Gestures of Resistance examines work by contemporary artists who focus on craft actions and create works that use craft to agitate for change. Rather than present a grouping of objects, the exhibition unfolds over its tenure at the Museum. Through a series of seven artist residencies, open conversations and a study center, the exhibition is a timely examination of what it means to create, to have personal agency, and to counter drives towards productivity and consumption through craft.

Elements of the exhibition can be accessed online through performance documentation, interviews, student responses and the co-curators ongoing research via the following:

Photo documentation of the exhibition and performances on Flickr

Audio interviews on PNCA radio between PNCA students and resident artists and the co-curators

Watch video interviews with resident artists and co-curators on YouTube

Read Gestures of Resistance: Behind the Scenes, a blog by PNCA students

Connect with curators Leemann and Stratton at their website Performing Craft

Follow up-to-the-minute information on programs and events on Twitter and Facebook

Become a fan of MoCC and Gestures of Resistance on Facebook

A limited edition catalog will be available Fall 2010, with an introduction by MoCC curator Namita Gupta Wiggers and an essay by exhibition co-curators Judith Leemann and Shannon Stratton.

Sara Black and John Preus (January 26–February 6) begin the exhibition through a live buildout of the museum, creating a workshop space from inherited materials that acts simultaneously as platform, town square and sculpture. This space becomes the staging area for all subsequent resident artists, who will transform and manipulate the space through their performances and objects. Watch a video interview with Black and Preus.

Anthea Black (February 19–March 10) is a Canadian printmaker known for her subversive postering campaigns who will recruit queer youth to deploy her two-sided poster prints across Portland.Watch a video interview or listen to a PNCA radio interview with Anthea Black.

Carole Lung, AKA Frau Fiber (March 18–27), an itinerant textile worker, will address herself to the specifics of Portland's garment culture – hacking a Columbia Sportswear design for rain gear and sewing five sets of the garment using a bicycle-powered sewing machine. Listen to a PNCA radio interview with Carole Lung.

Mung Lar Lam (April 1–3) will perform Ironings, a meditation on labor, gender and class in which the task of ironing becomes the means of mark-making, with the unfolded cloth acting as a mosaic fanning across the gallery walls.

Cat Mazza (May 18–22), whose Nike Blanket Petition won her acclaim in both the craft and anti-sweatshop movements, will set up a process by which cast-offs of Michelle Obama's favorite popular clothing brands are repurposed into a new sculpture on site. Watch a video of Mazza's performance.

Ehren Tool (June 1–12), a veteran of the first Gulf War and a potter, will exhaust a supply of porcelain over the course of a durational performance throwing cups. These cups will then act as building blocks to construct and then deconstruct divisions within the gallery, and ultimately will be given away to visitors in the Museum. Watch a video interview with Tool.

Theaster Gates (June 18–19) will whitewash everything that has come before in delicate porcelain slip and conclude the exhibition with a public performance in the Museum space. Watch a video excerpt of Gates' performance.

RELATED PROGRAMS

CRAFT CONVERSATION
Judith Leemann and Shannon Stratton
January 26, 2010
Listen to an audio podcast (MP3)

CRAFT PERSPECTIVES LECTURE
Hannah B. Higgins, "The Multiple Intelligences of Fluxus"
Due to a family emergency, Higgin's lecture will be rescheduled. Please check back for updates.

EXHIBITION TOUR
Curator Walkthrough
May 4, 2010

CONVERSATION
Open Engagement 2010: Curating with Abandon
May 15, 2010
Listen to an audio podcast (MP3)

CRAFTCONVERSATION
Gestures of Resistance: Looking at How Craft Performs
Thursday, June 17, 6:30 pm
Learn more.

EXHIBITIONS AND PUBLIC PROGRAMMING
ARE SUPPORTED BY:
PNCA+FIVE Ford Institute for Visual Education
Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, boora Architects, John & Suzanne Bishop, Sue Horn-Caskey & Rick Caskey, The Collins Foundation, Maribeth Collins, Truman & Kristin Collins, John Gray Charitable Fund of the Oregon Community Foundation, First Independent Wealth Management, The Ford Family Foundation, Selby & Doug Key, LAIKA, Dorothy Lemelson, Georgia Leupold-Marshall, Douglas Macy, Mary Maletis, Miller Nash LLP, Oregon Arts Commission, PGE Foundation, Regional Arts & Culture Council, Harold & Arlene Schnitzer CARE Foundation, The Estate of Gordon Smyth, Al Solheim, The Standard, Mary Hoyt Stevenson Foundation, Rose E. Tucker Charitable Trust, US Bank, The Western States Art Federation, Whiteman Foundation, ZIBA

With special thanks to: Gerding Edlen Development and their support of the Cyan PDX Cultural Residency Program, The Heathman Hotel, The Nines Hotel and Twentyfour Seven.

IMAGES:

Sara Black and John Preus, Rebuilding Mayfield, performance view at Museum of Contemporary Craft, January 2010. Photo: Chloe Dietz

Anthea Black works with students in Christy Wyckoff's printmaking class at Pacific Northwest College of Art. Photo: Chloe Dietz

Frau Fiber (a.k.a. Carole Lung), KO Enterprises: High Performance Apparel Production, an experiment of uneconomical production, performance view, Portland, Oregon, March 2010. Photo: Leslie Vigeant.

Mung Lar Lam, Ironings, performance view at Musuem of Contemporary Craft, May 2010. Photo: Chloe Dietz

Cat Mazza, Fiber Alliance, performance view at Musuem of Contemporary Craft, May 2010. Photo: Heather Zinger

Ehren Tool, Occupation, performance view at Museum of Contemporary Craft, June 2010. Photo: Heather Zinger

Theaster Gates, A Good Whitewashing, performance view at Museum of Contemporary Craft, June 2010. Photo: Katherine Bovee