Hi, Gang! Tomorrow, Claire and I are off to CRAFTCON (still places available, by the way) in San Francisco. In addition to presenting the Extreme Craft lecture, I'll be participating in a panel on the divide between traditional "fine craft" and newer "DIY craft".
The fine craft and indie craft worlds seem to be on opposite ends of thespectrum, one valuing mastery of material, the other valuing that certain ethic. But are they really that opposed? This session will explore the ranges of value on offer from both worlds, and how they can complement rather than compete with each other. What characterizes the extremes of craft? What does it say about craft that it takes on so many guises?
What follows is a rambling response to Emily Howes, who was kind enough to put the panel together. I would love it if you, my dear readers would chime in. You calling me on my bullshit will only help make the panel better.
I'm coming at this from a decidedly
ceramic-centric point of view. A lot of what I have to say can be
extended to the rest of the craft world, though. When we're thinking
about studio craft (in America), it helps to outline the major booms in
craft during the 20th Century. The Arts and Crafts movement peaked
late in America--in the teens and 1920's. The next wave, as I see it,
was the postwar wave that infused studio craft with fine art...The
Black Mountain College is a great center point. The next wave during
the late 60's and early 70's is the one that most closely mirrors
today's craft explosion. Hobby craft, Hippie craft and fine craft all
flowered. The "Objects U.S.A." exhibit made the case that studio craft
qualified as fine art.
At
the same time, the placement of the arts within academia began to bear
fruit. The generation of studio crafters that learned their craft in
an art school environment made weird and thoughtful work that crossed
over into the "big boy" art world. The "Funk" ceramics movement played
with the idea of craft and gleefully took the piss out of the "low"
nature of art. As these artists continued their careers and dialog
with the art world, their work gained breadth and depth. A great
example is Ken Price, who started as a potter, but staged a conceptual
museum show at the LA County Museum of Art. Another example would be
Judy Chicago, who came at craft from the opposite side--grasping its
significance and ideological possibilities. "The Dinner Party" is an
example of an academically trained "fine" artist exploring "craft as
idea". I would also include the Pattern and Decoration movement in
this camp.
One of the signature exhibitions of the 80's was the "High & Low" show at the Pompidou Museum in Paris.
I can remember being fascinated by the wake that show left in the late
80's/early 90's. In the 80's/90's, all of the galleries and energies
that came from the 60's/70's ossified into a system of galleries that
comfortably dealt in fine craft to an affluent audience. As a student
at art school in the early 90's, I looked around at all of the silk
scarves, turquoise jewelry and shitty rainbow colored raku pottery in
these galleries and instantly found something to rebel against.
As
an art student, I sensed the "naughtiness" inherent in trying to put my
ideas across with pottery. Sure, I could do an installation with
sticks and unfired clay, but it felt dirtier somehow to make sloppy
wheel-thrown teapots with cartoons on them. The world of pottery in
the early 90's was filled with all sorts of rules and uptight "brown"
potters that were incredibly fun to take stabs at.
I thought I was the only one.
Whitney Lee, "Soft Porn" Latch hook rug
Little
did I know, there were PLENTY of others like me, making work that used
the "trojan horse" of Craft to carry subversive content. The internet,
of all things became the place where many of us found each other.
Simultaneously, the "DIY Craft" movement started to provide fuel for
the fire. Artists like myself who started out making subversive craft
became known in their individual fields as well as the larger art
world. Artists like myself have always felt as welcomed by the art
world as they have the craft world. I have always felt as
comfortable--more comfortable in fact, aiming my work at fine art
galleries rather than craft galleries.
The
current wave of craft artists are bored by the now antiquated idea of
the fabled "line between art and craft". We make work from craft
materials that is art because it is aimed at an art audience. Craft
artists of the previous wave (in ceramics at least) tend to want all of
the trappings of the art world while still aiming their work at craft
galleries. I've heard many a ceramist complain about lack of attention
and respect from the broader art world. They think that the Whitney is
going to swoop down and buy up all of their work from Joe Bob's Mud
Gallery and put it on display. Ceramic artists who have gotten
attention from the art world--Ken Price, Betty Woodman, Robert Arneson,
etc. all engaged the broader art world when building their career.
On
the other side, there are plenty of non-academically trained craft
artists who are making museum-worthy work. The internet provides a
forum for crafters to keep raising the bar for ambitious and savvy
work. There are plenty of "DIY Craft" artists who make work for craft
fairs, but also make work aimed at galleries--or often non-commercial
artwork that is subsidized by their more marketable craft fair work.
No big whoop.
So
what's happening now? Plenty of old-school studio crafters are by
equal measures bitter and curious about the current wave of craft.
They are circling the wagons to wall off subjects like fibers and
functional pottery from the advancing tide of "mixed media". Judging
from the number of "new craft" conferences sponsored by old guard
institutions like the American Craft Council, the established craft
world knows which way the wind is blowing, and are anxious to work with
(and profit from) DIY Craft.
What can be done to bring DIY crafters and old-school
studio crafters together? We need to realize that old-school "fine
craft" studio artists put a huge premium on craftsmanship. Their
self-esteem is related to their facility with (and relation to) their
materials. DIY artists tend to be more concerned with concepts and
their reasons for making craft. In the conversation on imogene.org
following Bruce Metcalf and Andrew Wagner's talk at the SNAG
conference, Tsia Carson called DIY crafters "thinly-veiled conceptual
artists", a statement I tend to agree with.
People on both sides need to
take a chill pill. The old schoolers need to realize that there will
always be geeky technicians who will carry the basic skills of
handicraft forward. Every ceramics class has a student lost in glaze
exploration or folk pottery forms. Craftsmanship is something that
evolves from a lifetime of working with one's hands. Sure, plenty of
DIY crafters are rolling up their sleeves and digging into techniques
that may have taken people years to learn in the past. Those same
people are integrating technology or even using technology as a (gasp)
shortcut. This may
be an anathema to the old school, but they need to realize that the
current wave of craft will lift everybody's boat. The more people that
start out buying handmade sushi barrettes at a craft fair, the more
people that will continue buying handmade through the rest of their
life--perhaps even the odd turned walnut bowl or piece of turquoise
jewelry.
At the moment, DIY Crafters tend to clamor for
"theory". Theory is sexy. There are some insanely smart and savvy
people in the craft community, and many seem to be waiting for the next
Foucault or Baudrillard to create a unification theory of craft to move
everyone forward. Theory has its place, but I would counter that Craft
needs to embrace Art History as never before. Craft history tends to
exist in a "decorative arts" ghetto that I think will look increasingly
irrelevant in ten or fifteen years. When Craft artists broaden their
knowledge of the past (which is only natural), their work becomes
deeper, weaving itself into the continuum of craft history.
DIY
Crafters are already incredibly savvy about branding and marketing.
This tendency makes it unlikely that the movement will be co-opted and
swallowed whole by the Martha Stewarts and American Craft Councils of
the world. CraftCon is a huge part of the solution. As handmade
continues to grow, artists who use Craft as their metaphor will only
gain currency in the art world. Just remember, we'll be the old dudes
soon enough. The DIY movement will certainly be followed by a backlash
that fetishizes the traditional. We'd all better start learning to
love some brown pots, burled walnut bowls and turquoise jewelry.
