If it is true that Australians do not experience
the weight of the history and traditions that
Europeans feel, it would be a mistake to think
that they are not, nevertheless, the products of
their own. The last 40 years of craft and design
practice in Australia have been shaped by the
educational philosophies of teachers who migrated
there from Europe and to lesser extent, Asia.
At the same time, Australian craft and design has
had to contend with anther more practical force:
the absence of any kind of sizeable or stable
local manufacturing base. Some interesting
moments occur when traditional craft values and
the mechanics of mass production interrogate
each other. Increasingly questioning the
hypothesis that “handmade” is automatically
better. Australians are acknowledging that this
powerful idea comes with its own philosophical
historic baggage, and propose the possibility
that “the handmade” is just another “look” in a
spectrum of possible stylistic inflections.
In this small sampling of Australian craft and
design -Bounty examines the impact of global-
ization on all things “handmade”. If the split is
between the handmade and the manufactured, it
is well to remember that “manufacture” itself
means “made by hand”. It is a hand-in-glove
relationship between craft and design. While it
is not our aim to “manufacture consent” on this
lively debate, we want to tease out the many
angles from which to consider how practitioners
and consumers alike see craft and design in the
world we live in now.
This is one in a series of exhibitions celebrating
craft from around the world and how Canadian
artists benchmark themselves in global craft
& design.
BOUNTY
York Quay Centre
235 Queen's Quay West
FREE admission
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