The Fabric Workshop and Museum will debut an exhibition by artist Lenka Clayton, whose interdisciplinary work considers, exaggerates, and alters the accepted rules of everyday life, extending the familiar into the realms of the poetic and absurd.
A selection of the artist’s recent work—including sculpture, video, typewriter drawings, and work from An Artist Residency in Motherhood, the international project founded by Clayton—will open to the public on Friday, February 10. FWM will debut Object Temporarily Removed, two new works made during Clayton’s residency at the Museum on Friday, March 17.
Clayton is looking to iconic, historical works of art as the starting point for a new artistic inquiry for her residency at FWM. While in Philadelphia, the artist was intrigued by Constantin Brancusi’s Sculpture for the Blind in the permanent collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and developed two new works in response. Inspired by the title of this piece, Clayton will be inviting members of the city’s blind community to create their own versions in response to her verbal description of Brancusi’s original.
While conducting research in the PMA’s archives, Clayton found an unanswered letter written to the PMA’s chief curator in 1978 about Sculpture for the Blind, asking the simple yet poignant question of how cultural value is constructed around art and artists. Who and what factors determine that Brancusi’s sculpture is art, while a visually similar work made by an unknown craftsman is not. Clayton has invited international art professionals to individually respond to this unanswered question from their own point of view. Their replies will feature in the artist’s exhibition for the public to explore.
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