Kate Craig Explained

Kate Craig
Birth Date:15 September 1947
Birth Place:Victoria, British Columbia
Death Place:Storm Bay, BC
Field:Performance artist, video artist, mail artist
Training:

Kate Craig (September 15, 1947 – July 23, 2002) was a Canadian video and performance artist, costume designer, and photographer. She was a founding member of the artist-run centre the Western Front, in 1973, and the artists-in-residence program in 1977.[1] She supported the video and performance works of many artists while producing her own body of work. She is known for her performances such as "Lady Brute," and for her video works.

Biography

Catherine Shand Craig was born on September 15, 1947, in Victoria, British Columbia.[2] She was the third child of Sidney Osborne Craig (née Scott) and Charles Edward Craig. Her parents divorced in 1956. In 1960, her mother married Douglas Shadbolt, an architect and brother of the painter Jack Shadbolt.[3] The family moved to Montreal and then to Halifax, Nova Scotia, where Craig attended Dalhousie University starting in 1961. Craig quit her studies at Dalhousie in 1966 and began attending the University of Victoria the year after. Craig met the artist Eric Metcalfe at the University of Victoria, whom she married in 1969, as well as artist Dana Achtley who got her involved in the mail-art scene.[4]

Craig and Metcalfe moved to Vancouver around 1971, where, along with friends and fellow artists Michael Morris, Vincent Trasov and Glenn Lewis, and composer Martin Bartlett, and architect Mo Van Nostrand, writer Henry Greenhow,[1] they bought the space called the Knights of Pythias Lodge[5] at 303 East 8th Ave,[6] that became the Western Front in the Mount Pleasant area of Vancouver.[7] Craig was, notably, the only female-identifying co-founder of Western Front.

Craig and Metcalfe separated in 1973, but continued to work together on collaborative projects. As a couple they worked on projects with Metcalfe, Lewis, Patrick Ready, Margaret Dragu and many others. Craig established and curated the Western Front's Artist-in Residence video program from 1977 to 1993. In the fall of 1973, Craig met artist Hank Bull and they would begin a relationship.

In addition to her role as the visual and performance artist, video and film maker, she designed costumes for herself and other artists which were worn in numerous performances.

From 1980 to 1981, Craig and Bull traveled through Indonesia, India, Africa, and Europe, performing Around The World in Over 365 Days. Craig married Bull in 1990 at her parents' home. Craig collected and kept many pieces of ephemera from her travels including cigarette boxes, stamps, and receipts.

Craig was passionate about her administrative and facilitative duties at Western Front, including vigilant record keeping, and believed it to be an integral part of her artistic practice. Even after retiring from her position as Curator of Media Arts in 1993, she kept up her involvement with the day-to-day duties at Western Front. Craig spent the late 1990s preparing for a major retrospective of her work at the Vancouver Art Gallery, entitled Skin. Craig's "idea of performance was always informed by community and based on thinking life is an art project", even at end of her life. She died of cancer in Storm Bay, British Columbia, in 2002.[8]

