Journal Article

Summer Work: The Art of Pae White

Adamson, Glenn

2013

Overview

Contemporary art does lots of things well, but does not often succeed with the sort of considered optimism demonstrated in the work of Pae White. Hers is a genuinely life-affirming gesture. In common with many successful artists today, she is constantly on the move, completing multiple exhibitions and commissions scattered across the USA and Europe. For an artistic intervention in the permanent galleries at the Museum fur angewandte Kunst in Vienna she decided to work with a collection of toys in the museum's collection. This project in Vienna is the culmination of a trend that has been evident for some time in her work. As she frequently has her work made by others, an important area of expertise lies in the sourcing and management of skilful producers. She affords a calculated degree of agency to her collaborators. When she has a piece fabricated she rarely asks for a revision, and she values the lack of control that she has in the fabrication process, which makes for a richness, surprise, maybe even a contradiction that she would be too self-conscious to produce on her own. A similar dynamics holds true for what are perhaps White's best-known works, massive tapestries bearing images of fleeting beauty. The series, which began in 2006, has included such ethereal subject matter as a light effect playing in a bank of fog, or a single wisp of smoke against an inky black background.

• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Subject: Architecture / Art exhibitions / Art festivals / Art photography / Artisans / Artists / Design / Installation art / Tapestry / Toys