Maruyama exhibit focuses on internment

The Society of Arts and Crafts hosted the national exhibit, “Wendy Maruyama: Executive Order 9066,” from Sept. 8 to Nov. 3 at its exhibition gallery in Boston.

The exhibit featured distinct work that is based on the historically significant date of Feb. 19, 1942, when President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, which authorized the internment of 120,000 American citizens and resident aliens in Japan. They were told to pack what they could carry and were forcibly relocated to one of 10 camps set up by the government in states throughout the country.

Maruyama, a third generation Japanese-American, was deeply affected by this history and has created a body of work that reflects on this period.

The exhibition is composed of three integrated elements: a series of wall-mounted sculptural cabinets, 10 sculptures created from replicas of the paper ID tags that internees were made to wear — one of which will be exhibited at SAC — and a selection of objects that were used or made by people interned in the camps.

The exhibition was funded by an Artist Exhibition Grant from the Windgate Charitable Foundation.

The exhibit will travel to Arkansas Arts Center in Little Rock, Ar.; Arizona State University Art Museum in Tempe, Ariz.; San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art in San Jose, Calif., and Museum of Craft and Design in San Francisco, Calif.

Granite State happenings

The New Hampshire Furniture Masters Association hosted an afternoon with the masters Aug. 12 at Castle in the Clouds in Moultonborough, N.H. The event featured presentations from seven of the group’s furniture masters and two guest artists. Guests were invited to chat with the masters and examine their works more closely.

Presenting masters included Aurelio Bolognesi, Jeffrey Cooper, Tom McLaughlin, Terry Moore, Richard Oedel, Jeff Roberts, and Brian Sargent. The guest artists were Matt Wadja and Bruce Eaton.

The association also held the exhibit “Unique Furniture with Style” Aug. 22-Sept. 19 at the New Hampshire Historical Society’s library in Concord, N.H. It featured recent work by 14 select members, one guest artist, three emerging artists and two participants in the guild’s prison outreach program.

Contacts

New Hampshire Furniture Masters Association. www.furnituremasters.org

Society of Arts & Crafts, 175 Newbury St., Boston, MA 02116. Tel: 617-266-1810. www.societyofcrafts.org

This article originally appeared in the November 2012 issue.