Originally published in The Voice of San Francisco in May 2025
This summer the Museum of Craft and Design (MCD) presents two eclectic exhibitions drawing on story, myth and tradition. A Roadmap to Stardust is a modern inquiry into the cosmos and humankind’s eagerness to explore distant planets. Beau McCall: Buttons On! showcases wearable and visual art from McCall’s nearly forty-year career.
A Roadmap to Stardust
This visual experience, conceived by artists Neil Forrest and John Roloff (collaboratively known as OortCloudX), is based on astronomy, the most ancient of the natural sciences. Humans have examined the stars since the beginning of existence, and astrological beliefs entwine with our religions and mythologies. Future stargazing could take on an urgent tone as Earth’s changing climate makes the planet less inhabitable by our species. Aligning with these ideas, A Roadmap to Stardust unfolds as an origin story around the excavation of an imagined archaeological site. Faux-historical artifacts hint at the discovery of the first telescope, assembled from a compilation of Greek amphora, crocodile skulls, warrior gear, and early technologies.
Inspired by the famous Mesopotamian Epic of Gilgamesh, wherein the titular character embarks to reveal the secret to everlasting life, the immersive installation reimagines the characters in a present-day narrative informed by popular culture and science fiction. Dioramas and cinematic murals tell the stories of past and future: a past in which the “Sumerians” built the telescope to scour the night sky and a future in which puppet astronauts arrive on an unnamed, distant planet. OortCloudX uses this alternative archaeology to see Western and non-Western cultures as a basis for artistic investigation into manifest destiny and ecological anxiety.
Beau McCall: Buttons On!
The hand-sewn functional object known as the button gets a glamorous new lease on life in the hands of Beau McCall’s Buttons On! The everyday fastener is applied onto mostly upcycled fabrics, materials, and objects to comment on topics related to pop culture and social justice. McCall’s button-embellished wearable art includes jackets, sneakers, jewelry, and durags: visual art such as a 450-pound cast iron bathtub, a life-size Kool-Aid Man; archival materials documenting McCall’s Career; and select items of McCall’s button-less works spotlight the artist’s versatility.
“In most minds, buttons are simple, utilitarian objects used to fasten one’s clothes,” McCall explains. “But I use buttons to create wearable and fine art meant to provoke deep consideration and reflection. Through my creations, I want people to engage with the topics of race, class, LGBTQ+ identity and to also find joy and personal connection. Hopefully, viewers are inspired as they consider how an everyday object, in this case, a button can be transformed into art.”
Identity, memory and resilience underline the works on view which are organized into four themes exploring “The Button Man’s” mastery of his chosen medium. Buttons on the Body explores nearly forty years of button-embellished wearable art including vests, yokes, shorts, and aprons. Buttons on the Mind features over ten years of visual art created by McCall using buttons as a primary medium. Elevating the button from the practical to the conceptual, pieces such as the button-covered cast iron bathtub suggests a spiritual and ritualistic sanctuary. A large-scale 45 RPM record adapter snap-in insert is inspired by the Staple Singers’ recording of “We The People,” and the song’s emphasis on freedom and unity. Another installation of over 100 jars of buttons features oral history recordings by button collectors. Buttons on the Soul is a collection of archival materials documenting McCall’s career and evolution. Never-before-seen personal photographs, press clippings, sewing supplies and a replica of the jar of buttons he discovered at the age of 19 tell the personal story of the artist’s process. A timelapse film of McCall sewing buttons onto a durag shows the methodical process behind his button art. Buttons off showcases select items from McCall’s forays into wearable and visual art that do not feature clothing buttons, extending his practice into other areas that highlight the diversity of his craft.