The Centre de design of the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) is presenting an exhibition called Industrial Craftsmanship, which takes a look at the current Canadian production of objects.
The exhibition, developed by curator and UQAM École de design object design professor, Guillaume Sasseville, will offer a sampling of twenty-eight objects that each represent an emerging practice in Canadian manufacturing.
Each object aims to address various concepts, such as found geometries, industrial poetry, digital form, counterculture, the circular economy, causality and formability. The common thread among them is the unveiling of the material qualities in harmony with the tool. The object’s shape also reflects its production process.
While the expression “industrial craftsmanship” seems to be an oxymoron at first glance, the term offers a description of the actual state of the material ecosystem and the expertise accessible to industrial designers.
As an anthropological witness, the materialized object solidifies societys’s values, requirements and shaping technologies at a specific point in its history. The object serves as a snapshot, capturing a portrait of the context from which it emerged.
The twenty-eight objects, assembled in the UQAM Centre de design space, embody the culture of manufacturing. Each object, for the most part, is either a prototype or from a small series where the designer was directly involved in its execution.
Placed next to a collection of portraits of tools by photographer Arseni Khamzin, the objects adopt the characteristics of a manufacturing workshop within the exhibition space.
The objects were made by twenty-eight designers which include Anony, Apparatus Atelier, Atelier Zébulon Perron, barbeau desrosiers, willchoui, Tom Chung, Claste, Cyrc, Foraine, Thom Fougere, Lauren Goodman, Julian Gregory, Clara Jorisch, Calen Knauf, Lambert & fils, Élyse Leclerc, m3béton, Zoë Mowat, Greg Papove, Lambert Rainville and Nicolas Sangaré, David Raymond & Gabriel Thibodeau, Olivier Raymond and Jérémie St-Onge, Ricostudio, Guillaume Sasseville, Studio d’Armes, Sandy Lamb, Sarah Yao-Rishea and Jamie Wolfond.
The graphic signature of the exhibition was created by Matthias Kreutzer of Our Polite Society studio.
The exhibition will run until November 5, 2023.