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The Museum for Art in Wood presents a First Friday Opening for ‘Strange Woodcraft: Weird and Eerie Sculpture from the Museum’s Permanent Collection.’ Many artists, collectors, and enthusiasts turn to wood for its inviting warmth and its promissory sense of nostalgic familiarity. Departing from these typical associations, Strange Woodcraft” presents works which nurture a discomforting curiosity with the unfamiliar. Taking inspiration from cultural critic Mark Fisher’s insight that our attraction to the “weird” and the “eerie” stem from a fascination for “what lies beyond standard perception, cognition and experience,” ‘Strange Woodcraft’ embraces sculptural forms which feel out of place, askew, haunting, or just downright odd.
On display in the gallery of the Museum’s Fleur and Charles Bresler Research Library, this exhibition includes work from 16 artists, held in the museum’s permanent collection, whose sculptural forms probe at the weird, eerie—and perhaps even grotesque—registers of wood. In doing so, ‘Strange Woodcraft’ encourages visitors to consider the presence of more-than-human forces that may linger in crafted objects, just beyond common perception.
