Alliance; Texas Commission on the Arts; the Wortham Foundation, Inc.; and Windgate Charitable Foundation. United Airlines is the official airline of HCCC.
Board of Directors
Staff
Victoria Lightman President
Julie Farr Executive Director
Sara S. Morgan Founding President
Quinn Hagood Facilities Support & Preparator
Edward McCartney Vice President
Kathryn Hall Curatorial Fellow
Barbara Marcus Secretary
Mary Headrick Communications Director
Byron Pettit Treasurer
Marina Lewis Support Services & Volunteer Manager
Paula Arnold Brad Bucher Libby Cagle Steven Hempel Frank Hevrdejs Anna Holliday Terry Wayne Jones Melanie Lawson Ernesto Maldonado Bobbie Nau Carrin Patman Omar Perez Thomas Perry Fabené Welch Clint Willour
Miriam Mendoza Education Director Renée Pollock Asher Gallery & Membership Associate Ashley Powell Curatorial Assistant Suzanne Sippel Asher Gallery Manager Jenny Lynn Weitz Graphic Designer & Marketing Coordinator
Official Airline of HCCC
SPRAWL
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction & Acknowledgments By Susie J. Silbert & Anna Walker Infrastructure of Expansion Essay by Susie J. Silbert
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Dylan Beck Julia Gabriel Sara Pfau E. Ryan Simmons Dane Youngren Andrea Zeuner Survey, Plan, Build Essay by Glen R. Brown
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BĂŠatrice Coron Nancy Nicholson Paul Sacaridiz Demitra Thomloudis Norwood Viviano Aftereffects: The Aesthetics of Sprawl Essay by Carrie Schneider
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Kathryn Clark Dustin Farnsworth Keith Renner Carrie Schneider Ashley Wahba Exhibition Checklist
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SPRAWL Speaker Series
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INTRODUCTION & ACKNOWLEDGMENTS By Susie J. Silbert & Anna Walker, Co-Curators of SPRAWL
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he seed of this exhibition was planted on a rainy fall day in 2011, when Anna and I were sitting in a hotel room on our first business trip, after we began working together at Houston Center for Contemporary Craft. Engaged in one of our typical conversations about how to best use the Center’s kunsthalle-style space to serve the field of craft and our home audience, we were distractedly turning pages in the major craft magazines. When we flipped to Glen R. Brown’s “The Ceramic Sprawlscape,” about ceramic artists’ responses to the urbandevelopment pattern of sprawl, we stopped—both realizing that we’d hit on something special.1 Here was a topic relevant to Houston as to few other places. The fourth largest city in the country by population but the 262nd by population density,2 with its 2.1 million residents spread over 599 square miles,3 Houston is one of the nation’s most sprawling cities. We knew that positioning a show of this nature against such a backdrop would put the works in context as no other place could. But, as transplants that had become deeply invested in our new home, our hope was that this exhibition could also give back to the city. We were aware that a multifaceted conversation about the city’s future was well underway and hoped that this exhibition could serve as a venue for its continuation. To that end, this show is accompanied by a three-month-long lecture series, with a wide range of speakers, including politicians, professors, urban planners, artists, and advocates. To have an exhibition, however, you need artwork. Using Glen’s article as a springboard, we began to look for other artists treating the same theme and were surprised and delighted to find so many. Jewelers and paper cutters, glaziers and textile artists, wood and metal workers, and, of course, ceramicists, were all addressing the growth and, in some cases, death of cities. The abundance of artists addressing this topic encouraged us that the issue had particular resonance for the craft community. After 7
