Urban Field
A symposium dedicated to contemporary craft practice is to be held this week in Surrey. Discussing rural and Urban crafts the content looks very good with some interesting speakers contributing. I am interested to note that Dr Ian Hunter of the Littoral Arts trust will be contributing as he has been very involved with an art that engages with agriculture. His talk promises to cover an argument from a more unusual perspective
'I want to argue that we need radically to rethink current crafts practice and policy in this country, and bypass its current preoccupation with gaining credibility in the art world and also to wean it of its fixation with the unsustainable high-end designer/consumer market ethos; and seek new ways of realigning the critical energies, core traditions and inventiveness of contemporary craft practice with some of the strategic programmes now being proposed by governments, NGOs and communities world-wide to tackle the impact of climate change, depletion of fossil fuel stocks, rural development and agricultural change and environmental sustainability'
As I only found out about this today I won't be going but will try to follow the outcomes. I think it is important to note the 'Pre-occupation' mentioned above, of craft gaining credibility in the art world. I think it is very true that this is unsustainable but perhaps the only way some makers feel they gain critical and artistic recognition. The relationship this has to the Art world being almost exclusively urban does inform this mindset so I wonder what alternatives will be proposed? not just for craft but in general this is an important issue.
where Marquetry fits with all of this I am not sure? but In talking about urban and rural think it falls between a definition of the two.
Not rustic enough to be a truely rural craft yet engaged enough with a natrual material that it can't be entirely seperated from the countryside. At the same time there is a certain finesse to Marquetry that does feel more urban and in touch with some sort of fine art world.
www.urbanfield.org.uk/thesymposium.html
