Sunday 6 December 2009

Three by one symposium




This short symposium was linked to the current exhibition curated by Alison Britton in the Craft Study Centre. She selected artworks from three collections for the current exhibition and discussed her rationale for choosing the items and how they were displayed. I found the talk by Sandra Alfoldy, comparing present day DIY craftspeople with studio craft practitioners, interesting and want to follow up her references to Dirt Palace and Sublime Stitching. Mark Bills curator of Watts gallery spoke to us about the gallery and its founding and Glenn Adamson summed up the proceedings.

In his conclusion, Glenn Adamson contrasted the views of history that had been presented as constraining or as a cushion or comfort area from which to move on. He highlighted the stories of craft, its individuality, temporality, repetitiveness and its relaxing nature. In the panel discussion, it was pointed out that textiles can be taken into the domestic environment but it may be more difficult for other crafts to operate in this DIY fashion. Glenn also said that in any ways it would be easier to make a case for collecting DIY crafts than fine art because that is the new wave.

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