"Terry Sullivan/Nottingham Center for the Arts. San Marcos," on mon 21 dec 98
Well..... this line has really opened up food for thought !
What purpose the country of origin marking ??
To inform the buyer that the object wasn't made by the seller ?? or in the
good ol' US of A. ??
Do'es that mean China is bad but if made by our potter friends to the north
(Canada) it's ok ?? If Mr. Kaplan moves fron the USA to Ontario should we bar
him from making work for US potters. Should Canadian potters not us Mr. Kaplan
or Aftosa ??? hmmm............better think it through folks.
Where do we draw the line, if any, between manufactured ( in it's broadest
sense) and "handmade" craftware ??
Is there some % of the piece which must be done by the individual
craftsperson/artist for it to be said to be their work ??
This gets sticky if you refer to the work of an architect, film , glass
artists like Chihuly and on and on. Or are we only talking about "Craft" ??
At least we can pare off all that other stuff we call "ART"
Now, if a potter has apprentices/staff/employees who execute most or all of
the work on a piece (much of it jiggered or molded at that); can they
represent it to the jurrors for a craft fair as their own ?
A step further: the clay part of the piece is made and bisqued by another
company,
say Mr. Kaplans, and the "findings" ( metal parts etc.) are purchased from a
cataloge, and employees help with the glazing, firing, assembly and packing
and even help "man" the sales booth. Where is the honesty to the buyer who is
misled into thinking the artist/craftsperson made the piece personaly ??
Does it matter ?? Maybe we should judge the work as it stands alone and out
of any context other than our own perceptions of aesthetics and craftsmanship
and quality.
The single craftsperson working completely alone on the entire process of
making the work is a lovely image and lived by some. However; it isn't , and
never has been, the main way "crafts" are produced. Unless you hold a very
narrow deffinition of craft and how it is made.
What about all that really mediocre poorly made ceramics found at lots of "art
fairs" as contrasted to really lovely well made Yixing tea pots from China ??
Before we can have a meaningful discussion of these topics we'd have to have
agreed opon deffinitions of several terms and that discussion has been going
on for decades ( much longer actually). What is craft, what is art, is there a
difference, what is functional, what is handmade and so on ????????.
What a pandoras box.
Maybe fun over a coulple of beers as discussion but all the discusion probably
won't affect the market place much.
Yes; much of this is important and so is the discussion. But perhaps we
should decide just what it is we are discussing and even why. There are at
least half a dozen separate issues here and all mixed up together.
See you all at the bar at NCECA where we can bat these arround.
Terry Sullivan
Nottingham Center for the Arts
San Marcos, CA
"Informed, intelligent discussion is the highest sport of mankind"
Aristotle (sp ?)
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