Kitsch

Craft we love – and love to hate.

by

Kitsch: Craft So Bad That It’s Good – a group exhibition at the Alberta Craft Gallery in Edmonton until Oct. 30 – is a joyous celebration of “bad” art. The call for submissions came smack dab in the middle of the pandemic, when craft artists – like everyone else – needed a little levity in their lives. Cue the construction of cat palaces, grumpy toad lawn ornaments and crocheted potholders shaped like bananas.

Everywhere you look, you discover something delightful. Mustard yellow and fuchsia Friendly Vases by Calgary artist Abby Light smile at me from their plinths. Susannah Windrum’s bedazzled chia pets, with names like Pinky, Lucky and Elvis, sport little copper signs around their necks, one proclaiming, “life is too short to wear boring clothes.”

There’s something thrilling about the unapologetic embrace of kitsch – especially when it’s so reviled. Even dictionary entries drip with disdain. The definition in Merriam-Webster sneers “kitsch: something that appeals to popular or lowbrow taste and is often of poor quality.”

Kitsch – a word that came to English from German and didn’t enter widespread use until the 20th century – gets under people’s skin. As unassuming as Edmonton artist Jo Anna Lange’s clown-shaped lamp may be, it cuts to the core of deeply contentious lines between art and not-art.

Issues of class, gender and race all intersect in kitsch. The very idea of good taste is elitist, a demarcation between those with the power to define art, and those kicked to the margins. 

Power dynamics are on display in Plains Cree silversmith Erik Lee’s diorama Portrayal, which calls out the sinister side of kitsch. Lee set up a corral with vintage plastic Wild West toys and cast the tiny figures of Indigenous people in sterling silver – subverting the stereotypes kitsch relies on to create an easily digestible and marketable flattening of history. 

Kitsch – think Precious Moments figurines – is often seen as feminine. Calgary artist Corrine Cowell responds to this perception with a series of framed doilies adorned with brightly embroidered farm animals. Her bold colours and irreverent titles, like Bitch and Cluck Off, express the individuality at the heart of what was traditionally seen as women’s work.

For a few artists, the show was a way to process and poke fun at a scary collective experience. Stuck at home during the pandemic, Edmonton artist Ellie Shuster created a pandemic Christmas wreath called 2020 – The Year that Was, complete with spiky red COVID-19 Christmas balls, miniature masks and rolls of toilet paper.

It takes guts to own your kitsch and revel in the fun of the over-the-top, the loud and the flashy. But leaving the show, I’m left with one question: is self-aware kitsch still kitsch? ■  

Kitsch: Craft So Bad That It’s Good at the Alberta Craft Council Feature Gallery in Edmonton from Aug. 14 to Oct. 30, 2021. Artists include Abby Light, Ananda Holdsworth, Breanna Barrington, Hellen Beamish, Annette Ten Cate, Carly Hines, Ciara Jayne, Corinne Cowell, Dale Learner, Donna Brunner, Ellie Shuster, Emily Nash, Erik Lee, Erika Dueck, Jennea Frischke, Jennifer Hartley-Illanes, JoAnna Lange, Kaleb Romano, Karla Mather-Cocks, Susan Kristoferson, Laura O'Connor, Lauren Chipeur, Margaret Hall, Matt Gould, Matthew O'Reilly, Meghan Wagg, Mireille Perron, Pour Celine Frit, Puck Janes, Rochelle Hammond, Ruth-Anne French, Sandra Lamouche, Sara Norquay, Sara Young, Sarabeth Carnat, Shona Rae, Siri McCormick, Susannah Windrum and William Miles.

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