IC:Innovative Craft Blog

What follows ‘Raising the Bar’?

Posted Sunday 17 August 2008, 09:47am

We welcome guest writer Adam Paxon:

I confess that my expectations for this exhibition were high. Amanda had shared much of her enthusiasm through the preparation stages. We had that day heard Richard Sennett’s lecture where amongst other gems he spoke about how he felt that we were currently culturally judged on what we consume rather than what we make, and of how the authority and importance of making was becoming lost. How interesting to move immediately, with reparation for lunch, from that experience to witness the work of twelve makers very much on their mettle.

I recall being a little startled at the space afforded to this exhibition. Perhaps we have become too used to seeing craft work in somehow secondary, small and poorly lit spaces; an experience not endured by the more esteemed fine arts. This work very much benefited from being so confidently shown. The twelve bodies of work laid out on simple trestle tables, were mostly unclothed of their too familiar plastic shrouds, which so inhibit our touching of the work in all senses, and naked to the eye of the viewer. The only additional visual stimulus being 12 images of the makers, seductively unnamed. In this environment with little else to clutter the mind how easy it was to let yourself drift into the work. To take up the invitation to enter the worlds of these makers, share their enquiries, and marvel at their virtuosity.

In all work presented the dextrous intelligence of the maker is very much in evidence. The pieces however, which remain most vividly in mind are the bowls of Rudolf Bott.  It seemed I could almost hear the sound of the production of these pieces. I felt prepared for the sudden and clamorous powerful ram, could almost smell lubricant, yet my eyes marvelled at their sensitivity. They have not been made by an engineer, who we more readily associate with these large-scale powerful industrial processes, but by a maker more governed by the slower speed and smaller scale of the hand; inquisitive, sensitive and delicate.

This was an exhibition that raised many questions, and further fuelled ongoing discussions and debate.  It would appear that indeed the bar has been raised…what next?