Shake-n-Make
Once More, With Feeling
Gallery One
Exhibition Info
Shake-n-Make specializes in the mash-up of art and craft. Their work revisits home hobby crafts from the 1970s to address issues such as feminism, environmentalism, and self-sufficiency shared in common with our contemporary moment in which farm-to-table and craft brewing have become a part of the cultural zeitgeist. Linked by the use of modular design and labour-intensive production Once More, With Feeling brings together several large sculptural installations, including The Table Has Been Set, Domestic Brew, and The Hand of Craft. These works use scale, repetition, and a willful sense of playfulness to challenge our assumptions around handicrafts while questioning what is appropriate as an art material. Shake-n-Make mine this tension between the domestic (the primary site of crafting) and the public (the world outside the home) to muddy the divide between high and low art and to question the values we place upon cultural production as labour.
Photography: Scott Lee
Artist Biography
Shake-n-Make (Claudia B. Manley and Liss Platt) is a queer art collective based in Hamilton, Ontario, that endeavours to elevate home hobby crafts from the ‘70s into a playful and critical contemporary art practice. They have exhibited their work at MKG127 (Toronto), Art Gallery of York University (Toronto), Rodman Hall Art Gallery (St. Catharines), The Artists Newsstand (Toronto), A Handmade Assembly (Sackville, NB), Hamilton Artists Inc. (Hamilton), and been awarded grants from the Ontario Arts Council. Shake-n-Make is represented by MKG127, Toronto.