There were many good souls around our campfires in Victoria, at the 11^th annual Furniture Society conference in Victoria, BC, Canada. Before I even get to the panels and presentations, I’m still sorting out the overall impressions. I’ll start with my return trip and try to work back to the substance of the thing. Returning home via Seattle I had 8 hours to visit with friends in Tacoma, Wa. They suggested a visit to the Museum of Glass, http://museumofglass.org/ and a walk through the rain forest – both essential experiences for anyone visiting this corner of the world. For all the carping that one hears from furnituremakers about glass taking over the galleries, I still appreciate seeing a really good collection of glass. I always get furniture ideas from the other media – glass, jewelry, textiles. I couldn’t help dreaming about what a Museum of Contemporary Furniture would look like. The disneyesque Hot Shop would be hard to beat (with stadium seating). I don’t know how you compete with glory holes, but it’s worth thinking about. Sam Maloof’s band saw technique could be pretty exciting.

A 2 hour walk through Tacoma’s Point Defiance park brought home to me the source of the powerful First Nations work we saw in BC and of Haida artist Robert Davidson’s keynote address. A visit early in the week to the Royal BC museum told the sad tale of disease and exploitation that all but destroyed the indigenous culture. On view were a selection of treasures from this highly spiritual and rich culture – from Tsimshian carved masks and utensils, said to be the finest, to the huge carved totems and house poles. In the forest, walking through stands of huge cedar and fir trees, we surprised a group of 3 large woodpeckers. 2 flew loudly off through the forest while one stood its’ ground, letting us know that we were just visitors here.

 

 

 

The Furniture Society membership represents a cross section of furniture makers and their supporters. Members include: teachers and students from the major academic programs in studio furniture and furniture design, makers with independent practices and small businesses, part time artists with a day job, collectors, gallerists and friends. We include members who pursue furniture as an expressive form, as sculpture, as conceptual art, and who make reproductions and custom furniture on commission. Many also cross these boundaries in their practices and business’s and do a little of each. The panels, demonstrations and exhibitions reflect this cross section. The tone of our conferences is often set by the chosen location and this year was no exception, reflecting not only a strong Canadian contingent in our membership but more specifically the culture of the Pacific Northwest. We were welcomed into the First Nation’s territory by song and drum. Respected Haida carver and artist Robert Davidson gave a moving keynote address in which he told the story of how the First Nations people had reconstructed their rich, spiritual culture after disease and prejudice had all but destroyed it. The spirituality of the ancient First Nations culture may not be available to us all, but through our proceedings we explored the possibilities for an authentic expression and practice for contemporary makers and artists.

 

The many artist presentations included Jere Osgood, who showed the development of pure form that he has pursued in his work, and also the intricate cabinetwork that he uses to get his pieces built. Peter Pierobon showed a body of work that has always come from the northwest. Now he has moved back to Vancouver where he belongs. His work shows a contemporary maker who uses the culture of the northwest as a powerful source.

Respected editor and publisher John Kelsey showed a body of work as part of the “Getting Your Work in Print” panel with John Lavine, Jon Binzen and Michael Fortune. He began with his work for Fine Woodworking magazine in the black and white years and ran through to the latest 5 Furniture Studio books, published for the Furniture Society.

 

 

Canadian Michael Hosaluk took a break from his usual turned work and started building chairs, 100’s of them. He had an opportunity to show in a large gallery space and he began building chairs: all the same , all 2 ½” poplar, unfinished. He and his students filled a gallery with them, arranging them differently every day at first, and then inviting gallery visitors to re-arrange them. He also assembled chairs in the urbanscape/landscape. He glued up chairs in an iron fence, on parking meters, in trees. He assembled a chair high up in a tree outside Gary Bennet’s kitchen window and showed a photo of Gary looking at it with his coffee the next morning.

 

Other artist presenters were Anne Long, Jon Brooks, Brent Skidmore, Douglas Senft, Thomas Huang, Robert Davidson and Tom Hucker, whose “Materiality, the Vocabulary of Wood” explored the essence of wood in his usual imaginative way.

Michael Fortune was this year’s recipient of the Furniture Society’s award of distinction. The award itself was a mysterious box by Gord Peteran. Michael is admired for his excellence as a working furniture maker and designer, as an educator and as an important member of the Furniture Society.

 

For all the fun and high spirits, there was also a seriousness and sense of struggle. Peter Korn moderated “Running a Successful Small Shop” with Hank Gilpin, Scott Braun, Michael Moore, and David Gray. Actual balance sheets were discussed and a very frank comparing of notes was extremely useful. Members are always looking for better ways to run their businesses and practices. Its tough out there. The experience of contemporary First Nations people in reconstructing their culture is not dissimilar to what we do as contemporary furniture makers. As Robert Davidson’s grandfather told him “You’re allowed to make things up.” This was the message Robert Davidson had for me. I also loved how he described a successful piece. He said, “it looks like it’s winking at you.”

 

 

There are always choices to make among the various presentations although this year’s schedule was carefully designed to allow maximum participation in most of the events. I missed Bebe Johnson’s presentation on running Pritam and Eames gallery with her husband Warren for 25 years, but I was able to catch some of Bebe’s wisdom at “The Gallery Experience” which also included Celia Duthie, Laura Frissan and David Gray. Bebe”s comment that the 80″s were a high point for studio furniture was taken by some to suggest that things have gone downhill since, but I took her comments as meaning that there may have been a certain alignment with the “zeitgeist” then, to use an eighties word, but a visit to Pritam and Eames the following weekend to see Brian Newell’s show proved to me that furniture making is alive and well. The 80’s were also when many of the Pritam and Eames artists found their individual voices as makers. The work done in the 90’s and since has been a continuation of the groundwork done in the eighties for many of these makers. The heart of the conference was really all about facing the challenges of making furniture in 2007, and the discussion continues. Planning for next years conference in Purchase, N.Y. has been going on through the past year and the issues raised in Victoria will continue to be discussed. I urge you all to keep in touch through the Furniture Society online forum and blog and of course, keep making furniture.

 

 

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 19th, 2007 at 8:13 am and is filed under FS After Hours. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.