indie artist in residence

currently in residence:
Sabrina Gschwandtner

Sabrina Gschwandtner is an artist, writer and curator whose work bridges the fields of conceptual art, handcraft, activism and social history. Her artwork combines photographic and textile media in videos and installations that document or provoke participation, tactility, political discourse and slowness. She received her BA in art/semiotics from Brown University, and an MFA from Bard College. She currently lives in New York City.

Sabrina's book KnitKnit: Profiles and Project's from Knitting's New Wave was published by Stewart, Tabori and Chang in 2007. She completed a 16 city US/UK book tour in early 2008. She has written articles, reviews and creative text for a variety of publications including American Craft, Cabinet, Fiberarts, Interweave Knits, Craft, Rowan, Selvedge, Vogue Knitting, the Millennium Film Journal, and the Journal of Modern Craft.

Her curatorial work includes KnitKnit, a limited edition artist's publication included in the permanent collections of the Fine Arts Library, Fogg Art Museum at Harvard University and The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Sabrina has produced screenings, art exhibitions, and public crafting events at sites such as Printed Matter (NYC), Fritz Haeg's Sundown Salon (Los Angeles), and Light Industry (Brooklyn, NY). Sabrina served as Artist Consultant for the Museum of Arts and Design's 2007/8 "Radical Lace and Subversive Knitting" exhibition.

Sabrina is the recent recipient of an International Artist's Studio Program residency in Sweden. She will reside and make new work in Stockholm from late April to early July, 2009. While she's there, Sabrina will also serve as Broken Pencil's indie artist in residence, blogging about art, craft and everything in between.

She can be reached at indierez@brokenpencil.com.

Living here but leaving soon

Sometime in the weeks between my last post and today, I started to feel like I live here in Stockholm. I developed favorite restaurants, shortcuts and people. My husband arrived and started working, so when I come home he's there video editing just like in Brooklyn. The sun came out, and stayed, and the weather is just perfect. It's hard to imagine going home. There are things I'll be happy to be see in New York again - Mexican food, Thai food, my bathub, and DIY craft stores. For a country so steeped in traditional craft, with such a wealth of interesting contemporary, conceptual craft practitioners, writers and curators, there really is a void of stores/fairs/gathering spots for crafting. What they do really well here is the very, very old craft establishments that still hold lots of promise- like a 130+ old store in Sodermalm that only sells ribbons. Amazing place. There's also a yarn store that's also over 100 years old. There's a long tradition of city garden plots, which I count towards DIY activity. But nothing like the Church of Craft, the Treehouse in Williamsburg, or the Renegade Craft Fair.... I don't get what all the Konstfack students do when they graduate. Someone told me that most of them just stop making things. Is this really true?

Sabrina Gschwandtner
posted: June 29, 2009

Raining in Stockholm

It's been raining for days, and it's supposed to continue for another week. It's started to get dreary around here, but at least we have sunlight until 1am. That and a few cultural events of note are helping to keep me out of the Art Hotel, where I am living. My exhibition "Watch & See" opens tonight in Gustavsbergs. http://www.gustavsbergskonsthall.se/Utstallningar01_ENG.html Many people are still out of town, in Venice for the Biennale or in Basel for the big art fair, so I doubt it will be a packed opening. The Svenska Dagbladet did run a piece about the opening in today's paper, so maybe that will entice a few people. The article in the paper included a photo of me that was taken by Faythe Levine when she came to my studio to interview me for her film "Handmade Nation." (http://indiecraftdocumentary.blogspot.com/) Note to all readers: when you make an appointment to be filmed, make sure you do not arrive to the scheduled shoot hung over. I look absolutely terrible in the photos Faythe took that day. Somehow in the movie I do not look so bad. What's hidden in video comes out in the jpeg: terrible hair and a pale, shiny face. When I saw the pics on Faythe's Flickr site I figured hey, no big deal, not that many people will see this. And now it shows up in a Swedish newspaper! The paper didn't even get it from Faythe's site, they credited it to some Scandinavian blog. So watch out people, a bad photo can really make the rounds these days. Last week I visited "The State of Things," a series of exhibitions focused on Swedish crafts. One is a group show called "Don’t say anything, I think I understand" in which inner impulses have guided the working process. The second, largest group show is titled "The Image of a Home," and includes a great performative/participatory project by Sissi Westerberg in which she and several others sew and install flags based on visitor's drawings. The third and most impressive exhibition is titled "The State of Things 1989–2009" and includes six Swedes who have have strongly influenced the contemporary craft scene here. My favorite work was Zandra Ahl's, whose work was enclosed by a violet-colored wooden fence that seemed both protective and aggressive in its marking of her territory. http://www.kulturhuset.stockholm.se/default.asp?id=5760&domain=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.kulturhuset.stockholm.se%2F&url=default.asp%3Fid%3D28136 I have also been researching the underground or DIY craft scene here. So far I've found out about these graffiti knitters: http://maskerade.blogsome.com/ http://stickkontakt.blogspot.com/ though I haven't seen any of their work in person yet. More soon. Photo included here: Zandra Ahl, Still Life 2007. Courtesy of Crystal Palace gallery, Stockholm. http://crystalpalace.se/