a difficult winnowing process—we could have easily filled a space twice the size of HCCC’s main gallery—we selected 16 emerging-to-mid-career artists from across the country, including Paul Sacaridiz and Dylan Beck, who first appeared in Glen’s article, representing a diverse range of media and viewpoints on the topic of sprawl. As a thematic project, SPRAWL is organized around three phases of development: “Infrastructure of Expansion,” about the encroachment of the city into areas of low population density; “Survey, Plan, Build,” which treats the construction of residences and businesses; and “Aftereffects,” which interprets the social interactions, cultural production, and environmental concerns engendered by this type of growth. The catalogue mimics this structure, with essays introducing each topic, by me; Glen R. Brown, who has graciously built on his original article to provide one that is topical for our purposes; and participating artist, Carrie M. Schneider, followed by images of the artists in each section. Exhibitions such as these do not come about without a team of collaborators making sure the wheels are on the wagon and we’re driving straight. We owe an enormous debt of gratitude to our former colleagues at Houston Center for Contemporary Craft, without whom this exhibition and publication would not have been possible. In specific, we would like to thank the Board of Directors; Exhibitions Committee; and Executive Director, Julie Farr, for giving us the opportunity to curate this show; the curatorial staff of Kathryn Hall and Ashley Powell, who took the reigns of day-to-day operations when we left; Quinn Hagood, Bret Shirley, and the rest of the prep crew who brought the show to life; and Mary Headrick and Jenny Lynn Weitz, whose incredible diligence, flexibility, and creativity led to this amazing publication. In addition, we are very thankful to our contributing authors and speakers for adding richness to this investigation. Above all, this exhibition would not have been possible without the trust and participation of the artists. It has been an enormous pleasure working with each of you. Thank you. What began as a seed two years ago has grown into a project larger and more interesting than we could have imagined. Our final thank you is to the city of Houston itself—this exhibition is a love letter to you. Susie J. Silbert is an independent curator and design historian operating in exile in Brooklyn, New York. Anna Walker is the Windgate Foundation Curatorial Fellow for Contemporary Craft at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
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— 1. 2.
3.
Glen R. Brown, “The Ceramic Sprawlscape,” Ceramics Monthly 59, no. 8 (October 2011): 40–45. Houston is 262nd of a list of all municipalities with over 50,000 residents as cited here: “2000 Census: US Municipalities Over 50,000: Ranked by 2000 Density,” www.demographia.com. Houston ranks fifth most dense of the top 10 most populous U.S. cities, with a density of 3,384. By contrast, the third most populous city has 12,222 and the first most, New York, has 27,130. City of Houston Planning and Development Department Public Policy Division, Houston’s Comparison with Major U.S. Cities (Houston, TX, April 2009), fig. 30. “Houston (city) QuickFacts from the US Census Bureau,” quickfacts.census.gov/
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INFRASTRUCTURE OF EXPANSION
Previous page: Julia Gabriel 2209 - 2219 Congress Street, Houston, Texas, 2013 Photo by Julia Gabriel
INFRASTRUCTURE OF EXPANSION By Susie J. Silbert
“Cities are still art, done on a wide scale, with our paintbrushes and colors being freeways and train lines.�1
W
ith newfound wealth after World War II, Americans sought to make good on an American dream long blocked by high-rise tenements and drowned out by the noise of overcrowded inhabitants. In record numbers, they relocated from urban centers to urban peripheries, lured by the space and luxury believed to be inherent in suburban life. To accommodate this migration, cities began to swell beyond their limits, consuming the rural areas around them. Telephone poles and roads, the harbingers of urban life, began to hem in and bisect cornfields and deserts alike. In 1956, construction workers broke ground on the interstate highway system, the feather in the cap of Dwight D. Eisenhower’s presidency. In time, the country was connected like never before, forever altering the landscape and inadvertently changing American methods of urban growth. Drawn by the promise of the good life, Americans, in newly bought cars and mobile homes, packed up their belongings and zoomed from cramped, compact East Coast cities to the sunbelt states of California, Arizona, Nevada and Texas. Places that were once one-horse towns expanded to accommodate these new arrivals, both the people