Western Front is currently looking for a working group of six participants to join a series of workshops on the intersection of craft-based artistic practices and writing led by our artist-in-residence, Rebecca La Marre, alongside invited guests KC Adams, Rob Froese, Sharon Kivland, Danny Kostyshin, and Anahita Jamali Rad.
The workshops will be conducted in person at Western Front and online between 11:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m PDT on:
Oct 28, 2023
Nov 18, 2023
Jan 20, 2024
Feb 17, 2024
Mar 23, 2024
Apr 20, 2024
The working group will attend each session to think, read, make, and play with the entanglement of text and material. Members of the working group will have the opportunity to present their own research during the workshops, and publish work in a digital publication produced at the conclusion of the project. For their published contributions, members of the working group will be given a $500 fee.
This project might appeal to you if you share any or all of these qualities:
Email a one-page letter of interest (max 500 words) and 10 .jpg images, 1 .pdf with 10 images, or a link to an online portfolio to info@westernfront.ca with the subject “Craft Parlour Application” by Oct 6, 2023 at 11:59 p.m. PDT.
Successful applicants will be notified by Oct 13, 2023.
Rebecca La Marre is a queer artist based in Saskatoon or Treaty 6, the traditional home of the Blackfoot, Cree and Métis people. Her writing, making, and performance practice uses clay, text, and the human voice to give form to questions about what it means to be a person in the world. Her activity is driven by what she reads and a need to test how ideological structures, trauma, language, and ritual can shape bodies. The first person to teach her about clay was her grandmother Ellen La Marre, who displayed her work in domestic settings and craft markets. She holds an MFA from Goldsmiths, University of London, and is the former editor and publications coordinator for Remai Modern, Saskatoon, and an emeritus editor for E.R.O.S. Journal, London.
KC Adams (Flying Overhead in Circles Eagle Woman) is an artist based in Winnipeg, Canada, registered with Fisher River Cree Nation. Her practice explores technology and its relationship to Indigenous identity and knowledge systems, while considering her role as an educator, activist, community member, and mentor. She works in adornment, clay, drawing, installation, painting, photography, printmaking, public art, video, and welding.
Rob Froese is a ceramic artist based in Saskatoon, Canada. In creating objects for both use and contemplation, his approach to clay considers the transformation of material through chance, temporal processes, and active intervention.
Sharon Kivland is an artist, writer, editor, and publisher based in London, England and France. Her work considers what is put at stake by art, politics, and psychoanalysis. She is a visiting professor at Kingston University London, and is the editor and publisher of MA BIBLIOTHÈQUE.
Danny Kostyshin is a potter based in Vancouver, Canada. He makes porcelain and stoneware tea bowls, cups, plates, and bowls and encourages the use and enjoyment of the handmade, functional ceramic object in daily domestic rituals. Often integrated into this practice is confrontational text and images which deal with themes of sexuality, the environment, and HIV/AIDS through ceramic bodies.
Anahita Jamali Rad is a text-forward artist born in Iran and currently based in Windsor, Canada, on the traditional territory of the Three Fires Confederacy of First Nations, which includes the Ojibwa, the Odawa, and the Potawatomi. Informed by anti-imperialist materialist theory, Jamali Rad has exhibited and performed across Canada and the United States, as well as in the United Kingdom and Turkey. They co-run House House Press with D.M. Bradford.
Presented with the support of Peripheral Review.