Craft Parlour

Jul 3 — 26, 2025
Field:

Exhibition

Description:

Installed in Western Front’s library, Craft Parlour brought together a series of woodfired stoneware ceramic tablets by Rebecca La Marre, and an accompanying publication to explore the intersection of craft and writing. The exhibition also featured an original text by A Jamali Rad. 

La Marre began researching the history of writing across cultures and languages in 2017, experimenting with ways to merge her writing practice with clay. This led to the creation of experimental tools and surfaces used in art writing workshops held at institutions across Canada, including the Darling Foundry, Montréal; MacEwan University, Edmonton; and the University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon.

During her 2023–24 residency at Western Front, La Marre expanded this research through Craft Parlour, a six-part workshop series that brought together ten interdisciplinary artists—Rosamunde Bordo, Amelia Butcher, Xinwei Che, Hannah Crosson, Sun Forest, Amy Gogarty, Chloë p.f. Lalonde, Christian Newby, Emiliano Sepulveda, and Julia Wong. Selected through an open call, the group met monthly from October to April to explore craft, contemporary art, and art writing, with a focus on writing as a tactile, material practice. The sessions combined shared research and hands-on exercises, and were enriched by guest contributors Rob Froese, Danny Kostyshin, Sharon Kivland, and A Jamali Rad.

Designed by Manon Fraser and co-published by Western Front and Peripheral Review, the accompanying publication features original contributions by La Marre and the workshop participants, offering further insight into the ideas and processes that shaped the project. 

An opening reception was held on July 3, 2025 in conjunction with the Vancouver Art Book Fair. 

Presented in partnership with Peripheral Review and Vancouver Art Book Fair with support from the Canada Council for the Arts and SK Arts.

Curated by Susan Gibb.

Documents:

The empty library of Western Front, to the right a large bookshelf to the left an old radiator. The sun comes in through the open window. Placed on the wall above the wooden panels are 5 ceramic tablets that resemble old pieces of paper.There is writing on them that is indistinguishable from this distance. Two extra ceramic tablets sit on both sides of the window, they appear to be two large stones.
An empty room with green polished floors and wooden panels across the walls. To the right sits an old, golden radiator. On top of the wooden panels, 4 ceramic tablets are on display. The tablets resemble old pieces of paper, yellowish and stained, the handwriting on them is illegible from this distance.
The empty library of Western Front, light comes in through the open window at the left of the room, shining on the two bookshelves directly across from it.Two small ceramic tablets are on display on the walls above the wooden panels, the tablets resemble used pieces of paper with handwriting over them.The tablet to the left of the window is slightly bent forward, as is slowly sliding from the wall. Next to the bookshelf at the back of the room is one more ceramic tablet that resembles a stone cross section.
A ceramic slab is displayed at Western Front’s library. From a distance, the ceramic tablet resembles an old piece of paper. With a closer look one can distinguish white brushstrokes across the slab, as well as a long crack across the middle. The slab stands on top of a wooden frame. Below it and next to the window a ceramic tablet that imitates the textures of a stone cross section.
Two ceramic tables are displayed on a white wall with wooden paneling. The tablet on the top imitates a piece of paper, it has a yellow glaze over it making it look glossy. A handwritten note reads: Bookkeeping was invented in ancient Egypt. There were famines and food shortages. The Phaores feared insurrection. They developed a system to track grain shortage data. Below it and to the left another ceramic tablet that resembles the textures of marble.
A ceramic tablet displayed on a white wall. It resembles an old piece of paper, yellow and stained. A handwritten message reads: One scribe would stand on the left of the room, counting on a clay tablet; another scribe stood on the right of the room counting. At the end of the day they would compare tablets to ensure accuracy.
A ceramic tablet is displayed on a white wall. The tables resemble an old and used piece of paper, with brown stains over it. A carefully handwritten note reads: In 1491, Luca Pacioli wrote the first “double-entry” Bookkeeping manifesto, using the Latin word for Left equals debit and right equals credit.
A ceramic tablet is displayed on a white wall. It is yellow in color and its glossines reflect the light from the ceiling. Text is written over it reads as follows: These terms were taken up again in 1789, during the French Revolution, also sparked by increased spending on war and decreasing access to food.
A ceramic tablet that resembles a used piece of paper is displayed on a white wall. A message handwritten on the tablet reads the following: In the National Assembly debates about who should govern, supporters of the ancient regimen would stand to the president's right, and supporters of the revolution would stand to the left.
A ceramic tablet resembling an old piece of paper is displayed on a white wall. The tablet is slightly bent forwards creating a small crease, almost as if it had a little belly. A handwritten message reads as follows: Under British Mercantile Law, a corporation is a person, the way a corpse is an assemblage of body parts.
A ceramic tablet resembling a used and old piece of paper is displayed on a white wall. A hand written message over it reads as follows: like the way bodies in a Cristian church congregate, assemble to form the body of Christ. This principle can be seen in how “sovereignty” entered “the public body” after French Revolutionaries cut off the head of the King.

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Captions:

Western Front is a non-profit artist-run centre in Vancouver.

We acknowledge the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and səl̓ílwətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations as traditional owners of the land upon which Western Front stands.

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