Contemporary Craft: Relics
Featured above is a brand new fender Stratocaster crafted by the most experienced master builders of the world famous fender custom shop. Costing over $7000USD per piece these "Relic" guitars are made to replicate 50 years worth of wear and tear - A process that involves meticulous calculation of every detail down to the smallest of dents and its reason for being there.
I think this represents a contemporary expression of craft because firstly the "relic" processing of guitars is a recent invention, and hence is literally a contemporary craft. And secondly because of the extraordinary consideration, care and skill that goes into ruining a perfectly fine instrument. Never before has a craft of destroying been celebrated and studied to this extent.
I think this really goes to show that craft can exist in any environment where a creative process is involved to achieve a goal. Whether to make or destroy, in space or cyberspace, for you or everyone.
from Cici Yang:
Craft VS. Design
Craft is the making of objects by hand while displaying great skills and mastery. It is largely believed to be a labor-based, backward-looking and vocational activity as oppose to having the qualities of being intellectual, forward-looking and academic as found in art and design. Despite this stigma, the status of craft in society has ebbed and flowed. One example of this is the Arts and Crafts movement, where William Morris famously opposed the mechanisation of objects found in the Industrial Revolution.
The paper cut work shown in the picture above, created by Japanese artist Hina Aoyama, is a good example of contemporary craft. The skills and process of making these crafts do not vary greatly from that of traditional Chinese/Japanese paper cut craft. On the other hand, the approach of embracing contemporary typography into this traditional form of craft is very modern and refreshing. It “re-introduces the connecting to the making that we lost with the über-designer handing off things for production to a typesetter or lithographer. It’s come full circle” - as Malcolm McCullough, the design educator puts it.
It is clear it takes a vast amount of time and effort to construct such a complex and intricate piece of work, all made with just a pair of scissors. The emotion that went into this hand made craft is self-evident and it adds an extra dimension of beauty that goes deeper than just the aesthetics of the object. As critic Louise Schouwenberg puts it: “Craftsmanship can be valued for the psychological effect it exerts on its user.” In addition, there are a lot of thought in integrating the modern and the traditional that went in making this unique piece of work allowing the craft to tell a narrative in its own way. This is the perfect example where the line between craft and design begins to blur, even for the two to become in-distinguishable from each other.
