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- Title of Abstract:
At Home with Craft (Ref #224)
- Date:
- 27-10-2006 09:28:45
- Status:
-
Accepted
- Rating:
- 8
-
Details:
- This paper will be accompanied by an exhibition - the proposal to be submitted Monday.
At Home with Craft
Conference Themes addressed:
Epistemology of making; Craft and the economy; Craft and cultural diversity; Practice and research; Intelligent making; The pedagogy of craft; Craft and wellbeing; Craft and manufacturing; Intuition, Creativity and Craft; Mindfulness; Craft & Dialogue; Story-making and Storytelling.
?Craft-based practice is a socially interactive process despite being a predominantly individually executed product?
In spite of the recent surge of critical writing on the applied arts, little has been published on the consumption of craft, due in part to the private nature of collecting and commissioning of craft pieces.
This paper will assess the implications of context on the meaning of the craft object, and analyse the dialogue between maker and user and object during (and after) the commissioning process, using empirical research gained during the ongoing ?At Home? project, a collaboration between a crafts development agency, regional museums, local people, a writer and a photographer.
Through an induction process consisting of discussions, studio and gallery visits, and workshops with regional makers, groups of local people identify and commission makers through direct discussion and studio visits. The project explores the capacity of craft to be quietly radical, a subtle interloper within the everyday home. The documentation of this project, of the commissions in home spaces, records the rich and complex juxtapositions of objects that are characteristic of ordinary life.
In ?The Persistence of Craft?, Paul Greenhalgh acknowledges that ?works of art are not objects, works of art are relationships between people and objects?, commenting not only on the deeply problematic environments that museums and galleries provide for the meaningful engagement with art but also the greater difficulty they present for crafts with its intimate relationship between person, material and function. The domestic milieu, closely connected to both production and consumption, is more rightly presented as craft?s appropriate and rewarding context.
The paper will explore the continued relevance of the domestic environment for the display and consumption of craft and the capacity of craft objects to connect people to place, experiences, material, to others and themselves, and articulate unconscious as well as conscious values and interests. It offers an opportunity to uncover and explore people?s own attitudes to craft, at times informed by amateur making, and the values given to technique and making.
Drawing on critical theory (Bourdieu, Baudrillard, Rochberg-Halton among others) the paper will analyse the outcomes of the ?At Home? project in terms of cultural capital, habitus, context, dialogue, private and public display.
Andy Horn (MA Cantab, MA Leicester), Craftspace, Kate McIntyre MA(RCA), Buckinghamshire Chilterns University College
Nikki Grange, Exhibitions and Education Manager, Rugby Art Gallery and Museum
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?At Home? developed through a partnership between Craftspace, Bilston Craft Gallery and the Qube Oswestry, working together with the Bridge Street Group and Project Group, Oswestry in 2002. A following project, a partnership between Craftspace and Rugby Art Gallery and Museum, working together with the Mayday Trust and Jacea Club, is currently in production.
Reviewer Comments: