A Strategy For a Changing World • A Strategy For Changing the World
| Konsthantverkscentrum, Stockholm, Sweden |
Yesterday’s art is not today’s art is not tomorrow’s art. The role and characteristics of art are forever evolving. To this end, the primary utility in the term “art” is simply to demark that as it evolves, we are, in fact, talking about the same cultural entity as it shapeshifts. At the beginning of a period of unprecedented global cultural change, the industrial era, there was wisdom in the strategy of proponents like William Morris to dissect the role into three streams; skilled craftsmanship, industrial design, and fine art. Art is made of parts; let’s divide and conquer! This dissection, this impulse to fragmentation, was rational, even quasi-scientific, and it was well suited to the assembly-line logic of the industrial era. But in an entropic art world defined by the pushing and breaking of boundaries, the strategy proved unsustainably porous. What seemed elegant on a macro scale, became arbitrary on the micro scale. The approach created as much confusion as clarity, devolving into an argument over precisely where in the rainbow blue becomes purple. For many people, particularly the bemused public, the broader potential of art was undermined as it devolved into a navel-gazing argument about boundaries. For some time, however, it appeared that the fragmentalists approach had won; post-modernism declared an anti-hegemonic dawn and the thread of the historical narrative frayed into a fog of productionism and relational aesthetics - among other esoteric tangents – while the competing market forces of mega galleries and dueling billionaire collectors attempted to hold increasingly tenuous lines. One had only to step back to realize: It’s a rainbow! It is good and necessary that we dissected art, that we now recognize the parts and their respective roles and characteristics. It’s also good that we now have all these parts at our disposal to help us rise to the challenge of answering the important new question of our time: What does art do? How does art help us navigate our reality? Can it give us a place to rest, like a chair, while helping us think differently about challenges we face? Can it hold our fruit or flowers, like a bowl or vase, while championing the value of new perspectives? Can it hold and hide our objects, like a cabinet, within a shell that perhaps documents history or advocates for a vision of the future? May we weave this special and complex thing called art into our daily lives without divesting it of power? I believe that the work in this exhibition makes the case that we can. Damon Crain |
About the Exhibition Damon Crain of Culture object was invited to organize an exhibition to represent his vision with work selected from the membership of the Stockholm Craft Center. The exhibition is part of the programming of Stockholm Craft Week and compliments the lecture presented by Damon at the annual symposium titled "Curating Craft".
Exhibiting artists: Emma Hasselblad |
