Elevating the Paper Object / Staff, Students, and Faculty at AUArts curated by Jonathan Creese

3.4.2024 - 3.22.2024

01 - Exhibition Statement

Through the medium of an 8 ½” x 11” sheet of handmade paper, art students, university faculty, and staff at the institution were confronted with the result of one artist’s process and challenged to enact a manipulation upon it. Conventional labour and material relationships were encouraged to be upended, resulting in a myriad of approaches to the understanding of the paper object. The work as a whole embraces fluidity, not only in terms of the physical material as it traversed manipulation through the hands of various possessors, but also in relation to its contextualisation. The resulting objects transcend the threshold of a material of potential -that is utilitarian and ambiguous- to one of fixed function and purpose as an art object: this further assisted by the positioning of the object within the exhibition space. -Jonathan Creese

02 - Curator Statement

Jonathan Creese is a practicing visual artist, currently studying in his 3rd year as a Fibre Major at Alberta University of the Arts. His practice focuses on the intersection between the technical craft object and the impact it can have on the individual or communal in a given context. As of the 16th February 2024 he is considering the material, labour, aesthetics, economics, and canonical hierarchy of craft objects and practice in relation to the perceptions of artists and audiences who operate outside of understandings of contemporary craft.