Crossroads follows the evolution of American craft in its drive toward experimentation and innovation; a move toward new forms and creative solutions. Through the work of Tanya Aguiņiga, Lia Cook, Clary Illian, Warren MacKenzie, and Jeff Oestreich, we explore their trailblazing attempts to cross-pollinate culture, aesthetics and technologies, moving forward the development of American craft.
Tanya Aguiņiga in her 2011 installation at the Craft and Folk Art Museum, Crossing the Line, Douglas Kirkland photograph
Tanya Aguiņiga designs objects and environments in which people experience the beauty of the handcrafted. Raised in Tijuana, Mexico and San Diego, California, her work expresses her bi-cultural experience to create a vital, unique personal expression. Having learned her trade from vastly different sources, from a native backstrap weaver in Chiapas, Mexico to the prestigious Rhode Island School of Design, her fiber art and furniture designs challenge our assumptions by re-purposing and re-designing existing icons and experiences.
Lia Cook has been at the forefront of the intersection of craft and art. She has recently melded techniques of 18th c. Jacquard weaving with an inquiry into brain functioning, combining the most basic manual technology with contemporary technology and scientific practice. Using notions of imaging, memory and emotion, Lia measures the physical human response, and incorporates all this information into her weavings. Her unusual mix of old and new has garnered her international recognition.
L: Lia Cook, Dark Traces R: Lia Cook in her studio, Mark Markley photograph
