I’ve been asked to find two definitions of craft, one that I
agree with and one that I don’t.
The elephant in the room is art versus craft.
Part of me thinks: “Why should I care? It’s just semantics.” Part of me thinks: “I guess I do care because I want to be
thought of as an artist more than I want to be thought of as a craftsman.”
There is some snobbery around art vs craft, similar to the
snobbery that used to exist between universities and what used to be called polytechnics. When I went to university in the 1960s they were for “clever” people
to study “pure” subjects that often didn’t map directly on to jobs. More “practical” people went to
polytechnics and did vocational subjects where manual skills often played a
role.
Actually, this hits on an issue that keeps coming back to
me: Fundamentally, I want to do
sculpture so should I be studying sculpture rather than contemporary
craft? My reason for doing
contemporary craft is because I want the focus to be on producing my own work
rather than studying sculpture in an abstract way.
Definition of craft I agree with:
“Craft, art, and
design are words heavily laden with cultural baggage. For me, they all connote
the profound engagement with materials and process that is central to
creativity. Through this engagement form, function, and meaning are made
tangible. It is time to move beyond the limitations of terminologies that
fragment and separate our appreciation of creative actions, and consider the
"behaviors of making" that practitioners share.'”
David Revere McFadden Chief
curator and vice president, Museum of Arts & Design, New York – one of
several responses to the question “What is Craft” on the Victoria and Albert
Museum website (1)
Why I like this:
It sidesteps the old art-versus-craft chestnut and gets to the heart of
the issue in terms of bringing together thought, knowledge and skill in the
creative process.
Definitions of craft I don’t agree with:
To paraphrase two examples below:
“If it’s useful, it’s
not art. If it’s not art then it’s
craft”.
Why do I disagree? I think the distinction applies to trades that predate the industrial revolution, not the creation of works of art.
Example 1:
“The concept of craft
is historically associated with the production of useful objects and art —
well, at least since the 18th century — with useless ones. The
craftsman’s teapot or vase should normally be able to hold tea or flowers,
while the artist’s work is typically without utilitarian function. In
fact, if an object is made demonstrably useless — if, to cite a famous example,
you take a teacup and line it entirely with animal fur — it has to be
considered as a work of art, because there is nothing else left to consider it
as. The crafts tend to produce things which are useful for various human
purposes, and though they may be pretty or pleasing in any number of ways,
craft objects tend to exhibit their prettiness around a purpose external to the
object itself. To this extent, the crafts aren’t arts, according to a
idea which found fullest expression in the aesthetics of the great
Enlightenment philosopher Immanuel Kant. Works of art, Kant said, are
“intrinsically final”: they appeal purely at the level of the imagination and
aren’t good for any practical utility.”
Excerpt of a transcript of a radio talk by the late Dennis Dutton, a
professor of philosophy at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New
Zealand and founder of Arts & Letters Daily, (http://www.aldaily.com) a widely-read website.
(2)
Dutton goes on to point to contradictions such architecture
Example 2:
“If a professional
artist produces a piece of jewelry (wearable) that is unique, it is not allowed
under heading 9703, HTSUS, as it is a functional object. The same holds true
for furniture such as the tables and chairs created by Diego Giacometti, a
recognized professional artist. They are functional and useable as furniture
and not within the guidelines of heading 9703, HTSUS. They can also be
considered ornamental sculptures of a commercial character.”
Taken from the “Informed Compliance Publication” of the U.S. Department of
Homeland Security, explaining U.S. Customs and Border Protection regulations
(3)
HTSUS, the Harmonized Tariff Schedule for the United States,
is used to categorise imports into the U.S. 9703 covers "Original
Sculptures and Statuary, in Any Material.” If an object is is "not allowed" under this heading, it means that it's not considered to be a work of art under U.S. regulations.
Another definition I don’t agree with
In his radio
talk (2) Dutton makes fairly extensive reference to a set of criteria for
distinguishing art from craft formulated by philosopher R G Collingwood in the
1930s:
“The most important, or at least
interesting, of these is that with craft, and not with art, there is “a
distinction between planning and execution” such that the “result to be
obtained is preconceived or thought out before being arrived at. The
craftsman Collingwood says, knows what he wants to make before he makes
it.” This foreknowledge, Collingwood says, must not be vague, but must be
precise. “
If this is the case then most of the stuff I produce on my
contemporary craft course is art rather than craft, which is fine by me! In other words, I set out knowing what
I want to make but not in precise detail.
A critique of Collingwood’s philosophy is given in the
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (4)
References
Last accessed 6th October 2013.
Last accessed 6th Oct 2013.
Last accessed
6th Oct 2013.
Last accessed 6th Oct 2013.
