MATT GOULD: "Totems of the Masculine," Aug. 2 to Sept. 16, 2014, Alberta Craft Council, Edmonton
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Photo credit: Karli Kendall.
“Daisy, Daisy….”
Matt Gould, "cw – Daisy, Daisy….”, 2013-2014, vegetable-dyed leather and industrial wool felt, 28” x 15”.
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Photo credit: Karli Kendall.
"dm – namaste, eh."
Matt Gould, "dm – namaste, eh.," 2014, vegetable-dyed leather and industrial wool felt, 33” x 17”.
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Photo credit: Karli Kendall.
"cb – sporty but responsible"
Matt Gould, "cb – sporty but responsible," 2013, vegetable-dyed leather, industrial wool felt and cotton thread, 37” x 20”.
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Photo credit: Karli Kendall.
"cb – sporty but responsible"
Matt Gould, "cb – sporty but responsible," 2013, vegetable-dyed leather, industrial wool felt and cotton thread, 37” x 20”.
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Photo credit: Karli Kendall.
"kgm – magnus et maior"
Matt Gould, "kgm – magnus et maior," 2014, vegetable-dyed leather and industrial wool felt, 40” x 15.5”.
MATT GOULD: Totems of the Masculine
Aug. 2 to Sept. 16, 2014
Alberta Craft Council, Edmonton
By Fish Griwkowsky
Exploring the concept of manhood, 57-year-old textile artist Matt Gould did a direct and clever thing: he asked other men in central Alberta what they thought made a man. The Red Deer teacher’s “deeply unscientific” questionnaire ranged from generalities to the ultra-personal, such as asking the 15 subjects – young and old, gay and straight – to define their greatest fear and answer questions like: “Who is your hero?” Gould then sketched the men and traced those images on rice paper, asking each participant to add words, images or anything else that came to mind. “They returned their homework to me,” he says. “And I would create these ‘art-cheological’ – if you will – artifacts.”
The resulting symbolic, faux-historical pieces in Totems of the Masculine are striking, informative and, perhaps most importantly, deeply collaborative. They are unified aesthetically by Gould’s materials – industrial wool and scissor-sculpted leather – and displayed on stands built from plywood and rebar. Words and images were embossed on the dampened hide and thread was stitched through punched holes. The process was rough and masculine, down to the left-handed artist drawing with his right hand, extracting “a wonderful disregard to the spatial.”
Gould says he has always felt disconnected from two typical topics of male conversation – cars and girls – but nevertheless wanted to belong. “No one ever tried to un-left hand me and none of my family ever tried to un-gay me,” he says. “I’ve always wanted to look at men as tribe and as a clan, but always felt sub-par.” By doing this project, Gould discovered he was less of a misfit than he thought. His poll reminded him not all men head into the woods to kill their supper and he isn’t alone in picking up the phone, rather than a hammer, when faced with a domestic emergency.
Once a dedicated painter, Gould’s practice shifted radically when he was a youth coordinator on a cruise ship. Seeking artistic activities for his charges, he discovered Tlingit button blankets in Ketchikan, Alaska. To his surprise, his work became more conceptual as it crossed the philosophical boundary between art and craft. This show, successfully and unquestionably, is both.
The works contain diverse cultural references – John Wayne, Olympic hockey, French-Canadian strongman Louis Cyr, Russian nesting dolls and Batman – as well as notions of virility and emotions like envy and rage. They are also informed by the art of the Mende people of Sierra Leone, who make a carving only after its owner has a vision. Once completed, the owner carries it for life as protection. Gould’s totems feel reverent and look holy. “The idea of connecting to some kind of spirituality, some kind of base, almost feels like an oasis,” he says. “I long for that perceived peace.”
Alberta Craft Gallery
10186 106 St, Edmonton, Alberta T5J 1H4
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