Sabrina Gschwandtner
Link
posted: June 10, 2009

Blogging

I've moved into a new apartment with steady(ish) internet access, but have been working so much in my studio that I haven't had time to get online. Today I opened up my dusty computer and read tons of emails about the upcoming Renegade Craft Fair in Brooklyn. It's one of the best DIY craft fairs out there, so if you haven't been, I highly recommend it. All the details are at: www.renegadecraft.com. Feeling sad to miss it, I went to my crafty friends blogs to check in on them and see what they're doing. Cal Patch is teaching sewing and embroidery classes and taking care of baby guinea hens: http://hodgepodgefarm.blogspot.com/. Lisa Anne Auerbach is planting seeds: http://stealthissweater.blogspot.com/. Rachael Matthews is facilitating the completion of UFOs (abandoned, unfinished knitting projects): http://prickyourfinger.blogspot.com. What have you been doing?

Sabrina Gschwandtner
posted: May 30, 2009

yarn girl

Today David Shrigley (www.davidshrigley.com), a Glasgow- based artist who is also here in Stockholm like me on a IASPIS (www.iaspis.com) residency, told me he wanted to show me one of his recent drawings. He said it had yarn and bobbins in it. Then he said, "oh wait or do you hate that? Do you not want to be known as the yarn girl and have people showing you all kinds of things related to yarn and sewing all the time?" "I mean," he went on, "I hate it when people send me links to drawings that look my drawings, I don't like other drawings that look like my drawings." He showed me his yarn drawing anyway. It's true that I get a lot of emails from friends of friends or distant relatives or people I have never met who send me links to articles or blogs or videos that are somehow yarn-related. Occasionally it's annoying, yes, but usually I like it. Today Judi Werthein (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4445342.stm), another IASPIS artist-in-residence, sent me a link to the artwork of Lygia Clark, whose work she thought of when I told her about my "touch only" art project. This was a prized referral and I spent several hours reading about and looking at Clark's work. You should check out it out too. Click the link and/or go to http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=TYRcKaXw6EQ&feature=related

Sabrina Gschwandtner
Link
posted: May 18, 2009

no internet

I've been internet-less for a while. At first it was a great vacation, and I loved being unlocateable, but then I felt disconnected and miserable. When I was finally able to go back online today I binged on gmail, Facebook, Etsy, and Skype, and now my eyes hurt and I miss home and my friends. I have discovered some great things in Stockholm while wandering the streets without a cell phone, most importantly OLD TOUCH which is an amazing and aptly named antique store filled with wonderful buttons, beautiful lace, choice clothes and other old timey remnants for super reasonable prices. I bought a lace handkerchief, a picture frame and a small beaded bag for a project I'm working on. It's an art piece for people to touch but not look at. It's going pretty well except I have to keep reminding myself that colors and patterns don't matter because no one will see them.

Sabrina Gschwandtner
Link
posted: May 16, 2009

Craftivism

I've made it to Stockholm. Flying still seems like a miracle. Especially when the plane is outfitted with cameras that will show you the view below and in front of the plane, during the whole trip, from take-off to landing. I've mostly stayed within 20 blocks of where I'm living, but so far the city is clean, sunny and beautiful. I have terrible jet lag and have been staying up all night. When the spotty internet connection fails in my room and I get cut off from YouTube, I turn to "RE:FORM: Contemporary Swedish Crafts," edited by Hanna Ljungstrom and Ulf Beckman. The book includes essays on Swedish craft today, and lots of images of craft work. My favorite project is a pair of earrings that can double as earplugs, made by Peter Andersson. There seems, in this book at least, to be a movement in contemporary Swedish craft towards ambiguity, surrealism, and disorientation. Yet there is still respect for utility. Or as Emma Olsson, one essayist, writes: "Life is too short for ugly, boring things." One thing I don't see represented in this book (so far) is craft as activism, which is one of the stronger aspects of contemporary American craft. But I did get asked about craftivism today, which makes me think that it's brewing here. IASPIS, the Swedish organization that's sponsoring my residency, emailed me a series of questions for a 'zine of sorts they'll publish on their website. One was: Why do you think DIY, craftivism and craft as a movement in art happened in America first? I think that handcraft's popularity in the States has to do with a confluence of factors: war; an anxiety-producing economy; a fast-paced society; heavy reliance on inhospitable digital communication; hyper-consumerism, and a culture in which women are no longer expected to learn to knit and keep house. Many cultures are also dealing with the same things, but I think that our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and our dominating consumer culture have bred a need to feel empowered- and one way this need is satisfied is by craftivism. Making things by hand, slowly, and with conscience provides forums for individuality, slowness, community organizing, and fighting back.

