Ornament & Crime

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Marlena Wyman, “The Sewing Chair and the Garden in Back,” 2014

mixed media, 36" x 16" x 21" (courtesy the artist)

In 1908, Austrian architect Adolf Loos wrote a polemic condemning the decorative. Laden with racism, misogyny, classism and a particular hatred of tattoos, his essay, Ornament and Crime, argued that the absence of frivolous adornment would propel culture forward. 

More than a century later, the Alberta Craft Council’s exhibition, Ornament & Crime, on view in Edmonton until July 22, is a riotous celebration of everything Loos detested. With work by 46 artists, it offers a profusion of colours, textures and materials. Reactions to Loos’ tirade range from irreverent humour to pointed critiques – and everything in between.

In The Sewing Chair and the Garden in Back, Edmonton artist Marlena Wyman transforms an ordinary wooden kitchen chair by encrusting it with pearlescent buttons, spools of thread, measuring tapes, thimbles, broken dishware and ceramic flowers. Every surface is covered, with little trace of the chair’s formerly functional lines. Wyman is inspired by prairie women alive when Loos was influencing modernism, women who took pleasure in decorating objects in their domestic sphere.

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Elise Truong, “Mint Chandelier,” 2023

silk dupioni, glass rhinestones, cotton coutil, metal boning and suspender hardware, 25.5" x 15" x 9" (courtesy the artist)

Edmonton artist Elise Truong focuses on a different facet of gender with Mint Chandelier. A mint green corset, made with silk dupioni, cotton coutil and metal boning, it is painstakingly enhanced with glass rhinestones arranged in ornate patterns. Truong, pointing to the patriarchal ideas stitched into modernism, celebrates the decadence of burlesque.

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Jennifer Illanes, “Opinion,” 2023, silicone, 9.5" x 5.5" x 5" (courtesy the artist)

Many artists responded to the submissions call by making new work designed as an affront to Loos and all he believed. Calgary artist Jennifer Illanes, whose work – a purple and gold dildo built to look like a winding column in the Rosslyn Chapel in Scotland – is titled Opinion. In her statement, Illanes makes clear just where Loos can shove his thoughts. 

Calgary artist Phillip Bandura’s piece, Shiny Shit, brings together 16 coiled ropes of hot glass displayed on synthetic turf. Humorously confronting Loos with taboo, Bandura creates adornments that resemble excrement.

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Phillip Bandura, “Shiny Shit,” 2022

hot sculpted glass, wood and AstroTurf, 27" x 27" x 2" (courtesy the artist, photo by Leia Guo)

Other artists interrogate contemporary ideas of power, using Loos as a lens to view modern political landscapes. Vancouver artist Amy Gogarty and Calgary artist Mireille Perron collaborated on And These Are Crimes, stoneware stacked atop a circular wool rug. Dessert plates bear phrases made with laser decals, including: “We ornament our Power to make it more attractive” and “We embellish our History to make it more attractive.” The hooked rug at the bottom bears the final statement: “and these are crimes.”

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Amy Gogarty and Mireille Perron, “And These Are Crimes,” 2022-23

wool, cone 6 electric-fired stoneware and laser decal, 4" x 13" x 13" (courtesy the artists)

With so many works on display, the exhibition feels exuberant. Despite modernism’s huge impact on art and architecture, ornament endures in all its fun and funkiness. From pottery to blown glass, enormous earrings and floral wall hangings, Ornament & Crime allows artists to embrace Loos’ label of criminality. Craft becomes a rallying cry for beauty in the embellished, the dramatic and the excessive. ■

Ornament & Crime at the Alberta Craft Council in Edmonton from April 8 to July 22, 2023. Artists include: Michelle Atkinson, Charmaine Babiak, Phillip Bandura, Jamie Bowen, Myke Buckingham, Anna Burger-Martindale, Karen Cantine, Louise Cormier, Beverley Ellis, Milt Fischbein, Amy Gogarty, Matt Gould, Kelsey Hawkins, Jennifer Illanes, Teresa Johnston, Heather Kehoe, Emma Kilburn-Smith, Eveline Kolijn, Susan Kristoferson, Robin Lambert, Jared Last, Karla Mather-Cocks, William Miles, Gillian Mitchell, Sara Norquay, Shawn O’Hagan, Tara Owen, Liv Pedersen, Mireille Perron, Connie Pike, Danielle Piper, Sara Poldaas, Brielle Reeves, Kaleb Romano, Katherine Russell, Chris Savage, Pamela Shapka, Mel Smit, Tess Stieben, Barb Temple, Elise Truong, Scott Van de Sande, Vikki Wiercinski, Simon Wroot and Marlena Wyman.

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