Tinsel & Sawdust, Room 212 @ Come Up To My Room

By Karol Kosnik

Katrina Tompkins has it. Just few years out of school – a young craftist / designer – and already recognized to be a leader in her field with awards, scholarships, sales and with a sweet gig teaching furniture design at OCAD – we only want the best and the brightest teaching our youth. For CUTMR 2012 she pairs up with Janna Watson and together take over room 212.

When I first met Janna Watson, it was her choice of eyewear that immediately drew my attention. ‘She must be an artist,’ I thought – and she is. She is a painter, and quite good at that. When I looked at her work for first time I had a very pleasant personal response, not to mention that it is successful as gauged by the universal principals of design [colour, balance, line, positive -negative space, etc.].

Room 212 is an installation.

The installation -

A large painted canvas on the wall, which is then reflected on the floor by means of an area-rug – woven by hand by a collective in India.

[Aside]

It is interesting to note the difference between the coverage as done by Design Lines, Azure Magazine, describing the rug as a collaboration between Tinsel & Sawdust and a Swedish carpet manufacturer Henzel – a ‘design object’ – and Buckskin Baby Review which chose to describe the work as a hand-made ‘craft object’. Question arises – can the idea of ‘Craft’ be reconciled with notion of ‘Design’? Can a show such as CUTMR be a vehicle for that?

[Back]

‘The painting came first,’ Tompkins assures me. Then, on the floor, an assemblage of hand crafted objects that fool the viewer as to the material of origin and the process used. First there is a grouping of large white painted blocks, marked with open wooden grain so pronounced that the viewer immediately dismisses it as artificial. ‘It’s real ash,’ Tompkins tells me. Than a handful of silver plastic bottles – cast metal it turns out – the form so ubiquitous though, like Pepsi or Coca – Cola, maybe Dr. Pepper. And then the Tinsel & Sawdust logo itself – a circle with a triangular void – no two shapes could be at odds with each other more, one requiring a mere circle cutter, the other requiring some handy use of chisel. ‘Made in Toronto’ – an immediate strong connection to a community [actually, Tompkins and Watson, along with Amy Markanda and Mandy Ridley are putting together an 'experimental retail environment' right here in the heart of our city].

This tendency of obscuring the material and concealing the fabrication method runs for her at least since 2011, when she was the sole participant in ‘PDA for Edmond Place’ who chose to obscure the reclaimed origins of materials used in the work. ‘Maple for the structure, pine for the seat and the back,’ she said – appropriate material use for a short bench. Comfort aside, painted black, it was a nice set [well proportioned, great lightness to the project that started as re-claimed timber] of two chairs that when put together made a ‘bench’.

At the end of the conversation, when the topic turned to the the economy and the influence it yields over the arts, and perhaps what can be done about, she ended with ‘We’d never sell out.’

I believe Katrina Tompkins when she says that.