CALL FOR ENTRY eXtreme Tea Exhibition

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eXtreme Tea Exhibition
An exhibition of historic and contemporary tea infusers and strainers, curated
by Tom Muir.
The exhibit will be shown from January 16 – March 21, 2010 at the Houston Center
for Contemporary Craft.
eXtreme Tea will be on display during the 2010 SNAG Conference, "Going to
Extremes," Houston, TX, March 10-13, 2010

Introduction:
If you’ve used a teabag, you’ve used the least attractive, and most common, form
of contemporary tea infuser. A tea infuser is simply a device that holds loose
tea leaves for brewing in a pot or cup. But this simple, useful object has a
history of extraordinary artistic elaboration, in common with all tea
implements. Today, as tea is a popular beverage around the globe, the tea
infuser presents an exciting challenge for contemporary artists in many media.
The contrasts between tradition and contemporary possibilities for the tea
infuser are extreme indeed – even more so is the inventiveness that takes this
simple function to imaginative extremes!
High craft and low craft are contrastingly represented in tea infusers, which
can be made of metal, glass, ceramic, fiber and plastic – and combinations of
mixed media. The functional solution that artists have found to the problem of
steeping tea have varied widely and wildly – from figural, thematic depictions
and literary references to visual and functional puns and engineering tours de
forces.
With possibilities for multiple use in the contemporary context, tea infusers
provide unlimited possibilities for artists! Besides the popularity of tea
itself, new forms of contemporary tea infusers will also share in the world-wide
status of teapots as culturally significant artforms.


To have work considered for the exhibition, please send high-quality digital
images and information to:
Tom Muir
Fine Arts Center
Bowling Green State University
Bowling Green, OH 43402
or [e-mail]

Deadline for submission: October 1, 2009