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December Issue 2006
City of Charleston Features Works by Kaminer Haislip at Dock Street Theatre in Charleston, SC
The City of Charleston will present the exhibit, The Expression of the Functional Object, featuring works by Kaminer Haislip, on view at the City Gallery at the historic Dock Street Theatre in Charleston, SC. Seven contemporary, functional silver works comprise the exhibition of two tea and coffee services. The extraordinary objects will be displayed on pedestals loaned from the Gibbes Museum of Art, from Dec. 7 - Jan. 7, 2007.
Haislip was born in Augusta, GA, and grew up in Aiken, SC. She received a BFA in Jewelry and Metals, from Winthrop University in Rock Hill, SC, in 2002 and a MFA in Silversmithing and Design with a minor in Sculpture in 2005. She has been Arts Coordinator for the North Charleston Cultural Arts Department, North Charleston, SC, since Sept. 2005. Haislip has also been a Keyholder at Redux Contemporary Art Center since June 2005. She has also been an instructor at Winthrop University and a docent and intern at the Mint Museum of Craft + Design in Charlotte, NC.
Haislip has been represented by RedSky Gallery, Charlotte, NC, Gallery 5, Rock Hill, SC, Rabold Gallery, Aiken, SC, and Artist's Parlor, Aiken, SC. She has had work included in numerous regional and national exhibitions including: Reinterpreting the Vessel, Perimeter Gallery, Chicago, IL; Materials: Hard and Soft, Greater Denton Arts Council, Center for the Visual Arts, Denton, TX; Spotlight 2005, American Craft Council Southeast Region Annual Juried Exhibition, The Center for Craft, Creativity, and Design, Hendersonville, NC; Reorientation, Redux Contemporary Art Center, Charleston, SC; and Benefit Exhibition for the Center for Women, Charleston, SC.
Haislip offered the following statement about her work: "The balance between my aesthetic and a successful function defines my creative approach to product design in silver. I am inspired by the concept of enhancing domestic functional rituals through traditional techniques underpinned by a contemporary approach to design and production. My work strives to demonstrate this theme and is based upon images inspired by bird forms."
"As art and function combine to create design for living, utilizing an object to perform a function contributes to that design. In my view, functional objects display both the visual and conceptual relationship between art and living. Specifically, through the intrinsic ideas of my work's theme, function, and ergonomics this relationship is exhibited and accentuated. For me using a teapot that inspires thought, is comfortable to use, and successfully works enhances the process of making tea. These three activities of contemplation, favorable usage, and auspicious function take place within one domestic ritual."
"Bird forms are the visual theme for my work. Observing birds on a wire initiated an interest in interpreting their actions. For me birds sitting on a wire represent a conundrum. I found the mystery of their activity intriguing and this motivated the interpretation of their characteristics. Birds convey emotions and actions in an obscure way. For me, the birds imply humor, wait, watch, rest, taunt, view, and annoyance. Additionally, my subconscious thought correlates to a bird on a wire. Birds represent this idea to me because I see sudden, fleeting, and ephemeral mannerisms in them. Sitting on a wire is a transition between their destination and where they have been. Therefore, the birds convey a transitional state of being."
For further information check our SC Institutional
Gallery listings, call the Office of Cultural Affairs at 843/724-7305
or visit (www.ci.charleston.sc.us/oca.html).
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