Crafts, Aspects of Production, and John Feodorov

Braided Bracelets I Made

This week in lecture we were spoken to by Anya Kivarkis, a professor here at the University of Oregon. Her specialty it metal smithing and crafts. I was very excited this week to talk about crafts, because crafts are something that I do all the time, especially during the summer when I am the only one left at home when all of my friends leave for college. Crafts are something that I have always been interested in ever since I was little, so this week was very near and dear to my heart. Anya talked a lot to us about types of production; original copies/handmade reproduction, re-productions, mass production, and postproduction. Original copy is the original craft, the originally made piece. This is when the true meaning and look of the piece of art is going to show. It’s the master piece that can potentially help with the other types of production. It is also taking an idea that may have already been used, but you make it yourself. This is the kind of work that I do. I make my own original handmade pieces or jewelry and braided bracelets, but I have seen them made before by other people but they are still my original work. An example of an original copy is Roy McMaken and his reproduction of his grandmother’s living room. Its made from memory, and its not necessarily accurate but the mind does wondrous things. The flaws between the original and the replication is what makes it art.  I don’t use others pieces to make my own. This is my favorite because it is truly original. Re-production is when you make something from an original copy. The beauty of this is that something are left out from the original copy and some things are lost. When these things are lost they make something that’s basically new. It’s somewhat original but not completely. Its just like most art, a lot of it is original but maybe the idea and some of the aspects the artist got from other things people have though of. An example of an artist that reproduces things is Schoken. This artist takes a piece of jewelry and makes a mold to reproduce it but uses the mold as the piece of artwork. This shows the flaws and problems that occur during production. The next aspect of production is mass production. This is when you make a bunch of copies of something. An artist that kind of plays with this is Allan McCollum. He took a table and on it placed 10,000 pieces on the table that were all different. He kind of plays with the idea that things are mass produced, because when you look at the table from afar everything on it looks like a copy of each other but in reality it is all different. Another aspect of production is postproduction. It takes something that has been produced and uses it to make something else. It uses ordinary materials and cultural objects to make something new. An artist that does this is Maarten Baas. He takes furniture and burns them. the remnants from doing this is the artwork. My favorite aspect of production is original pieces, but it is also interesting to think that a lot of art isn’t completely original and what decides what things are art and what isn’t. Most people would think that crafts aren’t art. I talked about this in my post o about fibers. I always thought that crafts were kind of a form of art but I guess a lower grade than real art that is meant to be shown. Crafts are shown in people’s houses or given as gifts, but art is shown in galleries and looked at by art fanatics, not just by your mother. The difference between art and crafts is the hierarchy and the meaning of the two words. Art is higher class than craft, meaning that art is more valuable than crafts are. But who decides what’s precious and what isn’t? Most people follow the same thoughts about what is and what isn’t precious but who defines that? It’s the hierarchy that has been set up in our society that kind of decides it for us, but what’s sacred and precious to some may not be to others. An artist that plays with this idea is John Feodorov.

“John Feodorov was born in 1960 in Los Angeles of mixed Native-American and Euro-American descent. Brought up both in the suburbs of Los Angeles and on a Navajo reservation in New Mexico, Feodorov early experienced the cultural differences between his dual heritages” (art21.com).  I think that this background definitely influenced his artwork because he grew up in both a typical household and a household that people wouldn’t expect to be typical. “His work addresses this clichéd modern archetype through a humorous interjection of “sacred” items into recognizable consumer products. His kitschy Totem Teddy series, for instance, added masks and totemic markings to stuffed toy bears accompanied by booklets declaring the bears to “meet the spiritual needs of consumers of all ages!” (art21.com).  He wants to express that people are still stereotyping Native Americans, but they are just like typical and other households in the united states. He plays with the idea of what people think are sacred and what aren’t. He takes not so sacred objects and tries to convince people that they are sacred. This connects to who decides what is sacred and precious, and what is not. When he takes something not typically Native American and adds stuff that are it makes people think that its sacred because stereotypically Native American items are sacred.