Crafts in a Muddle 1 2 3 4 5 6 - PRINTER VERSION
>> papermaker Winifred Lutz all use traditional craft mediums without leaning heavily on either overt technical virtuosity or craft forms for emphasis. Their work is understood in the fine art context and relies on the discourse within that field for its significance. This does not make their work avant-garde craft but simply fine art. Sheila Hicks' and Glenn Kaufman's textiles, on the other hand, need to be looked at in the context of craft. The impact of their work relies on one's knowledge of traditional techniques and use of materials as well as a knowledge of the historical references they employ. Their work is beautiful, but not decorative, and best reveals this beauty in private encounters in daily life rather than in a chance encounter in a brightly lit gallery in SoHo. Quite a bit of the work included in this category, unfortunately, seems to be nothing more than fine art trends in craft materials. The result produced something like the feeling one experiences while attending a baseball game in Japan: you find yourself in the uncomfortable position of always having to second-guess your perceptions about something you thought you were totally familiar with.
"The Object Made for Use" category was made up predominantly of furniture. This was a result of Smith's belief that there is a "growing interest in making unique items designed for specific functions", and he believes this renewed enthusiasm for the functional is particularly evident in furniture making. It is unfortunate that most of the craftspeople in this category merely use function as a nail on which to hang their egotistical, slavishly technique oriented and conceptually weak work on. Thomas Loeser's Chest of Drawers and Peter Shire's Rod and Transit and Hourglass Teapot, for example, offer no new insights into the aesthetic dilemma of either furniture or teapots. What they do offer is a self-indulgent form of individual expression that cannot be taken as substantive or serious in either the fine art or craft contexts. Living with either work would be like living with a loudmouth braggart that always insists you see things his way. Gary Griffin's Cap Gun, Roses, and Middle America succeeds where Loeser's and Shire's works fail. Griffin fills his gate (and it is a gate) with personal imagery that is neither sentimental nor overtly self-referential. Technique supports his ideas and brings them to fruition instead of becoming an end in itself. Function is the device he uses to lure the viewer into his world rather than an excuse to remain in the craft field.
Smith really stretched the boundaries of the "Use" category by including Glenn Simpson's Number Two Shovel (a shovel entirely conventional in appearance but made of sterling silver and 14-karat gold with a hickory handle) and J. Fred Woell's Aero Setdown and All¼s Calm on the Western Front (both are similar to commemorative spoons; the handle of the former is composed of aircraft wreckage with a human arm extending from it, while the latter's handle is a soldier's body in the prone firing position). These pieces, in both appearance and title, are so obviously conceptual in nature that one has to wonder again what kind of curatorial justification Smith could possibly put forward to warrant their placement in "The Object Made for Use", Smith even seems to anticipate such criticism by saying in the catalogue, "Inevitably, when some 300 works are sorted into categories, gray areas result." Unfortunately Craft Today left one begging for a little more black and white instead of the shadowy gray areas Smith produced.
"The Object as Vessel" and "The Object as Adornment" both shared many of the same problems of the two previous categories. In the "Object as Vessel", for instance, Smith included three large outdoor
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© 1980 - 2024 Rob Barnard . All Rights Reserved. Site design: eismontdesign
>> papermaker Winifred Lutz all use traditional craft mediums without leaning heavily on either overt technical virtuosity or craft forms for emphasis. Their work is understood in the fine art context and relies on the discourse within that field for its significance. This does not make their work avant-garde craft but simply fine art. Sheila Hicks' and Glenn Kaufman's textiles, on the other hand, need to be looked at in the context of craft. The impact of their work relies on one's knowledge of traditional techniques and use of materials as well as a knowledge of the historical references they employ. Their work is beautiful, but not decorative, and best reveals this beauty in private encounters in daily life rather than in a chance encounter in a brightly lit gallery in SoHo. Quite a bit of the work included in this category, unfortunately, seems to be nothing more than fine art trends in craft materials. The result produced something like the feeling one experiences while attending a baseball game in Japan: you find yourself in the uncomfortable position of always having to second-guess your perceptions about something you thought you were totally familiar with.
"The Object Made for Use" category was made up predominantly of furniture. This was a result of Smith's belief that there is a "growing interest in making unique items designed for specific functions", and he believes this renewed enthusiasm for the functional is particularly evident in furniture making. It is unfortunate that most of the craftspeople in this category merely use function as a nail on which to hang their egotistical, slavishly technique oriented and conceptually weak work on. Thomas Loeser's Chest of Drawers and Peter Shire's Rod and Transit and Hourglass Teapot, for example, offer no new insights into the aesthetic dilemma of either furniture or teapots. What they do offer is a self-indulgent form of individual expression that cannot be taken as substantive or serious in either the fine art or craft contexts. Living with either work would be like living with a loudmouth braggart that always insists you see things his way. Gary Griffin's Cap Gun, Roses, and Middle America succeeds where Loeser's and Shire's works fail. Griffin fills his gate (and it is a gate) with personal imagery that is neither sentimental nor overtly self-referential. Technique supports his ideas and brings them to fruition instead of becoming an end in itself. Function is the device he uses to lure the viewer into his world rather than an excuse to remain in the craft field.
Smith really stretched the boundaries of the "Use" category by including Glenn Simpson's Number Two Shovel (a shovel entirely conventional in appearance but made of sterling silver and 14-karat gold with a hickory handle) and J. Fred Woell's Aero Setdown and All¼s Calm on the Western Front (both are similar to commemorative spoons; the handle of the former is composed of aircraft wreckage with a human arm extending from it, while the latter's handle is a soldier's body in the prone firing position). These pieces, in both appearance and title, are so obviously conceptual in nature that one has to wonder again what kind of curatorial justification Smith could possibly put forward to warrant their placement in "The Object Made for Use", Smith even seems to anticipate such criticism by saying in the catalogue, "Inevitably, when some 300 works are sorted into categories, gray areas result." Unfortunately Craft Today left one begging for a little more black and white instead of the shadowy gray areas Smith produced.
"The Object as Vessel" and "The Object as Adornment" both shared many of the same problems of the two previous categories. In the "Object as Vessel", for instance, Smith included three large outdoor
>>
© 1980 - 2024 Rob Barnard . All Rights Reserved. Site design: eismontdesign