AN ORDINARY KITCHEN TABLE

How do artists create something extraordinary from something ordinary? What would you do with pieces of wire, felt, plastic netting, zippers, bobbins, pull tabs, flossers, and shells? To create something with these disparate objects needs a combination of discipline and abandon along with being able to seeing something from a different point of view.

Last summer, the Ruth Asawa exhibition at the deYoung Museum in San Francisco (now moved to NYC) provided viewers a showcase of all of Asawa's art interests including her meticulous drawings of natural elements to woven wire sculptures. The exhibit also included examples of her teachings within her community to develop creative thinking in everyone. The exhibit invited us into Asawa's home, which had numerous woven art projects hanging from the rafters while unfinished work lay on a long wood table constructed by her architect husband, Albert Lanier.

The table reminded me of sitting at our kitchen table as a young child, mostly unaware of the world around me. Our table, unlike Asawa's, was one of those linoleum and shiny metal tubing tables popular in the 1950s and 60s and took up most of the space in the kitchen nook. We ate our meals there, saving the maple dining table for Sunday dinners and special events. We watched our mom making Sandbakelses, a Norwegian Christmas cookie, that took her all day to form in small, fluted tin cups. The table became the place where we did homework together, told stories and argued with each other, and answered the phone set on the counter next to the table. My sister and I made paper sculpture ornaments based on origami to hang in the windows and on our Christmas tree. We weren't a family that was allowed to leave stacks of books or collect mounds of stray papers on the table. When not in use for meals or projects, the table was swept clean.

String Art assignment I used to give my students

Ruth Asawa's kitchen table now rests at Ruth's Table, an art class and exhibition space connected to the Bethany Senior Center and Front Porch organization in San Francisco. The center, founded by Lola Fraknoi and supported by Asawa, has an exhibit of basket weavers' work (today is the last day) that uses all the supplies listed in the first paragraph of this post.

Basketweaving is a craft that requires the same meticulous attention to detail that calligraphy and origami need. The baskets on display include a wide range of shapes, including some that test the limits of the word, "Basket." One flat piece is made from woven computer cables and another is made from wire and the horsehair from old violin bows. Another incorporates indigo and persimmon dyed paper into a basket shape made from dyed Japanese Sedori cane.

The two exhibits are also a reminder of our past. Ruth Asawa's family, separated from their father, were sent to our concentration camps during WWII. Her retrospective exhibit shows  her resilience during that time and as she said, "...good things come through adversity."

During her stay at the camp, she spent most of her time drawing and painting. She was given a scholarship by the Quaker Japanese American Student Relocation Council that allowed her to leave the camp to attend art school in Wisconsin. She didn't see her family again until the end of WWII. Her words about her time in the camp amaze me,

"I would not be who I am today had it not been for the Internment, and I like who I am."

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Visit Ruth's Table near the Mission in San Francisco

https://www.ruthstable.org

https://ruthstable.viewingrooms.com/viewing-room/ 

https://densho.org/learn/introduction/american-concentration-camps/

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