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Statement:
Between my grandmother’s generation and my own, there has been a considerable interruption in the dissemination of domestic information. In this work, I strive to learn, or at least imitate, these lost occupations. I am predominantly concentrating on showcasing crafts that I have encountered personally through my ancestry, either from my grandmother, mother, aunts, etc. Some of these I was taught; however, others I am forced to only emulate. Through this loss of knowledge, these crafts mutate, morph together, and sometimes become unrecognizable.
www.lauratannerart.com
Peer Reviews
1
Tanner addresses the loss of information and how she has appropriated found knowledge to fill these gaps. Tanner depicts craft through traditional drawing techniques. In essence she is using “high” materials to mimic the “low” or banal thus elevating the quotidian into the realms of high art. Her description could be more concise. She could elaborate on what it means to fetishize and then mimic craft through fine art materials. What does the lack of access to this information mean? Her way of knowing is through making and accumulation. The work aligns itself with traditional fine art aesthetics. Her decorative means of addressing craft and miscellaneous narratives links content and form.
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This work reminds me of the Faulkner quote: “Memory believe before knowing remembers believes longer than recollects longer than knowing even wonders.” These pieces seem to be about the deterioration of memory, and the weaving of knotted narratives around this deterioration. The artist states that this work is about her family. She claims that it exemplifies the broken chains of knowledge between her ancestors and herself, in a way she is saying that her work is pre-determined. This is not true, she is actively constructing a narrative. The artist is referencing a matriarchal history of craft this is not apparent in her work. While her pieces are feminine and beautifully constructed, they do not reference any craft. Craft being attributed to work that is made to accomplish a specific task, the craft that she has mastered is a poetic craft not a historical utilitarian craft.