and their automobiles. Gridded historic downtowns, built for the pedestrian and trolley, gave way to new suburban models, where pre-fab homes dotted meandering roads and cul-de-sacs, laid out with an eye for leisure and safety. In these low-density developments, new American cultures were born. Chief among them was the culture of the car. Amid places affected by this cultural transformation, Houston is preeminent. Founded in the opening decades of the 19th century, with a gridded downtown typical of the day, Houston languished for over 100 years, until it hit its stride with an oilfueled boom in the 1940s. Bursting with newfound wealth and a rapidly rising population of fortune seekers, the city began to metamorphose in a manner befitting its car-centric main industry. Soaring expressways rose to great heights and unfurled 13
across broad expanses of land. Houston’s gridded downtown fragmented into suburbs and exurbs—all of them defined by the new human appendage: the car. The changes wrought in the landscape and feel of Houston and other cities across the region would become the subject of controversy and debate. Denounced for their “urban sprawl,” these places would be derided by academics and the general population for a lack of planning deemed un-aesthetic, unenvironmental, and lacking in efficiency and equity.2 At the same time, others would defend this form of growth for providing economic mobility, privacy, and freedom of choice.3 But, whatever the effects of sprawl, its genesis was in its infrastructure. The roads, sewer systems, storm drains, and transportation systems that delineated the path of a city’s future growth also determined its culture by prescribing/proscribing the interactions of its inhabitants. These are the systems investigated by the artists in the first section of SPRAWL, “Infrastructure of Expansion.” Beginning with the highways, bridges, and trestles that enabled the great westward migration and continuing through to the complexity of the contemporary landscape, Dylan Beck, Julia Gabriel, Sara Pfau, E. Ryan Simmons, Dane Youngren, and Andrea Zeuner add texture and insight to this defining feature of the American landscape. Susie J. Silbert is an independent curator and design historian working in Brooklyn, New York. — 1. 2. 3.
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Alex Marshall, How Cities Work: Suburbs, Sprawl, and the Roads Not Taken (Austin, Texas: University of Texas Press, 2000), xiv. George Galster et al., “Wrestling Sprawl to the Ground: Defining and Measuring an Elusive Concept,” Housing Policy Debate 12, no. 4 (2001): 681. Robert Breugmann, “In Defense of Sprawl,” Forbes, June 11, 2007, http://www.forbes.com.
Dylan Beck
Cardiac, 2009 Bisque porcelain, vinyl 56 x 72 x 3 inches Photo by Dylan Beck 15
Dylan Beck
Yesterday’s Tomorrow, 2011 Terracotta, grout, wood, shims, plastic, air filter 24 x 60 x 24 inches Photo by Dylan Beck 16
Julia Gabriel
Congress @ Bastrop, Houston, Texas (in-progress detail of backpack modeled after 2213 Congress Street in Houston, Texas), 2013 Hand-dyed cotton canvas, leather Overall: 8 x 72 inches Photo by Julia Gabriel 17
Sara Pfau From top to bottom:
POK Rail #1 (brooch), 2009 Sterling silver, copper, oil paint, steel 3 x 1.5 x 0.5 inches Photo by Sara Pfau POK Rail #2 (brooch), 2010 Sterling silver, copper, plastic, oil paint 4 x 1.25 x 0.5 inches Photo by Sara Pfau POK Rail #5 (brooch), 2010 Copper, brass, enamel, 14kt gold, sterling silver, oil paint 4.5 x 2 x 0.25 inches Photo by Sara Pfau 18
Sara Pfau From top to bottom:
From Below (brooch), 2010 Copper, brass, sterling silver, oil paint, rust 4.5 x 2.5 x 1 inches Photo by Sara Pfau Semaphore Line with Moving Arms (brooch), 2010 Sterling silver, copper, brass, 14kt gold, plastic, oil paint 4.5 x 2.5 x 0.5 inches Photo by Sara Pfau To George Love Herman (brooch), 2013 Sterling silver, copper, oil paint 3 x 1.5 x 0.5 inches Photo by Sara Pfau 19
E. Ryan Simmons
Immobile Trailers, 2009 Fabricated steel, rust, paint, wax Overall (approximate): 30 x 40 inches Photo by E. Ryan Simmons 20
Dane Youngren
High Rise, 2011 Ceramic, wood crate, steel bolts 44 x 10 x 34 inches Photo by Dane Youngren 21
Andrea Zeuner
Superhighway Brooch, 2011 Brass, asphalt crack repair, steel 4.5 x 5.25 x 1 inches Photo by Andrea Zeuner 22
Andrea Zeuner
Superhighway Neckpiece, 2010 Brass, asphalt crack repair 15 x 9 x 3 inches Photo by Gina Capozza 23
