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Creative impulse of craft curator: craft practice as a continuous journey
Get PDFThis paper deepens the understanding of the ontology of craft curation and the reason for being. I explore curation as research, reflecting on Peter Bjerregaard’s concept of exhibition as research. Bjerregaard argues that exhibitions require to move away from the notion of knowledge, as based primarily in text, and turn knowledge into text’s material and spatial arrangement. The arrangement of the exhibition is linked with the stage setup, the mise-en-scène. This paper approaches mise-en-scène curatorial process, as has been denoted by textiles scholar Professor Lesley Millar, and explores new frameworks interpreting craft and curatorial models that shift focus towards the agency of objects, thereby exposing alternate models of relationality. I will evidence that by using exhibition as research and by considering the character of the objects (process of making and material) as well as the mise-en-scène, the exhibition serves as a form of contextualisation for crafts.
The paper emphasises new dynamics by challenging the traditional role of the craft curator and compares it to an auteur, as seen in film practice. I will discuss mise-en-scène as the site where the craft or the viewer performs. The paper draws from Glenn Adamson in considering crafts not as ‘a fixed category,’ but rather as ‘an active, relational concept,’ embodied most powerfully in skill, ‘a process’ that ‘only exists in motion’ (Adamson, 2007:3-4).
This presentation examines two curatorial projects: Makers’ Tale at Salisbury Arts Centre (2020-2021) and Hidden History at South Hill Park, Bracknell (2020). These projects share the commonality of revealing human connections that exist in objects, echoing Adamson’s: ‘Every object represents a potential social connection. By better understanding the tangible things in our lives, we better understand our fellow humans’ (Adamson, 2018:8).
Both projects are inspired by craft within buildings, considering that buildings act as time capsules and the craft within them are still located as the practitioners intended. The buildings are not separate from their environment or seen as isolated single objects but rather have resonance that survives time. One of the doctrines offered by this paper is that craft practice is a continuous journey that mutates and transcends to adapt to the needs of each society.
In particular, Makers’ Tale was informed by the octocentenary anniversary of Salisbury Cathedral, marking the laying of the foundation stones on 28 April 1220, an act of strength, and craftsmanship. The act of skills sharing is manifested within the Cathedral’s works department where masters have passed on their knowledge undisrupted since 1220.
Makers’ Tale highlighted the persistence of craft knowledge through textiles and ceramics, as well as with a new music composition titled Plangency, specifically commissioned for the project.
Hidden Histories was an installation of miniature vessels by textiles artist Alison Baxter, inspired by the overlooked stories of the women inhabitants at South Hill Park, a historic Victorian mansion in Bracknell, Berkshire.
This project proposed a different narrative about South Hill Park’s women inhabitants through contemporary textiles, reflecting on the creative medium’s unique history, closely intertwined with social, cultural, and political values.
My paper will demonstrate that dialogue has a resonance into developing new narratives. Both projects employed this approach to develop narratives and commentary between the traditional, contemporary practice and the exhibition-making space resulting in an on-going exchange.
Through the development of these new practices, the curator’s practice is expanded, where new knowledge together with skills are acquired. A curatorial craft approach emphasised human skills, including a mastery of technique and the ability to use multiple skills to control the making process from start to finish. Moreover, it required embodied knowledge, i.e. knowledge not only from conceptual skills, but also from practical, tacit and contextual knowledge.
The analysis of these exhibitions demonstrates how contemporary craft curation makes room for pluralistic practices that combine and cross, formerly distinct borders, disciplines, materials, techniques, and histories. Considering Makers’ Tale and Hidden Histories process of the curatorial, demonstrates two key points, the prominence of craft to people and organisations and the way this relationship is articulated through the curatorial. Moreover, the impact of craft curatorial practice in the audiences’ experience and engagement
Nationality of food: cultural politics on the UNESCO list of intangible cultural heritages and food museums
No full textDoes food have a nationality? What if several countries share a similar food culture, and which country can claim the food as its own? This research explores how cultural items such as food belong to particular nations when they are shared by several countries and why nations claim a certain type of culture as theirs.
Just as many European nations in the nineteenth century, East Asian countries claim and appropriate cultural items as their own, and this phenomenon of cultural appropriation often causes national disputes as the origins of the cultures are not known due to their entangled history, geographical proximity and even climate similarity. This research examines narratives of belonging found in the active promotion of food culture exemplified through entities such as the UNESCO List of Intangible Cultural Heritage and food museums. To answer how countries claim culture as theirs, Hobsbawm and Ranger’s invention of tradition and Foucault’s system of exclusion will be applied to the current trend of cultural appropriation.
The study also explores why countries appropriate food culture. Often it is a necessary step for modernizing nations to invent cultural traditions because it provides viable solutions to internal problems which are created in the process of modernization. National culture provides a sense of national identity and unity, confirms the legitimacy of the government, and even annihilates a sense of historical responsibility; reasons which are often required in East Asian nations due to rampant colonization, political crimes under dictatorships or otherwise non-democratic nations, and the reality of being a relatively newly developed or developing nation state. Therefore, emerging countries which newly gained economic power often benefit from food disputes.