Performance art

Lady Brute

Eric Metcalfe was a fine arts student at the University of Victoria and Craig was drawn to his circle of artists and performers. In 1969, he created a mail art persona called "Dr. Brute", and Craig became "Lady Brute" also known as "Lady Barbara Brute." Kate Craig's persona, "Lady Brute," emerged in 1970 as a counterbalance to the sexual fixations of Eric Metcalfe's alter ego, Doctor Brute. Describing it as "undoubtedly a collaboration with Eric Metcalfe in the context of their marriage and shared lifestyle," she forged this persona as a distinct expression within their artistic partnership.[9] This collaborative project created the fictional world of "Brutopia." Their collection of leopard material filled this world and the characters examined the foibles of western society. In 1972, Lady Brute appeared as the "Picture of the Week" in an issue of FILE magazine and marched in the Victoria Day parade in Victoria, B.C. Her performances were typically informal, happening in the real world rather than on stage. She would at times attend an opening or a dinner in her leopard regalia and that was the performance. In 1974, she performed "Flying Leopard" in Vancouver at Cates Park, and again on Hornby Island. In 1975, she produced her first video, "Skins: Lady Brute presents her Leopardskin Wardrobe". In that same year, she and Metcalfe curated the exhibition "Spots Before Your Eyes" at the Western Front and A Space. The concept of camouflage, embodied by the leopard print motif present in both Craig and Metcalfe's works, carries nuanced implications. While Metcalfe's exploration, concealed beneath his persona, delved into uncovering repressed aspects of his identity, Craig's engagement with camouflage took a different trajectory. Her approach involved unmasking socially constructed gender norms through the tactic of masquerade, a notion later theorized by Mary Ann Doane. In Craig's portrayal, we witness a woman embodying and challenging the representation of the female body.[10] Craig described the female personas stating, "The Lady Brutes were definitely image-bound. They still are." This could allude to the material circumstances of her performances. During a period when technology facilitated the rapid expansion and reach of international mass communication networks, the characters within the correspondence network were inherently tied to images. The statement also suggests the entrapment within identity categories' codes and conventions, which both precede and define us as social objects. Metcalfe and Craig's enactment of identities as Doctor Brute and Lady Brute serves as evidence that identity is "constituted and hence, capable of being constituted differently," highlighting the flexibility and fluidity of identity construction. [11] Lady Brute continued to make appearances and participate in exhibitions through the 1970s.

Performance groups

In 1974, Craig was a founding member of the "ettes", a women's "postfeminist" performance group. They performed as the "Peanettes", a chorus of female peanut characters who each held a letter to spell the word "peanut", during Mr. Peanut's campaign for mayor of Vancouver. They also performed as the Coconettes and the Vignettes in 1975. She was a founder of the Lux Radio Players in 1974, a group involved in the collaborative writing and production of radio plays performed for live audiences and broadcast throughout North America over community radio stations until 1977. She was also a founding member of The Canadian Shadow Players in 1976, performing nationally and internationally until 1986.

Lux Radio Players

Peanettes

Vignettes

Canadian Shadow Players

Performances

Photographic works

Solo exhibitions

Group exhibitions

Costumes

  1. Lady Brute and Dr. Brute, 1972
  2. Shark Fin Swimming Caps, c.1973
  3. Rubber Skirt, c.1973
  4. Pink Dress, 1975
  5. Pink Shirt, 1975
    • Pink Shirt was another part of Pink Poem and followed a similar ideology to straight jacket.
    • Pink Poem was a separation of Craig from Lady Brute with the goal to redefine her artistic practice.
  6. Pink Vest, 1977
    • Craig created Pink vest and wore for Young Adults (1977) video production.Young Adults was a single-channel video production showcasing an impromptu punk rock band that existed solely on videotape. The band members included Terry Ewasiuk, Elizabeth Vander Zaag, and Monica Holden-Lawrence on vocals, David Larson on guitar, Michael Wonderful on Mini-moog, Kate Craig on drums, Hank Bull on piano, and Monica Holden-Lawrence also contributing on cello.[16]
  7. Piranha Farm, 1978[17]
    • Kate Craig created the Piranha Farms Costume for a 1978 performance featuring Eric Metcalfe, Hank Bull, and Jane Wilson. This underwater fantasy performance incorporated elements of dance, music, costumes, video and shadow play. The production toured Canada and was also showcased at The Kitchen in New York.[18]
    • The costume is composed of a horizontally patterned orange hooded cape, with its defining feature being the meticulously crafted hood, shaped into the likeness of a Piranha.
    • It features a sizable opening for the wearer’s visage, encircled by teeth sewn from silver fabric and plastic “googly” eyes positioned on both sides of the face.
    • The Piranha Farms costume transcends its material form, becoming a conduit for exploring Craig’s vision and the cultural milieu of its time.[19] The seventies have come to be known culturally as the “Canadian renaissance” and signaled moments of historical rupture for society and culture
    • This period was marked by experimentation and boundary-pushing in the arts, with artists challenging traditional norms and embracing avant-garde techniques. "Piranha Farms" likely emerged within this context of artistic exploration and innovation, reflecting the zeitgeist of the era. Moreover, the seventies marked an exceptional period for the development of video art in Vancouver’s art scene, and this cultural milieu also played a significant role in shaping the evolution of Kate Craig's Piranha Farms costume[20]
    • The Piranha Farms costume was worn by Eric Metcalfe as the Titular character of Piranha Farms, alongside his collaborators Hank Bull and Jane Ellison. Metcalfe can be seen wearing the costume in a 1979 recording of Piranha Farms, digitized by Western Front[21]