SURVEY, PLAN, BUILD
Previous page: Nancy Nicholson Construction #3 (detail), 2008 Blown glass, lead, vitreous paints 15 x 19 inches Photo by Nancy Nicholson
SURVEY, PLAN, BUILD By Glen R. Brown
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n the context of urban design, the sequence, survey/plan/ build, might suggest methodical growth in conformance with an overarching logic. Historically, however, cities have tended to grow less in accordance with master plans than in relation to continually shifting conditions that include the changing needs of their occupants and also such factors as the costs of renovation, as opposed to new construction; the ease or difficulty of expanding on existing infrastructure; increases or declines in population; and, of course, the opportunism of developers. Sprawl is one of the most obvious consequences when a unified plan for urban expansion is lacking. Individual suburban developments, whether designed as gated communities, fringe neighborhoods, or full-blown satellite cities, may themselves be products of careful surveying, planning, and building, but failure to integrate their features logically with the existing built environment can lead to the emergence of eccentricities on a larger scale. On the macro level, the growth of cities can be unpredictable, reactive, and improvisational, rearranging the order of surveying, planning, and building or omitting part or parts of the process altogether. In this respect, the growth of cities can be less like the methodical accumulation of data in science than like the often erratic evolution we associate with certain works of art. Recognizing this affinity, artists Paul Sacaridiz, Norwood Viviano, Demitra Thomloudis, BĂŠatrice Coron, and Nancy Nicholson have variously engaged urban development as a theme for specific works, a metaphor for the creative process, or even a model to be tentatively employed in art making. Although the linked concepts of survey/plan/build figure directly into their explorations, the consequences are not formulaic. In the age of classical inspiration in the West, from the Renaissance through the early 19th century, artists sought an ideal order, and, to achieve it, they did adhere to a method of observing, composing, and executing works of art that could be compared 27
closely to the sequence, survey/plan/build. Aspects of a methodical approach to art making even characterized certain veins in Modernism, such as those that gave rise to Cubism, Neoplasticism, and the various forms of geometric abstraction dominating formalist work of the Sixties and Seventies. Sacaridiz, Viviano, Thomloudis, Coron, and Nicholson, however, exemplify another, more intuitive and improvisational current that emerged from the late-19th-century Symbolist movement, gained momentum and eventual domination in the mid-20th century, and survived the postmodern critique of subjectivity in the Eighties to define perhaps the most prevalent view of art today. These artists are all, to some degree, nondeterministic in their practice, which is to say that their work involves not the simple execution of a preliminary plan but rather something more like a journey characterized by twists, turns, and unexpected obstacles and opportunities. Coron, whose work perhaps reveals this most clearly, describes her process as one of composing through “memories, associations of words, ideas, observations and thoughts that unfold in improbable juxtapositions.”1 Through the technique of cutting paper or sheets of Tyvek, Coron creates “cities and worlds” in which complexity arises not in relation to a preliminary idea but rather through openness to exploration in which “one story leads to the next.” Even Viviano—whose pristine glass pendants, literally calibrated to conform to twodimensional diagrams of population statistics for 24 American urban centers, might seem to reject spontaneity in favor of logic and a cool precision of execution—invokes departure and deviation rather than adherence and conformance as his principal themes. Fluctuation of urban populations, in response to such often unpredictable factors as the rise and decline of certain industries, provides the subversive counterpart to the survey/plan/build process in Viviano’s installation. The forms that Viviano has fashioned in glass in relation to the dynamics of urban growth and decline are not