Craft has become a buzz word. For the past decade, the profile of the handmade has been rising, even attracting big business, as luxury brands, food and drinks companies extol the talent of their artisans. How to define ‘craft’, however, is open to debate.
Once celebrated not only as producers of everyday objects, but also as artists, artisans gradually came to be seen as the skilled makers of functional items, who often used traditional materials and forms. Their work, although lauded by William Morris and the Arts-and-Crafts Movement in their rejection of the mass produced, increasingly fell out of favour. Artisans were skilled, yes, but what they did was not considered part of any intellectual debate or significant storytelling. Craft was not art.
Today, however, it has a very different status. The thrust now is on using materials and objects to investigate ideas and concepts and to tell meaningful stories about contemporary life. Craft is underpinned by intellectual investigation, powerful narrative and the development of materials and processes — head, heart and hand. ‘Contemporary craft is storytelling; about old methods and new materials; about the maker’s ideas and heritage,’ explains metalsmith Ane Christensen.
'Crumbling Wall Piece' in verdigris copper by Ane Christensen.
As a society, we no longer know how things are made. We do not perform or even witness the alchemy of materials being transformed into objects. We have, as Karl Marx predicted, been removed from the means of production, so the public is now fascinated by the process of making. It’s no wonder that luxury brands fall over themselves to imbue their products with the notion of the handmade.
Craft also appeals on a haptic level. Humans are hardwired to interpret the world by touch, yet, for many of us, this is reduced to tapping computer keys and moving a mouse. We miss that sensory input and handmade objects can give it to us. ‘In a digital world, we long for the tangible, meaningful and tactile,’ suggests Christensen. The lack of that routine stimulation accounts not only for the rise in interest in cooking and the growing number of people attending pottery classes or knitting bees, but in the desire to hold handmade objects.
T. F. Chan, the new director of the Craft Council’s forthcoming Collect Fair, an international selling exhibition of the best of contemporary craft, now in its 22nd iteration, maintains that: ‘As we become increasingly enmeshed in the digital world, craft helps us reconnect with the physical: tactility, material intelligence, the ingenuity of the human hand. Contemporary craft feels particularly compelling as it reframes time-honoured traditions through fresh imagination. It gives us an opportunity to create work that is unmistakably of our time, that future generations can look back on with admiration.’
'Fragile 1813' by Lee Jung Suk.
By its very nature, the handmade implies something unique — which, since the dawn of the 2000s, has proven to be a significant draw for those who can afford mass-produced objects, but want to stand out, a trend amplified by social media. The value of provenance has grown and knowing the stories of a piece of work and its maker adds value for the buyer, who becomes a collector. Grasping that full story has also become ever-more important in a world polluted by fake news, fake truths and — increasingly — artificial intelligence. ‘Talking to people involved in tech about AI,’ says cultural consultant Jenny White, ‘there is a growing sense of distrust. That means that there is a revived desire for authenticity, so craft is seen as real and tangible. Seeing the work in front of you is the antidote to AI and the world we can’t control and to which we haven’t given consent.’
Craft relates to the human, the individual and the personal. It is high quality, intelligent and beautifully constructed. The work of many of today’s makers not only has meaning, but it is shaped by hand, with skill. It looks good, feels good and can be used, sitting on the continuum between fine art and design — and, interestingly, leading fine artists have jumped on the bandwagon to use craft skills in their own work, albeit not always successfully. Craft is still considerably more affordable than fine art—something Christensen maintains ought to change. ‘[It] needs to be seen on a level with fine art, as an investment that can hold its value.’
Celtic Vase by Sean Evelegh
That is seemingly the direction of travel: ‘Look at the prices of craft objects in auction houses, they’re going up and up and up,’ notes Simon Fraser, director of the MA Design at Central Saint Martins, London. ‘Craft is moving into a collectible, socially acceptable phase.’ He sees design shop JW Anderson’s establishment of the Loewe Foundation Craft Prize, for ‘newness, excellence and artistic merit in modern craft’, rewarding the winner with €50,000, as an important influence in making craft desirable. (This year’s Loewe Prize exhibition will take place at the National Museum of Singapore from mid May.)
Until prices go up, interesting and affordable work will be on show at the Collect Fair (February 27 – March 1), with some 40 galleries, not only from the UK, but also from Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and China, as well as European contributions from Ireland and Poland. ‘Craft,’ believes Chan, ‘is having a moment because it pushes back against our culture of disposability.
In this era of abundance and stimulation, people are yearning for artworks and objects that genuinely enrich and elevate our lives — made with care, rich with meaning and able to stand the test of time.’