Kate Craig (September 15, 1947 – July 23, 2002) was a Canadian video and performance artist, costume designer, and photographer. She was a founding member of the artist-run centre the Western Front, in 1973, and the artists-in-residence program in 1977. She supported the video and performance works of many artists while producing her own body of work. She is known for her performances such as "Lady Brute," and for her video works.
Biography Catherine Shand Craig was born on September 15, 1947, in Victoria, British Columbia. She was the third child of Sidney Osborne Craig (née Scott) and Charles Edward Craig. Her parents divorced in 1956. In 1960, her mother married Douglas Shadbolt, an architect and brother of the painter Jack Shadbolt. The family moved to Montreal and then to Halifax, Nova Scotia, where Craig attended Dalhousie University starting in 1961. University of Victoria (1966–1970) Craig quit her studies at Dalhousie in 1966 and began attending the University of Victoria the year after. Craig met the artist Eric Metcalfe at the University of Victoria, whom she married in 1969, as well as artist Dana Achtley who got her involved in the mail-art scene.
Craig and Metcalfe moved to Vancouver around 1971, where, along with friends and fellow artists Michael Morris, Vincent Trasov and Glenn Lewis, and composer Martin Bartlett, and architect Mo Van Nostrand, writer Henry Greenhow, they bought the space called the Knights of Pythias Lodge at 303 East 8th Ave, that became the Western Front in the Mount Pleasant area of Vancouver. Craig was, notably, the only female-identifying co-founder of Western Front.
Craig and Metcalfe separated in 1973, but continued to work together on collaborative projects. As a couple they worked on projects with Metcalfe, Lewis, Patrick Ready, Margaret Dragu and many others. Craig established and curated the Western Front's Artist-in Residence video program from 1977 to 1993. In the fall of 1973, Craig met artist Hank Bull and they would begin a relationship.
In addition to her role as the visual and performance artist, video and film maker, she designed costumes for herself and other artists which were worn in numerous performances.
From 1980 to 1981, Craig and Bull traveled through Indonesia, India, Africa, and Europe, performing Around The World in Over 365 Days. Craig married Bull in 1990 at her parents' home. Craig collected and kept many pieces of ephemera from her travels including cigarette boxes, stamps, and receipts.
Craig was passionate about her administrative and facilitative duties at Western Front, including vigilant record keeping, and believed it to be an integral part of her artistic practice. Even after retiring from her position as Curator of Media Arts in 1993, she kept up her involvement with the day-to-day duties at Western Front. Craig spent the late 1990s preparing for a major retrospective of her work at the Vancouver Art Gallery, entitled Skin. Craig's "idea of performance was always informed by community and based on thinking life is an art project", even at end of her life. She died of cancer in Storm Bay, British Columbia, in 2002. Originally published in The Globe and Mail.
Performance art
Lady Brute Eric Metcalfe was a fine arts student at the University of Victoria and Craig was drawn to his circle of artists and performers. In 1969, he created a mail art persona called "Dr. Brute", and Craig became "Lady Brute" also known as "Lady Barbara Brute." Kate Craig's persona, "Lady Brute," emerged in 1970 as a counterbalance to the sexual fixations of Eric Metcalfe's alter ego, Doctor Brute. Describing it as "undoubtedly a collaboration with Eric Metcalfe in the context of their marriage and shared lifestyle," she forged this persona as a distinct expression within their artistic partnership. This collaborative project created the fictional world of "Brutopia." Their collection of leopard material filled this world and the characters examined the foibles of western society. In 1972, Lady Brute appeared as the "Picture of the Week" in an issue of FILE magazine and marched in the Victoria Day parade in Victoria, British Columbia. Her performances were typically informal, happening in the real world rather than on stage. She would at times attend an opening or a dinner in her leopard regalia and that was the performance. In 1974, she performed "Flying Leopard" in Vancouver at Cates Park, and again on Hornby Island. In 1975, she produced her first video, "Skins: Lady Brute presents her Leopardskin Wardrobe".
In that same year, she and Metcalfe curated the exhibition "Spots Before Your Eyes" at the Western Front and A Space. The concept of camouflage, embodied by the leopard print motif present in both Craig and Metcalfe's works, carries nuanced implications. While Metcalfe's exploration, concealed beneath his persona, delved into uncovering repressed aspects of his identity, Craig's engagement with camouflage took a different trajectory. Her approach involved unmasking socially constructed gender norms through the tactic of masquerade, a notion later theorized by Mary Ann Doane. In Craig's portrayal, we witness a woman embodying and challenging the representation of the female body.Mary Ann Doane. "Film and the Masquerade: Theorizing the Female Spectator." Screen 25 (1982): 82. Craig described the female personas stating, "The Lady Brutes were definitely image-bound. They still are." This could allude to the material circumstances of her performances. During a period when technology facilitated the rapid expansion and reach of international mass communication networks, the characters within the correspondence network were inherently tied to images. The statement also suggests the entrapment within identity categories' codes and conventions, which both precede and define us as social objects. Metcalfe and Craig's enactment of identities as Doctor Brute and Lady Brute serves as evidence that identity is "constituted and hence, capable of being constituted differently," highlighting the flexibility and fluidity of identity construction.A photo in the Vincent Trasov archive, titled "Kate Craig and Eric Metcalfe (Lady and Dr. Brute) self-Polaroid," though neither artist is in Leopard spot costume. 'Image Bondage' seems to certainly have contributed to Kate Craig and Eric Metcalfe working towards formally ending Dr Brute and Lady Brute, in the Spots Before my Eyes exhibition (at Western Front in March 1975, and at A Space in Toronto, in September the same year) and for Craig in the video of Skins (1975) Lady Brute continued to make appearances and participate in exhibitions through the 1970s.
