The jewellery scene in Chile has been growing strongly in recent years. A large number of new outlets for art and designer jewellery have opened in Santiago, including work that draws from distinctively Chilean forms, such as the horse-hair weaving known as crin.
At the end of 2009, Chile held its first national jewellery competition. Organised [...]
Crin is one of Chile’s most distinctive folk crafts. In markets around the country you will find delicate forms, often taking the shape of insects, woven out of dyed horsehair. Despite its distribution around the country, almost all Crin originates from a small town called Rari.
Crin appeared mysteriously around 200 years ago, as local women [...]
Like most other colonies, the nation of Chile was established through a forced dispossession of Indigenous peoples from their land. One group proved particularly hard to displace. Prior to the arrival of the Spanish, the Mapuche had successful resisted an invasion from the Incas. After this, they held off the Spanish for nearly 300 years, [...]
‘The rich swell up with pride, the poor from hunger.’
Sholom Aleichem
As we saw a ‘linguistic turn’ transform humanities in the late 20th century, on our side of the millennium it seems that we are witnessing a wave of cultural accountability – an ‘ethical turn’.
Culture is no longer ‘innocent’ of politics. An artist cannot draw inspiration [...]
It’s great to see the students at the University of Valparaiso continuing to embrace creative challenges that people like Professor Gunther throw at them.
I presented a workshop on the theme of El Mundo de las Cositas, in relation to the World of Small Things exhibition that is being developed for Craft Victoria next [...]
There was a mesmerising exhibition at the Palacio de Moneda of artifacts from the Arica region in the north of Chile. Among the wonderful works of basketry, weaving, jewellery and carving from the ancient cultures of the north are the fabled Chinchorro mummies. These predate the Egyptian mummies, originating back as far as 5,000 BC. [...]
Jo! is a new radical craft shop in the Santiago suburb of Bellavista, which is usually throbbing at night with street life. The objects within have mostly been made quickly out of recycled materials. I picked up a brooch made from keyboard keys for $2 Australian.
The owner is originally from the ‘provinces’ and remembers her [...]
The workshop series at MAVI finished with a day-long session looking at the various elements in putting together a craft exhibition. I was quite surprised by the experimental approach that was taken by participants. We had three quite basic tables to work with. One group started piling other furniture on top.
Another used one of [...]
It was a relief to see with the second day of the workshop another good crowd. There does seem to be an interest here in doing something more with craft. I wonder sometimes whether coming from a foreign culture like Australia I am in danger of contaminating a more traditional craft scene such as in [...]
I am in Santiago for a little while presenting a series of lectures and workshops on the theme of ‘craft as art’. The presentation is organised by Raiz Diseno and supported by ONA in partnership with MAVI.
The series basically involves outlining the practice of ‘contemporary craft’ as practiced in countries like Australia, and seeing [...]
Craft Talk Elsewhere Craftspeak Hum
