e d i t o r ’ s l e t t e r
T h e B i g B
1
By Andrew Wagner
L ately it’s been d ifficu lt to escape conver-
jons concerning the m ixing, m atching
and m elding o f craft, art, design and indus-
try. T h is is nothing new , but in the past
few years the chatter has becom e incessant,
picking up steam thanks to a few key play-
ers w h o have m anaged the leap from one
w orld to another w ith relative ease.
to look at this confluence o f ideas,
disciplines and philosophies as a natural
eSsion, an evolution. B ut anyone in
ir right mind w ould question w hat it’s
into, especially when confronted
visual cacophony generated by
iject-producing w orld,
going exam ination o f this evo-
purstjif that I am, for obvious
asons, thoroughly im m ersed in. M ost
:ly l sat on a panel at the Silverm ine
A rts C en ter in C on necticut called
•lurring the Boundaries: Trends in C on -
tem porary C ra ft, * w h ere allThe panelists
and audience members sa^med in agree-
ment tharany boundaries that existed b e-
tw een thescm 'lds have been thoroughly
stretched, i f not exactly erased.
T h is observation is sure to provoke
chagrin from m y industrious craft, art and
design cohort Philip W ood, founder o f the
n Francisco-based design collective
c m z E N :C itiz e n . W ood is B ritish and a
classically trained cabinetm aker. T h e one
tim e I ’ve had the good fortune to share a
pint w ith him in C alifornia, our conversa-
tion quickly turned to craft and where it
stands in the world. W ood, being the E ng-
lishman he is, listened politely as I blath-
ered on about this im pending mega-merger
and then m entioned he w anted to send
me an article he’d been w orkin g on. “ O f
course,” I said and headed back to N ew
Y o rk eagerly aw aiting his prose.
W ood’s words arrived via e-mail shortly
thereafter. W h en I opened the docum ent
called “ Blurring o f Boundaries,” I expected
to see som ething akin to a w ritten affirm a-
tion o f our conversation some w eeks back.
H ow w rong I was.
W ood begins his eloquent essay by' stat-
ing, “A t the mom ent it com es out o f my
m outh, I k n o w I ’ve said som ething that
I neither w holeh eartedly believe nor fu lly
understand. ‘ B lurring the boundaries,’ I
say. It sounds just so exciting. I’d love to go
and blur some o f those boundaries. In fact,
I envision it as som ething like the dism an-
tling o f the Berlin W all, a sort o f righteous
attack on the artifice o f the old guard
that had been le ft standing by' our ow n
complacency. There are many un-thought-
through phrases that spin out o f my and,
dare I say, m any o f your m ouths, y'et blur-
ring boundaries is one that can be heard
all too often these day's, particularly in gal-
leries, showroom s and m agazines just like
the one you’re holding now.”
L ik e I said, I had W ood all w rong.
R ather than feeling defensive, I w as happy'
to have m y thinking challenged, and the
more I thought about it, the more I realized
he w as articulating the lingering doubts
that had been creeping around in the back
o f my' mind for months.
H is essay continues, “ W e ’ve seen
boundaries being blurred, sm udged and
dismissed as nonexistent in an attem pt to
suggest th ey’re no longer relevant. Segre-
gation in the U nited States and Apartheid
in South A frica could only be assessed and
brought dow n as the tyrannical regim es
that they w ere by highlighting them. Em an-
cipation from existing thinking doesn’t
com e from the blurring o f boundaries, it
comes from clearly' understanding their
nature and location.”
W h ile W ood certain ly has helped me
to appreciate the larger philosophy' behind
the classification o f creative pursuits, I
must say, at the risk o f not being bought
a pint during my next visit to the Bay A rea,
I don’t com pletely agree. T h e “ big blur”
has picked up such momentum that I feel it
w arrants an exam ination o f its ow n—and
that’s precisely' what w e’ve put together in
this issue, w ith hopes o f illum inating the
sim ilarities and the d ifferen ces b etw een
disciplines, exam ining where they' overlap
and w here they diverge and, in doing so,
perhaps contributing to the evolution o f
them all. +
Drop me a line: [email protected]
016 american craft feb/maro9