Notes and References

  1. Web site: WESTERN FRONT – About . 2024-03-08 . westernfront.ca . en.
  2. Web site: Kate Craig – National Gallery of Canada. www.gallery.ca. 22 July 2017.
  3. Web site: Lives Lived: Sidney Shadbolt, 92. Elizabeth. Nickson. 9 May 2014. 22 July 2017. The Globe and Mail.
  4. Web site: Untitled – Art Gallery Collections. collections.burnabyartgallery.ca. 22 July 2017.
  5. Web site: Knights of Pythias (Masonic order). Mount Pleasant Lodge, No. 11 (Vancouver, B.C.) - City of Vancouver Archives . 2024-03-08 . searcharchives.vancouver.ca.
  6. Web site: Belkin Art Gallery Collections Management System : Individual : Kate Craig [0004573] ]. 2024-03-08 . collection.belkin.ubc.ca.
  7. Web site: The Kate Craig Online Archive. Western Front Archive. Western Front. 2016-03-06.
  8. Web site: July 27, 2002 . Kate CRAIG Obituary . 2019-08-04 . legacy.com. Originally published in The Globe and Mail.
  9. Book: Craig, Kate . "Personal Perspective" Vancouver: Art and Artists 1931 - 1983 . Vancouver Art Gallery . October 28, 2011 . Ed. Luke Rombout (Vancouver: Vancouver Art Gallery) . Vancouver . 261 - 262.
  10. Mary Ann Doane. "Film and the Masquerade: Theorizing the Female Spectator." Screen 25 (1982): 82.
  11. A photo in the Vincent Trasov archive, titled "Kate Craig and Eric Metcalfe (Lady and Dr. Brute) self-Polaroid," though neither artist is in Leopard spot costume . 'Image Bondage' seems to certainly have contributed to Kate Craig and Eric Metcalfe working towards formally ending Dr Brute and Lady Brute, in the Spots Before my Eyes exhibition (at Western Front in March 1975, and at A Space in Toronto, in September the same year) and for Craig in the video of Skins (1975)
  12. Web site: Ornament of a House: 50 Years of Collecting, July 14-September 3, 2017.
  13. News: Milroy . Sarah . Sarah Milroy . March 14, 1998 . B.C.'s video queen . The Globe and Mail.
  14. News: Artists Give the Pinhole Camera Renewed Exposure. Laurence. Robin. November 5, 1998. The Georgia Straight.
  15. News: Art Gallery Reveals its Riches in Impressive Show. Scott. Micheal. January 19, 2000. Vancouver Sun.
  16. Web site: The Young Adults - Western Front.
  17. Web site: Western Front Research Portal . 2024-04-02 . wf-belkin.arts.ubc.ca.
  18. Wallace, Keith, and Western Front Society. Whispered Art History: Twenty Years at the Western Front. Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp Press, 1993, p 44.
  19. Vancouver Art Gallery. Vancouver, Art and Artists, 1931-1983. Vancouver Art Gallery, 1983, p. 260
  20. Roy, Marina “Corporeal Returns: Feminism and Phenomenology in Vancouver Video and Performance 1968 - 1983.” Canadiian Art Summer 2001. Western Front Research Library. 2008. Western Front, Vancouver
  21. Web site: Straight Jacket - Western Front . 2024-03-12 . en-US.
  22. Web site: Personal Perspective – Western Front. front.bc.ca. 22 July 2017.
  23. Web site: Western Front -. front.bc.ca. 22 July 2017.
  24. Roy, Marina “Corporeal Returns: Feminism and Phenomenology in Vancouver Video and Performance 1968 -1983.” Canadian Art Summer 2001. Western Front Research Library. 2008. Western Front, Vancouver.
  25. Web site: Western Front: Events . .
  26. Web site: Straight Jacket - Western Front.
  27. Web site: Identity – Kate Craig. RCIP-CHIN. www.virtualmuseum.ca. 22 July 2017.
  28. Western Front. Whispered Art History, Twenty Years at the Western Front. Edited by Keith Wallace. Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp Press, 1993, p.61.
  29. Web site: WF Video Screening - Western Front.
  30. Web site: Kate Craig fonds - New addition to the Western Front Archive - Western Front.
  31. Web site: Varty . Alexander . 2007-01-04 . Composer honours Kate Craig via sound . 2024-04-06 . The Georgia Straight . en.