regular, like the Platonic solids. Instead, they mushroom or constrict in reflection of the instability of population shifts and the multiple human factors that produce them. Historically, there have been many responses to the erratic growth of cities and the labyrinths of streets, avenues, and alleyways resulting from uncoordinated expansion. Pierre Charles L’Enfant’s 1791 plan for the city of Washington, D.C., for example, was a paragon of the survey/plan/build process. The plan utilized a grid system that was oriented to the cardinal directions and was indefinitely extendible. Taking design in a very different direction, the Victorian Utopianist, Ebenezer Howard, introduced the “garden city,” a self-contained environment surrounded by natural spaces. The latter, in particular, has been inspirational to Paul Sacaridiz in his investigation of urban design through installations that suggest isolated, autonomous systems. Like 28
architectural maquettes for proposed urban environments, Sacaridiz’s works suggest function, but at the same time they are devoted tendentiously to linking that implied function to a concern for aesthetics. In other words, Sacaridiz simultaneously utilizes the growth of cities as a metaphor for the development of a work of art and imposes the aesthetic goals of a work of art back upon the growth of cities. The concern for aesthetics is, of course, what separates the work of all five artists in this section of the exhibition from that of actual urban designers, mere statisticians, or strict documentarians. Nancy Nicholson, for example, stresses that she seeks beauty in the urban environment. The demands of her medium, stained glass, necessitate a certain degree of adherence to the survey/plan/build process, but she converts her images of the rising city—steel girders, cranes, and gray workers reminiscent of Fernand Léger’s 1950s construction paintings— into communications “on multiple levels, encompassing formal, conceptual, and narrative elements.”2 Demitra Thomloudis, too, employs “an architectural language” to invoke beauty.3 Utilizing in her jewelry such materials as cement, plywood, and duct tape, as well as the more conventional alloys, sterling and nickel silver, she creates improvisational compositions that evolve intuitively rather than through a prescription for order. Thomloudis’ explanation of this process is not only key to understanding her unique jewelry; it is also helpful for assessing the work of Coron, Sacaridiz, Nicholson and Viviano. Rather than emphasizing materials for their own sake, she considers “an object’s construction as value.”4 For this construction, the sequence, survey/build/plan, is not an ideal formula. As in the unpredictable, reactive, and improvisational growth of actual cities and all works of art that value intuition, it is a guide to be as often violated as adhered to, whether the goal be utility, beauty, or both. Glen R. Brown, Ph.D., is Professor of Art History and Associate Head of the Art Department at Kansas State University. — 1. 2. 3. 4.
Béatrice Coron, Artist Statement, http://www.beatricecoron.com/statement.html Nancy Nicholson, Artist Statement, http://www.nancy-nicholson.com/biography.htm Demitra Thomloudis, Artist Statement, http://www.demidemi.net/Artist. asp?ArtistID=33884&Akey=TDQB662J Ibid.
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BĂŠatrice Coron
Chaos City, 2010 Cut Tyvek 44.5 x 44.5 inches Photo by Etienne Frossard 30
Nancy Nicholson
Construction #3, 2008 Blown glass, lead, vitreous paints 15 x 19 inches Photo by Nancy Nicholson 31
Nancy Nicholson
Construction #4, 2008 Blown glass, lead, vitreous paints 15 x 19 inches Photo by Nancy Nicholson 32
Paul Sacaridiz
An Incomplete Articulation, 2011 Ceramic, wood, powder-coated aluminum, cut vinyl, board Overall (approximate): 120 x 120 x 144 inches Photo courtesy of the Denver Art Museum 33
Demitra Thomloudis From top left to bottom:
13.631 oz (necklace), 2013 Cement, steel, wood, pigment, resin 22 x 8.5 x 1.75 inches Photo by Demitra Thomloudis Containment (necklace), 2013 Cement, steel, resin, pigment, sterling silver, cord, wood 22 x 6.5 x 3.5 inches Photo by Demitra Thomloudis Fragmented Space (brooch), 2012 Cement, sterling silver, aluminum, nickel silver, resin, pigment, fiber 4 x 3.25 x 2.25 inches Photo by Demitra Thomloudis Framed (brooch), 2012 Cement, sterling silver, aluminum, nickel silver, resin, pigment 6 x 2.5 x 1 inches Photo by Demitra Thomloudis 34
