I’m currently visiting the Ceramics Department at the Canberra School of Art. As usual, there’s plenty of new ideas and things around. And the ‘Brindabella biter’ that blows in from the west keeps everyone on their toes. Last week I gave talk on ‘relational ceramics’, which developed partly out of a paper that I wrote … Continue reading What to make of relational craft
Opening address for the Taiwan Ceramics Biennale, Yingge Ceramics Museum, 3 May 2014, about the rise of creative destruction in contemporary ceramics.
In New Territories, Guillermo Bert displays his work with Mapuche weavers from his country of origin. His 2012 work Redemption is produced collaboratively with the weaver Anita Paillamil. It features a QR-Code that links to a Mapuche myth
Master batik artist Tony Dyer with a young Japanese textile student at the Semarang International Batik Festival in May 2013 One of the major events of 2014 will be the Golden Jubilee of the World Crafts Council, which will be held in Dongyan, China, 18-22 October. It will be very interesting to see how the … Continue reading What to make of 2014
The new publication Contemporary Jewelry in Perspective (Lark) helps realise the vision that Damian Skinner brought to his role as editor for Art Jewelry Forum (until 2012). As a New Zealander, Skinner has argued forcefully about the need to open contemporary jewellery up to perspectives from non-European cultures. According to his view, while the movement … Continue reading A spatial understanding of craft practice
Participation and Exchange (Brisbane, 12-14 July 2013) was the 15th JMGA conference since 1980. 33 years of sustained dialogue around contemporary jewellery is a remarkable achievement for relatively small population on the other side of the world to the main centres. The relative lack of collectors compared to the USA and Europe means that artists … Continue reading Jewellery for you, me and them
Mirror from Attempts at Describing Adornment Relational jewellery has taken a new step forward. Suse Scholem is at the radical edge of the Melbourne contemporary jewellery scene. A graduate of Monash University, she is steeped in feminist and psychoanalytic theories. Her previous show at Handheld Gallery in 2011 was Abject Object. It explored a feminist … Continue reading Suse Scholem–jewellery in other words
The view from inside the conference in Bergen Like Australia, Norway finds itself with a rare gift – a financial bounty stemming from non-renewable natural resources. The news analysis in Australia often invokes the Norwegian model as a responsible investment of this wealth for future needs. With the Making or Unmaking? conference, Norway was able … Continue reading Unmaking the Future–the aesthetics of post-industrial ceramics
The other day, a curator from Papua New Guinea was telling me about a particular custom of hospitality she grew up with called ‘hamal’. In certain circumstances, if a visitor expresses a liking for something that you possess, you are then obliged to give it to them. Clearly, this is a custom suited more to … Continue reading Every brooch has a catch
image Danius Kesminas embodies some of the wilder energies of the Australian cultural scene. The tireless Melbourne artist is very much embedded in the art world – his exhibitions in a cutting edge commercial art gallery quote from modernist art history. Yet Kesminas’ work is far from pretentious: his many projects set about attacking art’s … Continue reading Authentic punk, handmade with attitude in Indonesia
