Reclaiming ‘craft’

I’ve been having some more thoughts about the ongoing discussion about what’s ‘art’ and what’s ‘craft’, prompted by the Handmade Revolution programme on BBC2. I was expecting the programme to showcase slightly different kinds of things from those that it has done so far.

It seems to me that there are basically three kinds of objects you can make:

1. things that are useful

2. things that are beautiful

3. things that are meaningful

These are, clearly, overlapping categories. An object can be beautiful and useful, beautiful and meaningful, or useful and meaningful. Very rarely, an object may be all three.

For me, craft focusses on the first two categories. Art focusses on the last two categories.

When I make things, I like them to be useful and beautiful. I don’t make many purely functional, ugly things. But then, I try to buy beautiful functional things too, so far as possible. I don’t feel the need for my craftwork to be recognised as ‘art’. I am not trying for any kind of meaningful or affective experience when I put a pretty cushion on the sofa, or pin bunting over the window. I just like it to look nice. I don’t think craft is an inferior category to art. In many ways it’s more important, because it has a place in daily life, both in the making and the using of the objects.

When I visit an art gallery, I am expecting more than just a display of pretty things. I am expecting to be challenged or uplifted or intrigued or in some way to be changed by what I see. I don’t need that sort of art in my home. An art gallery would be a very uncomfortable place to live, I think. Art is very important, but it isn’t quite part of the fabric of daily life in the same way as craft can be, at least for me.

The kind of objects I don’t really have much time for are the ‘beauty without use or meaning’. To me those are ways to create extra dusting opportunities. I especially don’t like them when the ‘value’ derives from the skill and time of the making, rather than the beauty of the finished object.

The thing I was not expecting about the programme is the focus on craft careers. The makers are asked to price their pieces and talk about their future plans to sell their work. To me, this is the least important thing about craft. I am not saying that people shouldn’t sell things they make. I sell things I make. But I much prefer to make things to use myself, or to give to friends. And I much prefer to have things I’ve made or friends have made for me, than things I’ve bought, even if they happen to be handmade.

I would like to see a handmade revolution which encourages people to think about making more of the things they use in their own lives, rather than one which encourages people to think about making craft into a career.