Petrichor | Detachment from Craft
Last autumn we worked with local artist Kurtis Major (Locust House / Birdview Distillery) on creating 'Petrichor', a small temporary gallery space which currently resides at Marinship Studios in Sausalito. Kurtis recruited fellow Bolinas and Inverness based artists Jorgen Harle and Ido Yoshimoto to help with some of the more difficult wood work and hand forged metal fabrication.
The space was designed within the temporary building restrictions and is moveable via forklift. It is conducive to a variety of exhibition types that can fit into a 10x12 foot space but stray from the typical white cube format. The design was inspired by the environment it was made in, Gate 5 in Sausalito, and the natural materials available in the area. 'Gate 5' in Sausalito was documented by photographer Pirkle Jones as a famous houseboat community where rules did not apply and many pivotal artists, thinkers, and builders worked and resided.
The structure relies on traditional joinery methods, with a roof inspired by a combination of one of our favorite Mono-Ha artworks by Kishio Suga and traditonal boat hull construction. A burned exterior and floor to ceiling glass wall based on some nearby barges and boats, which likely drew influence from Japanese design in the post war era as many builders and architects at the time were getting heavily into Japanese design principles at the time. Materials were mainly Monterey Cypress from Evan Shively at Arborica, custom fabricated mild steel, and a copper roof. Machined metal fabrication and digital engineering of the structure was taken care of by Ezco Design.
The first exhibition, 'Detachment from Craft' is on view by appointment only until the end of July. It features work by Ido, Jorgen, and Kurtis, along with Nakaya Yoshitaka and Shinta Nakajima from Mount Fuji and Tokyo respectively. Like Petrichor itself, the artists all work primarily in metal and wood. Ido and Nakaya work with a variety of local wood. Jorgen is a blacksmith and Shinta, a silversmith. Kurtis is a jeweler by trade, but often finds himself working with both. All five of the artists create work that is functional and utilitarian, falling into the category of craft, while some pieces would clearly be categorized by most as art. The Petrichor space and 'Detachment from Craft' exhibition intentionally blur these notions.
Throughout the process of building this space and putting together the exhibition, Kurtis and Jorgen began prototyping for the first Terasu Gastronomy collection. After receiving positive feedback from our gyuto and paring knives that Kurtis worked on, we were inspired to delve deeper into cooking tools that fit our ideas for illuminating new perspectives through food. We're now fulfilling our first pre-orders, and hosting a dinner on the water nearby Marinship Studios to experience food foraged, fished, and cooked by Ido, Kurtis, and Jorgen, in the context of having awareness of the materials, techniques, styles, and tastes that we gravitate towards as a result of our surrounding environment.
Tickets to the Petrichor Artists Dinner are available here.
