Host: Alex Botts
Workbench, Casein on wood panel
Living and working with Claire Moore’s work Workbench has been a delight. The Crosshatch project is a unique opportunity; I was able
to connect with an artist I may have otherwise never met, and it was a treat to
have a part of my apartment taken over by work of a local and currently-active
artist for a duration. I think this particular moment in time is perfect for
Crosshatch, since so many of us in the arts are cut off from both the spaces
and the artworks that brought us into the industry in the first place, and the
dialogues between creators, creations, and curators that those spaces
promulgate. Just the idea of getting some new work in my apartment was exciting
from the get-go. Claire’s work has had a real presence while at the apartment. There’s a metanarrative quality to Workbench, which depicts a workspace that itself contains works of art in production. The piece invites my own work-from-home station into that narrative, a new containing layer in a series of workbenches, a series of works. In that way I felt a part of the picture, and I felt I had some obligation or expectation that my own work be creative and, possibly, painterly, so that the thematic connections between each framing layer were maintained.
Workbench also reminds me of my grandfather’s workbench, where he made birdhouses, dollhouses and other woodworking trinkets in his spare time. It’s an evocative memory and one I’m glad to be reminded of; it’s also yet another repetition, yet another place where the outside is made miniature on the surface of a desk. Claire’s rendition of the desk clamp may as well have been the exact make & model my grandfather had; it’s similar and, if memory serves, was a similar shade of red.
A unique addition to my day-to-day environment and a unique method for sourcing and building these additions. Thanks to Claire Moore for contributing her work and to the Crosshatch Project for setting up the exchange!
— Alex Botts