Brian Crane
 

“Idle Hands...”

Over a decade ago, I was working in a factory making air-conditioning units in the Deep South. Sweltering temperatures were nearly unbearable for a day’s usual ten-hour shift of production labor. Even though the irony of sweating in an A/C plant was ridiculous, I discovered that the best way for me to pass the time was to focus on craftsmanship. I would pay maximum attention to the relatively minimal alterations I would make to each part, concentrating only on the immediate task. This allowed me to evolve time segments from shifts, hours and minutes to individual twenty-five second operations. This helped me look past how much time was left, how many parts had I done, or how many parts still remained.

I have never forgotten the trick to infinitely repeating a small task. In fact, I base much of my artwork on it. The assembling of repeated tasks using common construction materials and processes created many of the pieces you see here in the gallery.

These works can be categorized by using an oxymoron from either perimeter of the art/craft continuum. On one end I'd call them "non-functional craft," and on the other I’d label them “complicated minimalism.” Please feel free to gently and responsibly touch the three-dimensional objects and closely investigate the wall-hung pieces.