Leftovers

V12 Laraki

V12 Laraki is a work by the Belgian artist Eric Van Hove, inspired by Laraki Fulgara, a supercar whose parts were all manufactured in Morocco with the sole exception of the engine. Van Hove sought to complete the project by creating a 12-cylinder piston engine, otherwise known as a V12 engine, composed of 462 individually crafted pieces in 53 different materials using 73 different techniques by 42 Moroccan master craftspeople made over the course of 9 months. The work is made of various kinds of woods, metals, stones, minerals, skins, and textiles all native to Morocco. The diversity and richness of the component materials echoes the breadth and depth of crafting knowledge in the region. With its sumptuously decorated and finely wrought parts, the work finds beauty in intricacy and recognizes the achievement of the craftspeople who created it. Therefore, V12 Laraki not only stands as an exemplar of Moroccan manufacturing but a safeguard of traditional Maghrebian crafting knowledge. The preciousness vested in the engine through the materials, labor hours, and expertise needed to fabricate each of its component parts stands in contrast to mass-manufactured engines. These mass-produced engines, on the contrary, are expendable in nature by virtue of the fact that tens of millions of automobiles are produced every year. In 2019, for example, 92 million cars were produced. Further, in the United States, 12 million cars are taken off the road each year. The model of infinite growth is unsustainable, but it is the model on which world economies are predicated. Thus, Van Hove responds to the globalized economy that has pushed out capable craftspeople. His work asks if there is a future for these artisans, what that future would look like, or if the V12 Laraki is only an elegy for knowledge from a bygone era.

 

Strips

Louisiana P. Bendolph, a quilter in Gee’s Bend, Alabama, made Strips in 2003, in conjunction with the Souls Grown Deep Foundation, which provides support, social impact initiatives, and various forms of relief to artists and communities of color in the American South. Gee’s Bend, an island in the middle of the Alabama river, is home to around 700 people, most of whom are descended from enslaved people, including a group of quiltmakers active for generations, since the mid-19th century. The longevity of their practice, combined with the geographical seclusion of Gee’s Bend, has engendered a vernacular quilting style that is a forceful artistic expression of their culture. Growing up in Gee’s Bend, Louisiana P. Bendolph would attend school only on days when it rained; otherwise, she labored on a farm along with her siblings. Sewing her first quilt at age twelve, she used the materials available to her, often extra scraps of fabric from when her mother made clothes for the children. Strips is made from corduroy fabric leftover from a contract with Sears Roebuck held by a nearby sewing cooperative in the 1970s to make pillow covers for their store. Through her craft, Bendolph gives a new life to these industrial castoffs. In rich browns and reds, the geometries of the quilt interact and energize the material. The artist’s vision comes through in the placement of the strips, creating a quilt that is the unique product of her thought process and a testament to her artistic will. From a pile of scraps with no monetary value, Bendolph has crafted a useful and expressive work of art.

 

In summary

Through their work, both Eric Van Hove and Louisiana Bendolph ask questions about consumer culture. Namely, what does it mean to value certain things, and who is left behind in the wake of corporate-industrial activity? Van Hove considers the craftspeople of Morocco who make up 20% of the country’s workforce and their place in an world economy that demands streamlined efficiency in order to function. V12 Laraki is ambiguously placed as both a tribute to the brilliance of their craftsmanship and a memento to that which might soon be lost unless a new kind of value is placed upon it. Similarly, while the average American throws away roughly 81 pounds of clothing every year, Bendolph repurposes waste from commercial garment production, turning a homogenous mass of scraps into an expression of her individuality and creative volition. Thus, both artists use craft to reframe the notion of value into something that is not fixed by the market or fashion trends. Rather, they give agency to the consumer to decide what is important and what should be valued.