Mascha Moje, Ring 1999, Sterling silver, NGA Canberra.
The Art of Being Crafty
08 November 2005
Craft – as distinct from fine art – is one of those practices, much like painting, that seems to regularly enjoy ‘revivals’ of sorts in popular and aesthetic opinions of mainstream art. The return of the artisan to favour in recent years particularly is highlighted in the National Gallery of Australia’s major summer exhibition, which surveys and celebrates the work of 85 leading Australian and international artists whose works refigure traditional notions of craft.
Transformations: The Language of Craft brings together works of glass, ceramics, jewellery, metalwork, textiles and furniture that as a whole explore ideas of narrative, materiality and structure. Says Robert Bell, the NGA’s Senior Curator of Decorative Arts and Design of the exhibition, it “reveals the skill and imagination of the contemporary craft practitioner in transforming materials from the everyday to the extraordinary.”
Abstraction and ornamentation, design and function – all are explored in works by artists from as far afield as Finland, Italy, Japan, the US, New Zealand and Germany – among others.
Australian designer Robert Foster is part of the national contingent featured in the exhibition. Acclaimed for his steel and aluminium vessels, Foster’s teapots are found in collections at the NGA and the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney and have been exhibited in the USA, Germany and Japan. Foster’s works celebrate the design as much as the process and he is regularly challenging ideas of malleability and experimenting with non-traditional methods for shaping metal – such as through the controlled used of explosives.
Lia Cook, a Professor of Art at the California College of Arts and Crafts uses weaving and fabrics as the basis for her works. Using a simple 1950s camera, Cook takes informal photographs of unassuming subjects and, trading pixels for threads, weaves these enlarged images onto cotton – so what appears as a printed image on the fabric is in fact, on closer inspection, a highly detailed pointillist-like tapestry.
A German-born Australian-based jeweller and metalsmith, Mascha Moje’s designs, like Foster’s, take the material as a starting point for further explorations of form and narrative. Mjoe is interested in ideas of pattern-like growth, cell-like forms, the nature of skin and the qualities of synthetic materials.
A forum exploring some of the issues in contemporary craft and design will be held at the gallery on 12 November and speakers will include some of the artists represented in Transformations.
More Information
Transformations: The Language of Craft
11 November – 29 January
National Gallery of Australia
Parkes Place, Canberra
Open daily 10am–5pm
Inset image: Robert Foster, Emerald Odyssey teapot 2005, stainless steel & anodised alumunium. Lent by Robert Foster.
Website: http://www.nga.gov.au/