  32. (https://vimeo.com/174880582)
  33. Eric Metcalfe, Hank Bull and Jane Ellison, Piranha Farms, Vimeo video posted by Western Front, posted in 2017, accessed January 24, 2024, https://vimeo.com/174880582.
    1. Straight Jacket, 1980[21]
      • Craig recounted that due to the amount of sewing required to create the costume, the satin acetate became a strong, very tight material. Craig chose the pink material as she believed that pink clothing was psychologically calming, and sought to go against the prejudice of using the colour pink at the time.
      • “The straight jacket I designed and made out of hot pink acetate satin. (It was to be of silk but at $32.00 a yard what can a poor girl do!) The camera is stationary and the focus fixed; it is the straight jacket and the single light source that move.” – Kate Craig
      • Like many of her collaborators and fellow artists at Western Front, Craig developed personas that brought together multidisciplinary experimentation synthesizing art and life in avant-garde practices. One of Craig’s personas was characterized by the colour pink referencing traditional ideas of femininity identity. In in Vancouver Art Gallery published book, Kate Craig: Skin Grant Arnold quotes Craig “As a woman, why would you associate yourself with pink if you had any kind of feminist point of view? It was sort of retro.” In creating the garment in an opulent pink satin, festooned with a line of double bows down the back, Craig collapsed traditional ideas of femininity into an institutional device for control. A short film work of the same title in 1980 has Craig modeling the straight jacket. Lit with a single spotlight only the garment is visible in an other wise black space. The garment is framed so that the garment fills the frame. Craig rotates displaying how the bespoke items fits her body. The sound consists of Craig, accompanied by a piano, and a base, singing a song she wrote for the film. The work comments on the condition of social expectations on the female body. The opening title frames and the credits at the end are letters and pictograms cut from the same satin fabric. Lighting by E. Chitty, Music by H. Bull and M. Ready. Hank Bull’s voice is heard of the credits, “Special thanks to the Western Front. And (inaudible) playing the base
        STRAIGHT JACKET KATE CRAIG, COPYRIGHT 1980 Inside out, inside out, the world is inside out Inside out, inside out, love me inside out
        Planet turning in a jacket Total torture off the rack Some get paid off, some get laid off Ideology is for fools
        Inside out, inside out, the world is inside out inside out, inside out, love ne ins/de out
        The human race is out of date Mutate, mutate But me in your prison cell and leave me inside out
        Inside out, inside out, the world is inside out Ins ide out, inside out, leave me inside out
        I believe in time, but I know it travels backward Pumping oil and spilling power I'm done up now, lock me up
        Inside out, inside out, leave me inside out
        Condition pink, Mr. President
        Killing time
        Take ne away and lock me up Ideology is for fools It fits me oh so perfectly And keeps me calm and cool
        Inside out, inside out, leave me inside out Inside out, inside out, the world is inside out
        Push the panic button
        can't do what I do
        Twist and turn in pink and black out The world turning in her Jacket Black and pink and pink and black Back to front and front to back
        Junkies of the world unite Try a new hallucination Neutron bomb and Uncle Tom Relax arms, limitation Relax, arms limitation
        Inside out, inside out, leave me inside out Inside out, inside out, love me inside out

