I was looking for flesh at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts last Thursday. But alas. The promo photos for “Irreverant: Contemporary Nordic Craft Art” feature Louise Nippierd‘s spectacular jewelry-sculptures on real people, but at the opening of the show the socially conscious pieces were slightly withdrawn and resting on fabric busts. Nonetheless, there was a lot to take in, from lush, minimalist textiles to a purple-reed jacket, animal chandelier (Frida Fjellman must dream of these critters), and smirking, half-dead fox. In Italy on Sunday, the Galleria Civica Di Modena will open a similar pair of exhibitions (via e-flux): Mark Dion’s take on the aesthetics of hunting culture, paired with Gabi Dziuba’s jewels (as presented by Christian Philipp Müller). These are good signs that in the Obama era, craft might once again dwarf Kraft in our culture. John Updike, who has just left us, once eloquently wrote that Edward Hopper’s 1960 painting People in the Sun, “is almost comically unreal….It has no atmosphere but psychological atmosphere.” The Nordic craft art show is almost comically real. And really, what’s the difference?
