42 | JUNE 22 • 2023 

S

arah Rose Sharp is 
exhibiting four exam-
ples of her fiber art 
projects as one artist among 
almost 50 whose work appears 
in “Stop Making 
Sense Plus One,
” 
the crafts show 
that continues 
through July 12 at 
the Janice Charach 
Gallery in the West 
Bloomfield Jewish 
Community Center. 
With material remnants 
and decorative enhancements, 
Sharp has made even more 
works for the gallery shop. 
“Stop Making Sense” was 

first organized in 2022 by 
Kim Harty, chair of Craft and 
Materials Studies at the College 
for Creative Studies in Detroit 
as well as designer and teacher 
in the skills of making glass. 
This year, Harty brings the art-
ists of that show back together, 
along with an additional invited 
artist of their choice.
“
As the title of the exhibit 
implies, each of the artists 
subverts our expectation of 
craft when they do things that 
stop making sense,
” Harty 
said. “They are fearless with 
material, adventurous with 
design, engaged in experiential 

aspects of craft and committed 
to expanding the scope of what 
is possible in their particular 
material discipline.
”
Two of Sharp’s works, both 
large and from 2016, have to do 
with representations inspired 
by flags and have been titled 
Shed Light and Farnsworth Flag. 
She described them as being 
the emblems of small, invisible 
nations. 
A newer image, That You 
May Have the Pleasure of 
Listening, is a more detailed 
work with women in a forest. 
The fourth, Dog Totem, was 
made in 2019 as a soft sculpture 
with two likenesses of dogs, 
one suggesting the wild and the 
other suggesting the domestic. 
Sharp moved to Detroit in 
2009 after traveling the country 
and seeking out a city she felt 
would provide work opportuni-
ties and sufficient time to com-
plete her artistry. As she settled 
into Detroit, she joined activi-
ties at Congregation T’
chiyah.
“There’s an outdated dichot-
omy between art versus craft,
” 
Sharp said. “
A lot of the forms, 
like fiber or glasswork, were 
considered crafts but not neces-
sarily art. One of the reasons for 
that is they have function, like 
pottery. I think that fiber art, in 
this case, is not needing to be 
functional, creating more room 
to see it as art.
”
Sharp’s works have 

ARTS&LIFE
ART

Sarah Rose 
Sharp

Sarah Rose Sharp, That You 
May Have the Pleasure of Listening, (detail) 2021-2023. 
Mixed-media fiber collage, beads, sequins, feathers, findings.

Details

“Stop Making Sense 
Plus One” appears 
through July 12 at the 
Janice Charach Gallery 
in the West Bloomfield 
Jewish Community 
Center. The free exhib-
it can be seen 11 a.m.-4 
p.m. Monday-Thursday. 
charachgallery.org. 

continued on page 43

Fiber artist Sarah Rose 
Sharp displays work at 
Janice Charach Gallery.
Contemporary

SUZANNE CHESSLER CONTRIBUTING WRITER

ABOVE: Sarah Rose Sharp. Dog 
Totem, 2020. Wooden spool, 
fabric, beads, embroidery 
thread, hem binding, batting, 
etc. Screenprints by Melissa 
Dettloff. 

