The Beauty in the Details
By Natalie Castrogiovanni, Production Coordinator
If there’s one thing I’ve learned in my two years as a Works to Work intern at the Works Art & Design Festival, it is that the mentality of the team is crucial to the quality of the outcome. This year we had a fantastic outcome, directly reflective of who was involved behind the scenes. Our team always has a group of people with diverse backgrounds and strengths, but with one overarching common goal and a talent for breaking all the major things we need do into manageable sizes and celebrating the little things we accomplish along the way.
The thing I love most about art is in the details, and there are a million little details to putting up a festival. The ones specific to an art and design one are definitely worth celebrating. This year the convergence of art and design was especially prevalent in the production interns lives as we built pergolas from scratch with the leadership of our production supervisor. beyond these pergolas, after encountering the Edmonton peace poles project, is the large-scale sculpture Canopy by Jose Louis Torres, actualized by the help of his team of Skip interns. The craftsmanship, careful consideration and overall aesthetic quality of both projects are a great addition to the Works festival this year. Canopy is a piece made almost entirely of donated and found objects. The pergolas are entirely built of recycled wood which the Works has collected over the years from various projects. The convergence of art and design, as well as re-purposing of old, forgotten objects and materials are beautiful details both projects possess. It is only upon further investigation that this connection can be made, and that in itself is the inherent value of art.
As an art student about to enter my final year of school, I find myself looking for aesthetic beauty everywhere now and enjoying the overlap of art, design and life which is omnipresent yet often invisible to the naked eye. I challenge everyone who visits the festival this year to attempt to access the beauty of the details in everything they encounter on the square and in external venues, because I guarantee it is there, and connections to life, art, and design are always waiting to be made.
Natalie Castrogiovanni is a multidisciplinary artist originally from London, Ontario and currently based out of Toronto, Ontario. She engages with found and constructed objects and imagery that reference the body, usually its temporality, or politics and external forces which limit and shape one’s experience of having a body, especially one that presents as feminine in the Information Age.