2023 James and Audrey Foster Prize
Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston Aug 24, 2023 – Jan 28, 2024
by Michelle Kelley
Established in 1999, the James and Audrey Foster Prize is biennially awarded to working artists based in the Boston area. The recognized artists for the 2023 James and Audrey Foster Prize exhibition at the ICA/Boston—Venetia Dale, Cicely Carew, and Yu-Wen Wu—are three artists who share a common thread: their commitment to innovative material usage, repetitive action, and emotional connection to their work.
Upon entering the gallery, visitors are greeted by the work Piecing Together: 50 years, which Dale constructed from others’ abandoned embroidery projects. The sheer volume and variety of these remnants points to the almost-universal nature of leaving a project unfinished. Like these fiber works, Dale’s cast-pewter pieces embody the “caretaking” that Dale references frequently in her art⏤finding a new purpose for what others have abandoned. The gradual gathering of something and Thresholds of Care: kitchen windows (sisters) are two works composed of several pewter casts made, respectively, from orange peels discarded by her young son, and living and dead houseplants collected by Dale and her sister; they speak to Dale’s regard for what others might write off as waste. Her castings also evoke the image of Dale nurturing her small child while finding a productive use for his cast-offs. In tandem with the unfinished embroidery projects of Piecing Together, Dale’s pewter works repurpose objects that are otherwise abandoned. Again and again, Dale’s sculptures reflect a choice to continue attending to objects others might dispose of, as she stitches together a multitude of incomplete embroideries and casts numerous peels and plants in the service of each work. In the case of Thresholds, after she failed to adequately provide for a houseplant, the plant endures in her sculpture. In the gradual gathering of something, she memorializes a moment in time—one where her child required ample assistance and supervision—by casting the impermanent in metal. Her choice to use pewter and textiles, as well as the presence of contributions from Dale’s family, lend the pieces a domesticity and intimacy that is made more apparent by the fact that Dale has chosen these materials explicitly because she can manipulate them in the home.1
Carew similarly makes use of discarded materials, albeit ones that are more industrial in nature. Spray-painted plastic netting and plastic foliage, densely arranged and connected with colorful zip ties, are gathered into works including Whether Weather and The Overflow that appear to float against the pale blue gallery walls. The lighter-than-air quality of these works is in sharp contrast with their bulky silhouettes. Carew refers to the construction of these “flying paintings” as “composting.”2 Her sculptures give new life to this packaging material, just as compost turns waste into nutrient-rich soil. While the use of this metaphorical “compost” and the inclusion of a patch of artificial grass in the center of the gallery for visitors to walk on ties Carew’s practice to the earth, her maximalist sculptures appear weightless, hanging from the ceiling or emerging fully formed from the wall. They serve as a vivid reminder for viewers that there is potential for visual pleasure in the humblest material.
In the third gallery, Wu’s works experiment with diverse materials, as is fitting for an artist who has frequently approached her work with scientific precision. Intentions is a standout piece in this gallery. Here, Wu strings together balls of dried and gilded tea leaves with red thread and hangs the strands from ceiling to floor. The strands are intended to reference the prayer beads used by the artist’s grandmother—a memory of her life in Taiwan. For the viewer, this piece invokes a tactile dimension as they are prompted to imagine the act of handling beads, while the use of tea suggests warmth and community. The materials used also point to Wu’s Taiwanese background, which she speaks candidly about when discussing her work. Wu has shared the pressure she experienced to assimilate into American life after immigrating from Taiwan in the 1970s, and how she was encouraged to completely leave behind her native language and culture in order to fit in.3
In another work, Acculturation, Wu pins leaves from Taiwanese tea and local New England plants, some gilded, to the wall in an orderly grid that could read almost as a specimen collection of plants from before and after her transition to American life. Per Wu, this gilding references America’s mythical streets paved in gold—an unrealistic ideal of this country held by many immigrants prior to their arrival in the United States.4 Gilding also reflects her desire to transform ephemeral material into something more enduring and equalize the foreign tea with locally sourced leaves. Other materials, including the red thread, tea, lotus leaves, and porcelain, point to her Taiwanese heritage. The inclusion of diverse material in her exhibition is an additional nod to the hybridity of her immigrant experience and transition into life in America. Additionally, Wu noted that much of the tea she uses has been brewed by her family in Taiwan, dried, and sent to her for her use in artwork.5 As with Dale and Carew, Wu takes inspiration in material that many would view as refuse: in this case, used tea leaves.
The recipients of this year’s Foster Prize all present works composed of diverse materials, and all are inspired by their familial ties. Carew acknowledges that the birth of her son encouraged her to commit more fully to her artistic practice.6 The evocation of environmental concerns in her work is perhaps similarly motivated by a desire to leave him a better world. In the same vein, Dale’s works reflect the practical changes motherhood had on her art, both materially and inspirationally, as her work with embroidery and fiber began during her pregnancy, when she had to forego pewter due to the chemicals involved in its casting. Furthermore, Wu threads the needle between rational approach and emotional inspiration as she draws upon her family’s immigration experience in the 1970s and subsequent transition into American society. Though all three recipients work in disparate media, their works focus on ideas of waste and renewal, and their dual identities as individual artists and members of a family. This hybridity is further reflected in the choice of materials that are both precious and modest, durable and ephemeral, throughout the galleries.
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Michelle Kelley is an MA student in the Department of History of Art and Architecture at Boston University with diverse interests including museum engagement, materiality, and modern/contemporary art. She holds a BA in Art History and English from the College of William and Mary, where she served as President of the Muscarelle Museum University Student Exchange. Michelle interned at the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Gallery as an Interpretive Guide. Afterward, Michelle worked in a D.C. metro-area antique and fine art auction house.
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1. Venetia Dale, “The Artist’s Voice: Cicely Carew, Venetia Dale, and Yu-Wen Wu with Assistant Curator Anni Pullagura” (conversation, ICA/Boston, September 28, 2023).
2. Kris Wilton, Studio Visit: Cicely Carew. ICA/Boston, August 2023, video, 4:30, https://www.icaboston.org/multimedia/studio-visit-cicely-carew/.
3. Yu-Wen Wu, “The Artist’s Voice: Cicely Carew, Venetia Dale, and Yu-Wen Wu with Assistant Curator Anni Pullagura” (conversation, ICA/Boston, September 28, 2023).
4. Wu, “The Artist’s Voice.”
5. Wu, “The Artist’s Voice.”
6. Dale, “The Artist’s Voice.”