\u201cAs in most exhibitions, it was a sequence of unplanned events that led to the show happening\u201d, Alex Tieghi-Walker tells me from his apartment in New York, as he smokes a \u201ccalming\u201d cigarette after a rude awakening from his building\u2019s superintendent. \u201cI had always wanted to do something back in Europe, being British myself and starting this chapter of my career living in the US, but I definitely didn’t know it would be happening now.\u201d It was a chance conversation with Selvi May Akyildiz, the director at Frieze\u2019s No.9 Cork Street gallery, which sparked the idea: \u201cShe wanted to bring something that was more design-focused into the arena, and we hatched a plan.\u201d
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\nThe North American Pavilion took over the entire building at No.9 Cork Street over Midsummer weekend, a first for the space, having previously given over rooms to individual galleries for concurrent exhibitions. Curated by Tieghi-Walker, the show brought together eight galleries from the United States, Mexico, and Canada who \u201cstraddle the space between art, design and craft\u201d, featuring: Bruises Gallery, Emma Scully Gallery, Jacqueline Sullivan gallery, Marta, Noon Projects, Of The Cloth, Studio IMA, and Tieghi-Walker\u2019s TIWA Select. “My practice has always been about uplifting voices in art that are less traditional, or not given the platform that they deserve. So for me it was clear from the get go that this show should be galleries who were newer, who have a different perspective and point of view\u201d, he tells me.
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\n\u201cThe only brief I gave to the galleries was to represent North American curation\u201d says Tieghi-Walker. \u201cThe galleries involved all emphasise the narrative of shows. They are not just putting works on a wall, they are very immersive galleries, creating whole new atmospheres and environments for every show. I have lived out of London for a while now, but I think galleries [in North America], are doing things a little bit differently from London. It is exciting for a British audience to experience the way that we curate out here. I just want the show to be fun.\u201d
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\nNo. 9 Cork Street was once a Mayfair townhouse, and The North American Pavilion returned it to a domestic context. \u201cBruises created a bathroom, they brought over a painted claw foot tub; Jacqueline Sullivan hung drapes and curtains through the space; Marta brought huge, foam-moulded pieces of furniture, and I painted the walls of mine. We are de-gallery-fyed No.9\u201d says Tieghi-Walker. The aforementioned painted bathtub, a pastoral landscape with feet mimicking those of a monument, by Trevor Bourke, was lit by a floor-standing candle, which hung over the tub on its silver stick. Pinewood shelves and a cupboard developed the bathroom trope, only this time the cupboards proposing to hold your abandoned half-full shampoo bottles are carved like life-size Greek statues, by Bernard Trahan.
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\nElsewhere in the exhibition, galleries took a variety of approaches to evoking the domestic setting.
\nWhat felt like an open-plan apartment was divided up by furniture, including Rafael Priesto\u2019s side tables, Rooms Studio\u2019s mirrors, and Jane Atfield\u2019s chairs at Emma Scully; oil paintings were displayed next to stoneware mugs, in a spatial framing suggestive of a dining room lit by Ben Borden\u2019s candelabrum, at NOON Projects; Studio IMA presented a space with an indoor-outdoor feeling due to the balance of natural and manmade materials, ceramics, pigmented clay and volcanic glass crossing over with steel, the contrast embodied in Fernando Laposse\u2019s Loofa Divider; while Marta invited a soft landing with Kristen Wentrcek and Andrew Zebulon\u2019s concrete-mimicking foam seats, in a living room decorated with stoneware by Dino Matt, oil paintings by Virva Hinnemo, and lacquered chairs by Minjae Kim \u2014 one with a baroque pearl standing proud on its arm. Jacqueline Sullivan\u2019s space was partially enclosed by drapes, the tapestry, glassware by Valentina Cameranesi Sgroi and Christopher Dresser, \u2018blousen\u2019 dressed William Morris chairs by Kristin Dickson-Okuda, and plush velvet grape sculpture that dropped across the floor, making the room feel reminiscent of a woman\u2019s dressing room in a mediaeval castle. For Of The Cloth, the domestic context came through in both the material approaches \u2014 including mixed media textiles by Henry Rollick, and Kristen Stain\u2019s black clay vessels \u2014\u00a0and the atmosphere of the space; the closeness of the relationships between makers, and the site-specific approach to showing works giving the space a true sense of intimacy.
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\nWhen curating works for TIWA Select\u2019s room at The North American Pavilion, Tieghi-Walker was \u201cconsidering types of art that people might not necessarily associate with America, which people might be able to learn from\u201d he tells me. \u201cI’m showing everything from DNA weavings and paintings through to Gee\u2019s Bend quilts, because I wanted to show the breadth of American textile design, and demonstrate the history of craft in the USA.\u201d The room was dimly lit, evoking the feeling of returning to the comfort of home, with quilts, embroidery and paintings hung on the walls and displayed on low plinths, as if inviting you to wrap up in them after a long day.
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\nIntroducing narrative, in a sort-of spatial performance, feels generous. It invites the viewer into the imagination of the environment, giving you space to develop an impression of who could live here, how you could live with these pieces, how the pieces themselves live. The North American Pavilion celebrates the crossovers between art, design and craft \u2014 what could be referred to as applied arts, but thinking beyond aesthetics, into a narrative, conceptual and material framework \u2014 and\u00a0it feels distinct among the landscape of London\u2019s contemporary exhibition-making.
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\n\u201cI think [the rich history of arts and crafts] is maybe why [art, design and craft] are so separate in Britain. Craft gets its due respect in the UK\u201d, says Tieghi-Walker. \u201cIn America, I feel it has historically been overlooked. Craft is part of a long, indigenous history that has, until recently, been put to the side. I think that is why America is now embracing craft in this way, and why it is being integrated into design and art. Until 100 years ago, anything we used was essentially a craft object. It is the foundation of everything we have.\u201d<\/div><\/div>
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