‘Dark Grandmothers,’ The Art of the Individual over the Craft of the Collectives: A Case Study of Klaas Rommelaere and his Madams

Abstract

An examination of Belgian artist Klaas Rommelaere with a focus on his internationally renowned embroidered sculpture series, Dark Uncles (2020). Despite his role as the artist and the public face of the craft-based collaborative project, Rommelaere’s physical involvement is minimal when compared to “the madams,” the true executors of Rommelaere’s labor-intensive craftwork. This raises critical questions about authorship and reception in contemporary art, particularly the institutional reliance on the individual artist as a figurehead to promote collective craftsmanship. By analyzing Dark Uncles through a post-structural feminist lens and considering the liminality of craft production under capitalism, the paper highlights the marginalization of women’s labor in art and culture and the reinforcement of the Western model of the artist as a single, celebrated figurehead. In doing so, Rommelaere’s oeuvre serves as a case study of the ongoing tensions between ‘art’ and ‘craft,’ as well as the systemic challenges faced by crafts(wo)men in the contemporary art space