9/25/2014

Publications

Museum for Skills is the first book in the series Documents on Contemporary Crafts. The series is published by Norwegian Crafts, and offers critical reflection on contemporary crafts and seeks to stimulate critical discourse within the field of craft. Museum for Skills has grown out of a conference, held in London in May 2012, and is edited by André Gali (editor, Norwegian Crafts), Jørn Mortensen (Dean, Visual Arts Department at Oslo National Academy of the Arts) and Ann Jones (founding director, ArtProjects and Solutions).

Within both the fine arts and the crafts fields, there has for some time been a tendency to emphasise the concept behind the work; the thought process has been considered more important than the process of making. This tendency has resulted in both a ‘deskilling’ – a situation where skills are treated as hindering or limiting the creative process – and ‘outsourcing’ – a situation where the author of a work hires somebody else to make it. Outsourcing is also a major challenge within the European and North American art industries. Factories that have been producing textiles or porcelain for centuries are outsourcing their work to parts of the world where labour is less expensive, like China or India. When the production of art industry moves elsewhere, the knowledge and skills that the factories contained (through human resources) disappears. As arts professionals, what skills do we need and value? What skills do we want to preserve for future generations? What are the skills we need to acquire for the future? Where can we go to learn how things are made and to acquire the skills we need? Can art academies be museums for skills – the depositories for collecting valuable knowledge and intangible know-how?

Texts by: Iain McGilchrist, Trevor H.J. Marchand, Roger L. Kneebone, Jorunn Veiteberg and Erling Moestue Bugge.

ISBN: 978-82-999335-0-6

The book is sold out!




Materiality Matters is the second volume in the series Documents on Contemporary Crafts and was launched in March 2014. Materiality Matters grew out of two international seminars co-organized by Norwegian Crafts, Norwegian Association for Arts and Crafts and the National Museum for Art, Architecture and Design (Oslo): Materiality Matters, 22 November 2012 and Very Good, 21 November 2013.

For the crafts, the concepts of materiality and tactility are absolutely central. In Norway, these concepts have recently been the subject of greater discussion, and it seems now that the field of fine art has re-discovered them. In 2011 the annual craft exhibition and the fall exhibition at Kunstnernes Hus were both marked by a focus on textile works. Also in 2013, both exhibitions to a large extent included the same artists and materials, again with a particular attention to textiles. Materiality has apparently also been playing a larger role in the discussion on artistic quality in contemporary art. But if we claim that materiality is a quality-related concept in both craft and fine art, are we talking about the same type of materiality? Is it the same quality we are referring to in the two different traditions: the craftsperson’s loyalty and confidence in his or her materials, and the fine artist’s use and borrowing of the media of others? And what is the importance of the hand in contemporary craft practices that are increasingly making use of new digital technology?

Texts by: Line Halvorsen, Jessica Hemmings. Per Gunnar Eeg-Tverbakk, Neil Forrest, Trine Wester, Michael Eden, Dennis Dahlqvist and Stephen Knott.

Edited by: Joakim Borda-Pedreira and Gjertrud Steinsvåg.

ISBN: 978-82-999335-1-3





Beyond G(l)aze Catalogue
Beyond G(l)aze is an exhibition that presents Chinese and Norwegian ceramics together. The curator team, Feng Boyi, Heidi Bjørgan, Wang Dong and Bjørn Follevaag has selected works by 16 artists.The exhibition was visited by 40 000 people at Suzhou Jinji Lake Art Museum in China, 24 May – 23 August. Norwegian Crafts looks forward to present Beyond G(l)aze at KODE in Bergen from 23 January 2015. The catalogue features works by Ingrid Askeland, Lu Bin, Liu Danhua, Feng Feng, Huang Huanyi, Liu Jianhua, Steinar Haga Kristensen, Torbjørn Kvasbø, Nils Martin, Anne Helen Mydland, Irene Nordli, Linn Pedersen, Lu Pinchang, Corrina Thornton, Ai Weiwei, and Chen Xiaodan. It also includes a dialogue between the curators on discussions related to the exhibition, the cultural context, identity, dissemination of knowledge and curatorial practices. Edited by Gjertrud Steinsvåg. In English, Chinese and Norwegian.

ISBN: 978-82-999335-2-0