    The Western Front

    See main article: Western Front Society. In 1973, Kate Craig and seven other artists (Martin Bartlett, Mo van Nostrand, Henry Greenhow, Glenn Lewis, Eric Metcalfe, Michael Morris, and Vincent Trasov) purchased the former Knights of Pythias lodge hall and founded the Western Front Society.[22] An artist-run centre, The Western Front became a centre for artistic exploration in many disciplines.[23] Craig was "acutely aware" of her position as the only woman-identifying co-founder of Western Front and worked to invite other female artists to work there including Margaret Dragu, Granada Venne, Sanja Ivekovic, Gathie Falk, etc.

    In 1976, Kate Craig took charge of organizing the Western Front's video production studio. The following year, she established and curated the Artist-in-Residence Video program. Craig's significant administrative role within the society, her leadership in video production, and her prominence as a performance and video artist in Vancouver all contributed to the establishment of a strong presence of local, national, and international women artists at the Western Front. Among the women who have been actively involved with the Western Front over the years are:

    One notable collaboration of Craig's is the performance "Back up," which she co-created with Margaret Dragu. This performance encompassed a variety of activities and narratives, challenging gender stereotypes and exploring new roles enacted by women. Without overtly political themes, Craig and Dragu portrayed the lifestyles of schoolgirls, pool-hall tough girls, scientists, upper-class debutantes, and domestics.[24] Craig established and curated an Artist-in-Residence video program in 1977. In addition to creating her own work, she fostered and produced video works with an impressive array of Canadian and international artists, including Stan Douglas, Mona Hatoum, Tony Oursler and Robert Filliou. In 1993, she retired from her position as Curator of Media Arts.

    The Western Front continues to support exhibitions, concerts, workshops, performances, and maintains an extensive media archive.

    Craig’s works have continued to be showcased by the Western Front.[25] These include:

    • 2023 — Backup (1978), created with Margaret Dragu, shown as part of Archives Access: Margaret Dragu
    • 2015 — shown as part of To Build a Better City: Selected Films about Art and Urban Development
    • 2008 — Delicate Issue (1979), shown as part of Perspectives on an Archive: Ghost Dialogues

    The Western Front’s legacy site also continues to host a video of Craig’s Straight Jacket.[26]

    Video works

    • 1975 – "Skins: Lady Brute Presents her Leopardskin Wardrobe" (b/w, 60 min.)
    • 1976 – "Still Life: A Moving Portrait" (colour, 30 min.)
    • 1977 – The Young Adults
    • 1978 – "Backup" in collaboration with Margaret Dragu (colour, 36 min.)
    • 1979 – "Delicate Issue"[27] (colour, 12 min.)
    • 1979 – "Clay Cove, Newfoundland" (b/w, 20 min.)
    • 1980 – "Straight Jacket" (colour, 7:08.)
      • Shown at Western Front (1980),[28] Festival ‘82 (A Celebration of Women in the Arts)(1982), and at Vancouver Art & Artists at the Vancouver Art Gallery (1983).[29]
      • "Straight Jacket" was a collaborative project with Elizabeth Chitty as a lighting workshop. Craig set up the camera in a fixed position, whilst Chitty, with one quartz light, “danced with” Craig during the filming. Video monitors were set up for the pair to see the results as they “played with light and movement”. The accompanying song was written after filming.
      • 1983 – "Canada Shadow" in collaboration with Hank Bull 1986 – "Ma"
    • 1989 – "Mary Lou"