1974 – Dr. and Lady Brute attended Hollywood Decadence and Art’s Birthday, Elk's Lodge, Los Angeles, performing with the Brute Saxes. 1975 – A guest appearance with the Hummer Sisters in Toronto 1975 – Ace Space Show at the Western Front 1976 – Dr. and Lady Brute, an evening of film video, slides and performance at the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria
Performance groups In 1974, Craig was a founding member of the "ettes", a women's "postfeminist" performance group. They performed as the "Peanettes", a chorus of female peanut characters who each held a letter to spell the word "peanut", during Mr. Peanut's campaign for mayor of Vancouver. They also performed as the Coconettes and the Vignettes in 1975. She was a founder of the Lux Radio Players in 1974, a group involved in the collaborative writing and production of radio plays performed for live audiences and broadcast throughout North America over community radio stations until 1977. She was also a founding member of The Canadian Shadow Players in 1976, performing nationally and internationally until 1986.
Lux Radio Players 1974 – A Clear Cut Case at Western Front 1975 – A Bite Tonight, Planet of the Whales (for the sendoff party, first Green Peace Anti-Whaling expedition); and The Raw and the Plucked by Mary Beth Knechtel 1976 – Habitart, or How to Live with Your Just Desserts, commissioned by the Vancouver Art Gallery for the Habitat Festival 1976 – The Thief of Gladbag, commissioned and performed for the Judy Lamarsh Show on CBC Radio, at the Hotel Vancouver 1977 – Weather or Naught at the Western Front
Peanettes 1974 – performance with the Mr. Peanut's mayoral campaign
Vignettes 1975 – Amy Vanderbilt's Valentine's Ball at the Western Front Coconettes 1975 – Ace Space Show with Lady Brute at the Western Front
Canadian Shadow Players 1976 – The Exploits and Opinions of Dr. Faustroll, a commission by the City of Vancouver for the Habitat Festival, the production tours 1977 – The Exploits and Opinions of Dr. Faustroll at the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria 1978 – Vis-à-vis, a commission by The Music Gallery, Toronto, touring to Montreal, Ottawa, Hamilton, Vancouver and Victoria 1982 – Aka Nada, a commission by The Music Gallery, Toronto, touring to Montreal, Ottawa, Berlin, Santa Barbara, Innsbruck, and Lienz, Austria 1985 – Corpus Collossum, funded by the Department of External Affairs and the Holland Festival 1986 – The Pataphysics of Umbrology at the Centre for Creative Music, Mills College, Oakland, California
Performances 1973 – German T.V. Dinner, a performance by Western Front for German TV Network, film directed by Dr. W. von Bonin 1974 – Flying Leopard in Vancouver at Cates Park and on Hornby Island 1975 – Appeared as a Supreme Court judge in Errol’s Errors, Byron Black 1976 – 1980 – Guest spots on the HP dinner show, CFRO-FM, Vancouver 1976 – Presented solo evening of video, film and slides, Langton Street Gallery, San Francisco 1977 – Played drums for The Young Adults, a Vancouver-based punk band 1979 – A video of Flying Leopard on view at Video Inn during the Living Art Performance Festival, Vancouver 1979 – Performed At the End of the World, in collaboration with Hank Bull at the Robson Media Center, Vancouver 1980 – Appeared as a frumpy desk clerk in Colin Campbell's Peachland 1981 – Performed La Chaise des Memes, a shadow play in collaboration with Hank Bull 1982 – Appeared making a mandala in Ko Nakajima’s video Mandala 82 1984 – Appeared as herself in Marshalore’s video installation Album 1984 – Appeared as a flute player in Fraser Finlayson’s Come Fly with Sunny Day 1985 – Appeared as one of the respirating in Margaret Dragu’s video Breath
Photographic works 1977 – Flying Leopard, photo-serigraph on paper 18/24, Collection of the Burnaby Art Gallery
Solo exhibitions January 31 – May 3, 1998, Skin, Vancouver Art Gallery September 21 – October 20, 2002, Kate Craig, Charles H Scott Gallery
Group exhibitions February 14, 1989 – May 21, 1989: Rebel Girls: A Survey of Canadian Feminist Videotapes 1974–1988, National Gallery of Canada October 28 – November 1, 1998: Pinholes in Paradise: A Fundraiser for Presentation House Gallery January 24, 2000: Recollect, art from the permanent collection at the Vancouver Art Gallery
Costumes Lady Brute and Dr. Brute, 1972 Shark Fin Swimming Caps, c.1973 Rubber Skirt, c.1973 Pink Dress, 1975 Pink Shirt, 1975 Pink Shirt was another part of Pink Poem and followed a similar ideology to straight jacket. Pink Poem was a separation of Craig from Lady Brute with the goal to redefine her artistic practice. Pink Vest, 1977 Craig created Pink vest and wore for Young Adults (1977) video production.Young Adults was a single-channel video production showcasing an impromptu punk rock band that existed solely on videotape. The band members included Terry Ewasiuk, Elizabeth Vander Zaag, and Monica Holden-Lawrence on vocals, David Larson on guitar, Michael Wonderful on Mini-moog, Kate Craig on drums, Hank Bull on piano, and Monica Holden-Lawrence also contributing on cello. Piranha Farm, 1978