Demitra Thomloudis From top left to bottom:
Reconstructed: Bisected Space (brooch), 2013 Cement, wood, sterling silver, nickel silver, resin, pigment 4.25 x 1.25 x 1 inches Photo by Demitra Thomloudis Reconstructed: Continued Line (brooch), 2013 Cement, sterling silver, steel, resin, pigment 8 x 6.5 x 0.65 inches Photo by Demitra Thomloudis Reconstructed: Outline (brooch), 2013 Cement, sterling silver, steel, resin, pigment 3.5 x 2 x 1 inches Photo by Demitra Thomloudis Reconstructed: Square Interior (brooch), 2013 Cement, plywood, sterling silver, nickel silver, resin, pigment 2.5 x 1.5 x 0.5 inches Photo by Demitra Thomloudis Reverse Encounter (ring), 2011 Wood, copper, powder coat, fiber, sterling silver 3 x 2 x 2 inches Photo by Demitra Thomloudis 35
Norwood Viviano
Cities: Departure and Deviation (panoramic), 2011 Blown glass, vinyl-cut drawings Dimensions variable Photo by Cathy Carver 36
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AFTEREFFECTS
Previous page: Dustin Farnsworth Looming Genes and Rooted Dreams, 2009 Reclaimed wood, plywood, MDF, steel, poplar, concrete Overall: 120 x 42 x 56 inches Photo by Peter McDaniel
AFTEREFFECTS: THE AESTHETICS OF SPRAWL By Carrie Schneider
H
ouston’s sprawl does not have the ant-farm feeling of mega-hubs, like New York or New Delhi, dense with the awareness of bustling activity. Instead, with the hum of the freeways, the gray tones of the concrete, the endless anonymous billboards, and the tessellated shopping centers, the city appears as an extreme version of “copy and paste.” Its endless replication gives the appearance of predictability, but its repetition is a mask for unsuspected activities. Sprawl is not homogenous. Go to any of the endless strip malls. Under drop tile ceilings abandoned by earlier retail chains, defiant co-optations thrive beneath a shell of commercial acquiescence: international eat spots, unofficial embassies, purveyors of magic, transplanted landmarks, micro-community outposts, miscellaneous markets, and crack-pot businesses that fill some niche in this city’s inscrutable puzzle. Countless places of legend here are unknown to the general population, because there are thousands of ungeneral populations with their own places of legend. But the policies that allow such permutations to sprout uproot them just as fast. Recently, a visitor made this joke about the script of a Houston bus tour: 1. Commentary about what used to be here, before the townhouse or parking lot 2. Cue the music for the half-hour ride to the next place 3. Repeat Houston offers very little infrastructure for image. Inhabitants of its sprawl are so spread out that they lack a natural proclivity for creating “scenes.” There aren’t blocks of stylish, on-trend cultural offerings to walk along and be seen for the sake of it; people 41
have to drive to them, and they go because they actually care. Pre-defeated from succeeding at “cool,” projects here focus less on their outward representation and reputation and more on internal innovation and relevance to their origin. Profit trumps preservation. In this expansive geography, Houston’s gems are shrouded in space. The city’s best offerings survive by staying under the radar or are so buried under swathes of garish signage, they practically disappear. In this environment, Houstonians grow resilient to surface salesmanship and screen for substance instead. Locals triangulate between non-announcing mini-hubs, their pathways integrating but not homogenizing the country’s most international and ethnically diverse city. Even a city that refuses to visibly coalesce around its history, culture, or identity has something to model about being adamantly un-brandable. Houston is a sculpture of modern capitalism, spreading at a scale that far surpasses human concern, ruled by a freeway system that enables everything, while using everything to enable itself. Yet, somehow, this perpetually temporary, ever-constructed swamp harbors those set on growing wild creativity from cracks in concrete. Sheltered beneath a neat dovetail of the independent art spirit and the do-whatever-you-damn-want ethos, creators hide in the eye of the storm. No eyes on the street means getting away with anything. Carrie Schneider, a Houston artist, is the founder of Hear Our Houston public generated, audio walking tours.