    Kate Craig Fonds

    In the spring of 2016, the Western Front Archives received a significant donation from Hank Bull: the Kate Craig fonds. This collection encompasses a diverse array of materials spanning Kate Craig's life, research, and career. Among the contents are original costumes, intricate embroidery pieces, photographs capturing pivotal moments, ephemera documenting various events, press releases and clippings offering insights into her reception, meticulously kept sketchbooks and drawings showcasing her creative process, artworks reflecting her artistic vision, and a comprehensive collection of video and audio recordings capturing her performances and explorations. Together, these items provide a rich tapestry of Craig's artistic journey and contributions to the cultural landscape.[30]

    Memorialization

    Craig, who passed away from cancer at the age of 54, was memorialized by composer and friend George E. Lewis. Commissioned by PuSh International Performing Arts Festival to write a new musical score for Craig's video installation Mary Lou, Lewis struggled to "do right" by Craig. The soundtrack ultimately matched the fusion of documentary video and abstraction in Craig's work, as Lewis divided took a minimalist approach to the score, focusing on repeating motifs that complimented the static-like imagery in Mary Lou.[31]

    See also

    Storm Bay (British Columbia)

    References

    Sources

    • Book: Arnold, Grant . Gingras . Nicole . Canyon . Brice . Kate Craig: Skin . Vancouver Art Gallery . Vancouver . 1998 . 978-1-895442-25-0 . 39664005.
    • Book: Craig, Kate . Kate Craig . Lewis . Glen . Glenn Lewis (artist) . Metcalfe . Eric . Eric Metcalfe . Morris . Michael . Michael Morris (artist) . Trasov . Vincent . Art and correspondence from the western front . Western Front . Vancouver, BC . 1979 . 978-0-920974-00-1 . 1119113026.
    • Craig . Kate . Bull . Hank . Hank Bull . Sava . Sharla . Skin: a conversation with Kate Craig, Hank Bull and Sharla Sava . BOO Magazine . Vancouver, BC . 11 . 1998 . 1203-1801 . .
    • Book: Francis, Daniel . Daniel Francis (historian) . Encyclopedia of British Columbia . Harbour Publications . Madeira Park, BC . 2000 . 978-1-55017-200-3 . 318249993 . registration . Internet Archive.
    • Book: Henry, Karen . Kate Craig: Living in Character . https://archive.org/details/caughtinactantho0000unse/page/174/mode/2up . registration . Mars . Tanya . Tanya Mars . Householder . Johanna . Johanna Householder . Caught in the Act: An Anthology of Women In Performance . registration . YYZ Books . Toronto, Ontario . 2004 . 978-0-920397-84-8 . 645826492 . 175–181.
    • Book: Scott, Andrew . The Promise of Paradise: Utopian Communities in British Columbia . Harbour Publishing Co. Ltd. . Madeira Park, BC . 2017 . 978-1-55017-772-5 . 962422372.

    Further reading

    • Art & Correspondence from the Western Front (Vancouver: Western Front, 1979)
    • The F Word (Vancouver: Western Front, 2009)
    • Gingras, Nicole (1998). “Kate Craig Le Mouvement des choses”, Parachute, 90.
    • Golden Streams (Mississauga: Blackwood Gallery, 2003)
    • Kate Craig: Skin (Vancouver: Vancouver Art Gallery, 1998)
    • Luminous Sites: 10 Video Installations (Vancouver: Video Inn / Western Front, 1986)
    • Rebel Girls: A Survey of Canadian Feminist Videotapes, 1974-1988 (Ottawa: National Gallery of Canada, 1989)
    • Shifts and Transfers: On Some Tendencies in Canadian Video (Ottawa: Ottawa Art Gallery, 2003)
    • Under Scrutiny: Video at the Western Front (Vancouver: Western Front, 2003)
    • Vancouver: Art and Artists 1931–1983 (Vancouver: Vancouver Art Gallery, 1983)
    • Whispered Art History, Twenty Years at the Western Front. Edited by Keith Wallace. (Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp Press, 1993)

    External links

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