Contemporary Craft: Curating, Collecting, Critical Writting

by Fiona Byrne

Last Saturday at Collins Barracks the Crafts Council of Ireland, the National Museum of Ireland and The National College of Art and Design held a conference examining the critical concerns around contemporary craft.

This day was divided into three main sections: curating, collecting and writing. During the day much was said and many issues affecting craft and craft makers were raised.

The key note speaker was Martina Margetts, senior tutor in Critical and Historical Studies at the Royal College of Art in London. She spoke about how constructing narratives around a subject always involves a form of editing. The key in her opinion is to be aware of our frames of reference and our own contexts as we write, curate or collect.

She also asked us to reflect on the question of who are the outsiders in these contexts and why? Citing Judith Scott as an example of outsider art (Scott has Down’s-Syndrome, is deaf and mute) she asked us to really consider what makes someone an outsider and are we facilitating this in our own contexts as makers, writers, curators or collectors. The choices we make with regard to representation as hugely important. Margetts emphases the ability of objects to connect us to the world and enable sense making, but what objects are we being presented with to make sense of whose world?

Juidth Scott textiles

I would like to focus in on the writing section of the day which, although it focused on craft, it contained many insights which could be universally applied. Gemma Tipton was first to speak on the topic of writing about art and craft. Her warning to the audience: be careful with how we use words and what we do and what we think we do with words. She expressed her love of writing but also her awareness of ‘how awful words can be’.

Our experiences are mostly mediated and communicated through words and using the wrong ones can have a lasting effect. We understand our past through words, so we should ensure we are using the correct ones.

Her dislike of ‘art speak’ and jargon was clearly articulated, though she does admit that there is a need for a technical language for ease of communicating. However, she feels this language is being misused and being used for exclusion rather than communication. She gives the tongue in cheek example of a ‘tea-pot’ versus ‘an interactive drinking vessel’.

There is a real risk with the language used to describe art and craft today of putting people on the ‘other side’ of the conversation rather than drawing them into it. Isn’t it the role of art to draw in the viewer and make them feel or think something, why then should the narrative around the work be different?

Tipton leaves us with the thought, words influence and we should be careful what we use this influence for.

The next speaker, Joe Hogan, master basket weaver, might seem an unlikely speaker at this stage of the day. He sees himself primarily as a maker and spoke openly about the difficulty of dragging himself away from his making to write. He often has to deprive himself of willow rods so that he has no option but to write!

This said he is well aware of the power of words and the need to be able to communicate what you do. Though his writing career has been somewhat sporadic, his policy of writing if and when he has something to say, is one to be commended.

Hogan is a strong advocate for traditional skills. He often reproduces historical baskets to better understand the objects. This hands-on approach to research demonstrates a real connection to the past. This connection has impacted on his own practice too, allowing him more freedom to experiment with new materials.

He spoke of feeling like one of the outsiders Margett spoke of. Many makers working in traditional techniques feel undervalued in today’s contemporary craft context. He asks does it always have to be new to be contemporary?

Wrapping up the writers section was Eleanor Flegg a writer who is definitely taking a new approach to writing about craft. She is currently working on a ceramic sci-fi adventure. This book grew out of a request to write a book about the potter Jack Doherty.

She describes the process as a result of dialogue between two people becoming dialogue between two bodies of work. The concept of ‘writing in parallel’ to a craft practice has allowed Flegg to shed, what she described, as the ‘strait jacket’ of the biography and release herself into a world of enchanting proes.

She began by writing about a pot which stirred negative feeling in her and she wished to resolve these feeling through the writing process. This writing then took on a life of its own.

Flegg is softly spoken and makes you lean in and hang on her words, which are rich in description. She brings us on a journey with a girl searching for the land of dreams, to met Blind Bob and share a raspberry flavoured plum jam wagon wheel and then on to then on to the home of a retired archaeologist who speaks about the voices contained within objects.

Jack Doherty, Keeper Pots

During this reading we were able to "met" the keeper pot which began this novel writing process. The pot, stolen from a dream, was being passed slowly and carefully through the room as Flegg read words which it had inspired.

Each of the speakers draws from different backgrounds and contexts but all understand the significance of language. They understand the legacy that words can leave and are conscious not to abuse this power. Tipton emphases the choice of language, Hogan the choice of topic and Flegg the genre of communication. They have all found their own way of navigating the world of craft through words and raised some very interesting considerations along the way.