Sabrina Gschwandtner
Link
posted: April 28, 2009

Finishing and starting

Today I packed up one residency to start two more- one that will take me across the ocean to Stockholm, and another that will happen here. From January until today, I worked in the Museum of Arts and Design's Open Studios once a week. The space had an incredible view of Columbus Circle and Central Park. When I began in January, the ground was spotted with snow, the little circular park around the marble statue of Columbus was empty, and the park was barren. I often stood by the studio window and watched traffic going around and around and around the circular park outside. Traffic is fascinating in the way the ocean is- it has movement and variation but a kind of changeless quality too. Museum visitors would stand with me and speak about what Columbus Circle was like before the Time Warner building, before the Trump Tower, and before the museum. I had a hard time picturing it. Today as I was boxing up my materials, I was stunned to see how the tiny circular park had become a colorful garden filled with pink and yellow tulips. Water fountains had sprung up, people were picnicking, and kids were skateboarding. It was almost unrecognizable. When a museum visitor came in and admired the view, I stood next to her and described what it was like in winter - unpopulated, and gray - and she said it was hard to imagine.

Sabrina Gschwandtner
Link
posted: April 23, 2009

Indieparture!

Hi all. Thanks for putting up with my odes to tricoloured cookies. My time at Broken Pencil is up. I know this because all my pencils have suddenly fused themselves back together again. One has even jumped into my hand and is now beseeching me to leave my computer and make haste for an all-inclusive in my notebook. So this is g'bye. It's been fun, and if you ever want to hear me wax weird about breakfast, I do so erratically at SarahL.com. Thanks also to BP for inviting me!

sarahL
Link
posted: April 22, 2009

Blingee is Beauty

It's a ballsy statement but I'm going to go ahead and throw it out there: Blingee Art is the art for our time. It mixes animation, bad clip art, neon, and social commentary in the service of art that is as goofy as it is beautiful. While some read Best Week Ever for the latest Zac Efron effrontery, I visit said site on Blingee Fridays, where one can oggle MOMA-worthy GIFs of Blingee Beauty. Where else can you see Angela Landsbury glittered up as Paul McCartney? Where else can you see Angela Landsbury at all, for that matter? Oh yes, Broadway. Too far for me at present though, which is why, given my ballsy assertion of sentences yore, I'll go out on yet another limb (I have four so it's really not that much of a hardship) and say there really ought to be more Murder She Wrote in syndication. This show, about a nosy detectess in a small, idyllic Maine town, has one of the greatest theme songs of all time. I often find it stuck in my head for days on end and am forced to sing it while working out at the gym in an effort to expel it from my brain. To the guy on the treadmill next to me yesterday, I am truly sorry. I will make you some Blingee Art to countenance my dorky ways.

sarahL
posted: April 16, 2009

On Paint and Board Games

My husband thinks there should be a city subsidy for brightly coloured house paint. In the drab light of a stalled winter, I can sort of see why. Big discounts on the bright stuff for anyone who will take the time to paint a gray or brown house something fresh and cheerful. Sure, painted brick quickly turns to peeled, painted brick, but imagine what some fluorescent green siding could do for the urban condition. It's no wonder one of my favourite procrastinatory activities is painting walls of my house bright colours.

In a similar vein, I love this blowsy attempt to jump time. So pretty. So useful. Like this other piece that I've also purloined from The Wooster Collective. A little dainty goes a long way, especially where rubbish is concerned.

I'm on a Wooster kick today, but my last Wooster link flows into a grand trend theory that I hope you'll find really ties this post together. The trend is Guess Who, that delightfully useless game that I so enjoyed as a child. It's having some sort of pop cultural resurgence. To wit, this creepy/fantastic Guess Who video by Kristen Lepore. It takes three to make a trend though, so I plan on doing some sort of Guess Who-inspired work to cement this mini-revival. Ideas welcome.

sarahL
posted: March 12, 2009