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Kathryn Clark
Cape Coral Foreclosure Quilt, 2011 Recycled bleached linen, recycled string, quilting thread 30 x 44 inches Photo by Kathryn Clark 43
Kathryn Clark
Chicago Foreclosure Quilt, 2013 Linen, cotton, embroidery thread 31 x 42 inches Photo by Kathryn Clark 44
Kathryn Clark
Detroit Foreclosure Quilt, 2011 Cheesecloth, linen, cotton, embroidery thread 22 x 44 inches Photo by Kathryn Clark 45
Dustin Farnsworth
Looming Genes and Rooted Dreams, 2009 Reclaimed wood, plywood, MDF, steel, poplar, concrete Overall: 120 x 42 x 56 inches Photo by Peter McDaniel 46
Keith Renner
rco.c, 2009 Fused cement, porcelain 8 x 7.5 x 3.5 inches Photo by Keith Renner 47
Keith Renner
rco.er, 2009 Fused cement, porcelain 6 x 5 x 3.5 inches Photo by Keith Renner 48
Keith Renner
rco.pna, 2009 Fused cement, porcelain 12 x 11.5 x 3 inches Photo by Keith Renner 49
Carrie Schneider
Image documenting Alex Tu and Carrie Schneider on The Human Tour 2013 Photo by Lillie Monstrum (An installation of Schneider’s audio tour guides, Hear Our Houston, is featured in SPRAWL.) 50
Ashley Wahba From top to bottom:
Utters, 2011 Plastic, epoxy resin Dimensions variable Photo by Jayna Aronovich Vs, 2011 Aluminum, steel Dimensions variable Photo by Jayna Aronovich Yummy, 2011 Wood, plastic, hand-dyed netting, string Dimensions variable Photo by Jayna Aronovich 51
EXHIBITION CHECKLIST Dylan Beck Cardiac, 2009 Bisque porcelain, vinyl 56 x 72 x 3 inches Dylan Beck Yesterday’s Tomorrow, 2011 Terracotta, grout, wood, shims, plastic, air filter 24 x 60 x 24 inches Kathryn Clark Cape Coral Foreclosure Quilt, 2011 Recycled bleached linen, recycled string, quilting thread 30 x 44 inches Kathryn Clark Chicago Foreclosure Quilt, 2013 Linen, cotton, embroidery thread 31 x 42 inches Kathryn Clark Detroit Foreclosure Quilt, 2011 Cheesecloth, linen, cotton, embroidery thread 22 x 44 inches BÊatrice Coron Chaos City, 2010 Cut Tyvek 44.5 x 44.5 inches Dustin Farnsworth Looming Genes and Rooted Dreams, 2009 Reclaimed wood, plywood, MDF, steel, poplar, concrete Overall: 120 x 42 x 56 inches Julia Gabriel Congress @ Bastrop, Houston, Texas, 2013 Hand-dyed cotton canvas, leather Overall: 8 x 72 inches Nancy Nicholson Construction #3, 2008 Blown glass, lead, vitreous paints 15 x 19 inches
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Nancy Nicholson Construction #4, 2008 Blown glass, lead, vitreous paints 15 x 19 inches Sara Pfau From Below (brooch), 2010 Copper, brass, sterling silver, oil paint, rust 4.5 x 2.5 x 1 inches Sara Pfau POK Rail #1 (brooch), 2009 Sterling silver, copper, oil paint, steel 3 x 1.5 x 0.5 inches Sara Pfau POK Rail #2 (brooch), 2010 Sterling silver, copper, plastic, oil paint 4 x 1.25 x 0.5 inches Sara Pfau POK Rail #5 (brooch), 2010 Copper, brass, enamel, 14kt gold, sterling silver, oil paint 4.5 x 2 x 0.25 inches Sara Pfau Semaphore Line with Moving Arms (brooch), 2010 Sterling silver, copper, brass, 14kt gold, plastic, oil paint 4.5 x 2.5 x 0.5 inches Sara Pfau To George Love Herman (brooch), 2013 Sterling silver, copper, oil paint 3 x 1.5 x 0.5 inches Keith Renner rco.c, 2009 Fused cement, porcelain 8 x 7.5 x 3.5 inches Keith Renner rco.er, 2009 Fused cement, porcelain 6 x 5 x 3.5 inches Keith Renner rco.pna, 2009 Fused cement, porcelain 12 x 11.5 x 3 inches