While probing how and why nations appropriate culture, it is demonstrated how the UNESCO List of Intangible Cultural Heritage and food museums attempt to cease controversial debate on the origin. The authenticity of these institutions convinces people to misbelieve that recently invented culture is old or an authentic tradition, therefore, to believe that food belongs to a certain nation
Made in Italy and made for America: craft in Italy at work
Get PDFThis chapter considers concepts of authenticity and italianità in the seminal exhibition Italy at Work, which toured the USA between 1950 and 1953. While all exhibits were made in Italy, they were created for different audiences and by different authors with competing and often contrasting visions for post-WWII Italy, and the place of craft and design in this. Implicated with Italy’s post war ricostruzione and Marshall Plan politics, these included creating objects for American consumers through the exhibition’s retail campaigns in American department stores such as Macy’s, as well as the intervention of individuals such as Gio Ponti and organisations who sought to modernise Italy’s craft traditions. These processes expose the uneven power relationships between craft and design in Italy, and between Italy and the USA, in the immediate post-war period.
This chapter also explores how certain makers were praised for their “sincerity of craftsmanship” and singled out for their Italian-ness. Building on archival research, this paper seeks to move on the debate around Italy at Work by mobilising contemporary craft and decolonial theories to problematise concepts of italianità and authenticity in the exhibition and consider how these informed craft and design’s trajectory from the 1950s onwards
Farnham Meadows
No full textFarnham Meadows is a moving image and sound artefact exploring the history of land tenure of meadows from the 17th century to the present in the vicinity of the small town of Farnham, Surrey. Using diverse visual sources – 17th century estate plans and a drone - the work explores the palimpsest of representations of space and social relationships that shape this material environment. It presents the traces of the remaking and dispossession of meadow farmland in this corner of Surrey from strip farmers to property ownership. This project is a collaboration between academics at UCA Farnham, the Museum of Farnham, and local historians
The Herbs of the Commons Became Weeds, the Women of the Commons Became Witches
Get PDFAmanda facilitates a participatory performance, 'The Herbs of the Commons Became Weeds, the Women of the Commons Became Witches' to explore and celebrate the wild plants that women would have used as food and medicine. Together participants and host will infuse hot water with rosehips and imbibe the brew whilst reflecting on the relationship to our bodies, the land, and wild plants, their nourishment and healing.
Through foraging, food preparation, drinking and discussion, the workshop aims to unearth, revive and disseminate knowledge lost by our being severed from the land and our ancestors of wise women who were persecuted, tortured, and killed during the witch trials of the 16th and 17th centuries, to make and re-make the commons.
The wild rose, a thorny clamberer of the hedgerows, with its ‘hip’ fruit that is potentially still available in November/December, symbolises the problematic and challenging times that we find ourselves in as well as these dark histories. Through the creative act of making and drinking the herbal tea we might absorb the knowledge of the rose as it infuses and flows through our bodies enabling the stories of our kinship to plants, land and healing to pour out in the safe space ‘sub rosa’.
Prior to the seminar, you will be invited to forage for some rosehips, or to request some foraged and prepared by Amanda*. Your rosehip tea can be made from fresh or dried hips. During the session, you will need a vessel to boil water in and a vessel to drink from
Intersectionality and creative business education: inclusive and diverse cultures in pedagogy
No full textCreative Business Education is emerging rapidly to address the needs of the creative industries including digital media, journalism, advertisement, music, marketing, films, fashion and sports business etc. Inclusive educational praxis, decolonial knowledge traditions and diverse curriculums are central to egalitarian economic development and human empowerment. As such, this edited volume explores how creative business education specifically can help to build a more diverse and inclusive environment for an increasingly diverse body of students and faculty. It discusses how students can be encouraged to succeed and excel, reflecting on the need for academic pedagogies to embrace greater inclusivity for diverse cultures.
Advancing different theoretical trends within intersectionality and the limits of its praxis, contributors deal with different forms of inequalities based on class, gender, race, religion and belief, sexual orientation, and disabilities in teaching and learning. It is important to articulate and outline the critical lineages of intersectionality within creative business education and its progressive potentials for pedagogical transformation
Archive Album and Other Images
Get PDFArchive/ Album and Other Images (2022 36’) is an autoethnographic artist film that asks of questions of the encounter with a family archive and its relation to the current time. In this way the relationship between the archive and the future (Derrida) and social construction of the photographic event can inform an investigation of the intersection of biography and visualisation
Books bleeding out of the screen: engaging with imaginary books on screen through replicas
Get PDFImaginary books are books that do not exist except as components of other fictional narratives. This paper surveys the complex interplay between imaginary books featured in screen narratives and physical books written to replicate them. The paper first discusses the functions and portrayals of imaginary books on screen. It explores different approaches to transforming imaginary books, especially imaginary books of fiction into official diegetic extensions as part of transmedia storytelling practices. It then examines how fans replicate imaginary books physically and textually based on these portrayals. It concludes with a discussion of how these transformations provide alternative readings of screen narratives
Fibroheal: the silk route to wound care
No full textFibroheal Woundcare Pvt. Ltd. (Fibroheal) was the first company in India in the medical device sector to utilize the biomedical properties of silk. Launched in 2017, it focused on providing effective wound care to patients in a cost-effective manner. Fibroheal’s unique value proposition lay in its sustainable approach, ensuring balance across social, economic, and environmental dimensions. Results showed that Fibroheal's products could reduce wound-healing time by almost half. By the end of 2021, Fibroheal had about 15 products in its kit covering acute, chronic, and post-operative wounds. It had also engaged more than 1,000 farmers, as well as over 150 hospitals in more than 20 states across the country, and was affecting over 50,000 patients. However, there were challenges around building trust among stakeholders in the medical device market, where big multinational firms were already operating. Considering the challenges, how could Fibroheal expand in the medical device market under its founder’s strategic leadership? How could the company build on the existing positive customer responses? What should be the firm’s expansion strategy
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