CRAFT HARD, DIE FREE:RADICAL CURATORIAL STRATEGIES FOR CRAFTIVISM IN UNRULY CONTEXTS
By Anthea Black and Nicole Burisch
Wednesday, December 12th, 2007, 7:00 pm
A version of this paper was recently presented at the New Craft Future Voices conference being held at the University of Dundee from July 4th to 6th, 2007 (http://newcraftfuturevoices.com/).
This paper has also been accepted for publication in the upcoming anthology Extra/ordinary: Craft Culture and Contemporary Art edited by Maria Elena Buszek and published by Duke University Press.
Abstract:
The current academic and popular interest in Craftivism and politically engaged crafting practices calls for discussion of productive strategies to maintain their radical potential. Including examples from the activist, craft, academic, and fine art communities, this talk will present the work of several artists/crafters who engage with the following ideas and methods.
While Craft historians, Feminist historians and fine craft practitioners argue for the recognition of craft within art and academic dialogues, crafty supplies are simultaneously mass produced and packaged as hobby-commodities for affluent consumers, and craft practices are appropriated into the mainstream marketing of alternative and DIY 'lifestyles.' In addition, the accessibility of global communication networks have contributed to the increased sharing of craft knowledge and skills, and created an overall democratization of crafting practices. The rise of Craftivism – which often values the radical potential of a particular craft rather than its finished end product – shifts traditional emphasis away from polished, professionally-made craft objects themselves and towards the political and conceptual focus, positioning, and deployment of this work. The rapid surge in Craftivist practices offers an opportunity for new approaches and discussions of feminism/crafts (wo)manship, queer crafting, tacit knowleges and skill sharing, DIY, anti-capitalism and activism.
Within this new mélange of re-politicized crafting there is an important and increasing need to critically consider the ways in which new types of craft, hobby-craft, and craft/art-hybrids simultaneously impact and exist outside of current strategies of fine art/fine craft display and discourse. As such, this talk will propose curatorial strategies that seek to maintain unruly spaces as potential locations for Craftivism, and that contribute to a re-politicization of these spaces and cultures of display.
Author Bios:
Anthea Black is an artist, art writer and cultural worker based in Calgary, Alberta. She has attended NSCAD, ACAD, The Banff Centre, and several conferences on contemporary art and Artist Run Culture. Her projects have been exhibited throughout Canada, and her writing has been published by FFWD Weekly, Bordercrossings, FUSE, and through the Artist Run community in Calgary and beyond. She has held positions as the Director of Stride Gallery, a Board member of ARCCC/CCCAA, President of M:ST Performative Art Festival, is the co-editor of Shotgun-Review.ca and on the program committee for Fairy Tales International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival. In 2007, she launched looking for love in all the wrong places, a series of posters by queer artists for public spaces.
Nicole Burisch is an Alberta-based artist, critic, and cultural worker with a strong interest in contemporary craft theory. A graduate of the Alberta College of Art and Design’s Ceramics programme, her current research focuses on the intersections of contemporary art, craft, and activist practices. She has presented and published writing on this topic for several local and international conferences and publications, most recently in the anthology Utopic Impulses: Essays in Contemporary Ceramics. Burisch’s writing on contemporary craft and art has been published by FFWD Weekly, TRUCK Gallery, The New Gallery, spur magazine and Ceramics Art and Perception. Along with Anthea Black, she is currently the co-editor of Shotgun-Review.ca, an online web journal with reviews and images of fine art events, projects, and exhibitions in Calgary and Alberta.
CONTEMPORARY ART SOAPBOX SERIES
The TRUCK Contemporary Art Soap Box Series is a multi facetted approach to fostering dialogue surrounding contemporary art through a number of public presentations about current art production, curation, and art writing and criticism within Calgary. Artists, curators, local critics, and journalists will be taking part in these presentations. Each group of presenters will bring to the discussion a part of the larger ‘picture’ that is contemporary art in Calgary and assemble the big picture through this public forum for discussion.
