Deadline Extended! Call to artists for the Ornament & Crime Exhibition

Ornament & Crime Call to Artists

Edmonton Feature Gallery Exhibition: New Show Dates April 8 – July 22, 2023  

Submission deadline extended: Monday, February 6, 2023 - 11:59pm

Read the call here:  https://www.albertacraft.ab.ca/calls-for-entry-ornament-crime

Apply here:  https://form.jotform.com/222405487093255

The Alberta Craft Council has extended the deadline of the call for entry for the upcoming Feature Gallery Exhibition Ornament & Crime, an exhibition celebrating adorned, decorated, patterned and ornamented excess.

A fantastic new mural wrap for our Edmonton location will take inspiration from artworks in the exhibition! This 2023 project is a collaboration with students from the Grant MacEwan Studio Arts Program and a selected muralist. Don’t miss your opportunity to be an inspiration for this project! 

Let’s fill the Feature Gallery with ornament, pattern, texture, form, line! 

To instigate your creative responses, watch the Alberta Craft Council's recording of renowned craft historian Dr. Jennifer Salahub's virtual lecture about Adolf Loos' controversial 1908 essay, Ornament and Crime. Dr. Salahub will explore Loos' ideas in both contemporary and historical contexts and explain the significance of Loos' influence on the development of Modernism.

This presentation is an opportunity to learn more about the call and find inspiration for your contribution to the exhibition. The recording of Jennifer's talk is available on our YouTube channel:

https://www.youtube.com/user/albertacraftcouncil

More about Adolf Loos and his essay Ornament and Crime
 
Ornament and Crime is an essay written in 1908 by Adolf Loos, an Austrian architect active in the early 1900’s in Vienna. Loos’ fierce opinions about ornamentation influenced the work of architects, designers and makers of his era as well as the development of Modernism. He believed that the use of ornamentation on objects and buildings belied degenerate, criminal tendencies and caused "damage and devastation" to aesthetic development. He states that the time spent on embellishment of objects is wasted time and wasted health of the maker.

Loos’ ideas were influential to the development of Modernism. Read in the context of contemporary perspective, his essay, full of opinions and assertions, is absurd, melodramatic and offensive, offering many points of departure for expressive works. Maybe it is his patronizing attitude toward craft workers or his ideas about cultures from the ‘new world’ that you will refute with your proposed works. Perhaps it is his idea that anyone with a tattoo is a criminal.

Wouldn't you like to take a shot at proving him wrong? Perhaps you are a sympathetic minimalist. Whatever your take on Adolf Loos and ornamentation is, consider submitting your work to Ornament & Crime, exploring and reacting to the idea that ornamentation is criminal! 

"I have made the following discovery and I pass it on to the world: The evolution of culture is synonymous with the removal of ornament from utilitarian objects." - Loos    
Download Loos' essay here: https://idoc.pub/documents/adolf-loos-ornament-and-crimepdf-d49oqp69e049

This call for entry is now open nationally to all Alberta Craft Council members*.

Alberta artists who are not current members are also welcome to apply, and will receive 50% commission.

*The call is open to current general, professional, emeritus and student members, member artists receive 60% artist commission.

New submission deadline: Monday, February 6, 2023 (11:59pm)

Notifications sent by: Monday, Feburary 20, 2023

Delivery deadline to Edmonton location before: Friday, March 10, 2023

YEG Exhibition dates: Saturday, April 8 - Saturday, July 22, 2023

Questions? contact submissions@albertacraft.ab.ca