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Paul Sacaridiz An Incomplete Articulation, 2011 Ceramic, wood, powder-coated aluminum, cut vinyl, board Overall: 120 x 120 x 144 inches Carrie Schneider Hear Our Houston, 2013 Audio tours E. Ryan Simmons Immobile Trailers, 2009 Fabricated steel, rust, paint, wax Overall (approximate): 30 x 40 inches Demitra Thomloudis 13.631 oz (necklace), 2013 Cement, steel, wood, pigment, resin 22 x 8.5 x 1.75 inches Demitra Thomloudis Containment (necklace), 2013 Cement, steel, resin, pigment, sterling silver, cord, wood 22 x 6.5 x 3.5 inches Demitra Thomloudis Fragmented Space (brooch), 2012 Cement, sterling silver, aluminum, nickel silver, resin, pigment, fiber 4 x 3.25 x 2.25 inches Demitra Thomloudis Framed (brooch), 2012 Cement, sterling silver, aluminum, nickel silver, resin, pigment 6 x 2.5 x 1 inches Demitra Thomloudis Reconstructed: Bisected Space (brooch), 2013 Cement, wood, sterling silver, nickel silver, resin, pigment 4.25 x 1.25 x 1 inches Demitra Thomloudis Reconstructed: Continued Line (brooch), 2013 Cement, sterling silver, steel, resin, pigment 8 x 6.5 x 0.65 inches Demitra Thomloudis Reconstructed: Outline (brooch), 2013 Cement, sterling silver, steel, resin, pigment 3.5 x 2 x 1 inches
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Demitra Thomloudis Reconstructed: Square Interior (brooch), 2013 Cement, plywood, sterling silver, nickel silver, resin, pigment 2.5 x 1.5 x 0.5 inches Demitra Thomloudis Reverse Encounter (ring), 2011 Wood, copper, powder coat, fiber, sterling silver 3 x 2 x 2 inches Norwood Viviano Cities: Departure and Deviation, 2011 Blown glass, vinyl-cut drawings Dimensions variable Ashley Wahba Utters, 2011 Plastic, epoxy resin Dimensions variable Ashley Wahba Vs, 2011 Aluminum, steel Dimensions variable Ashley Wahba Yummy, 2011 Wood, plastic, hand-dyed netting, string Dimensions variable Dane Youngren High Rise, 2011 Ceramic, wood crate, steel bolts 44 x 10 x 34 inches Andrea Zeuner Superhighway Brooch, 2011 Brass, asphalt crack repair, steel 4.5 x 5.25 x 1 inches Andrea Zeuner Superhighway Neckpiece, 2010 Brass, asphalt crack repair 15 x 9 x 3 inches
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SPRAWL SPEAKER SERIES The SPRAWL Speaker Series was made possible in part through the City’s Initiative Grant Program of the Houston Arts Alliance.
INFRASTRUCTURE OF EXPANSION October 18, 12 - 1 PM Judge Edward M. Emmett Harris County Judge October 24, 6 - 7 PM Thomas Colbert Associate Professor at the Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture, University of Houston Susan Rogers Director of the Community Design Resource Center and Assistant Professor at the Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture, University of Houston SURVEY, PLAN, BUILD November 6, 6 - 7 PM Brian Crimmins City of Houston Planning & Development Chief of Staff November 7, 6 - 7 PM Houston Urban Development & Improvement Panel Peter H. Brown Director of BetterHouston David Crossley President of Houston Tomorrow Diane Schenke President of Greater East End District AFTEREFFECTS December 17, 6 - 7 PM Sara Zewde M.L.A. Candidate, Harvard University Graduate School of Design January 9, 7 - 8 PM Carrie Schneider Houston Artist 57
HOUSTON CENTER FOR CONTEMPORARY CRAFT