more give and take. Just take
it or leave it.
The papers have been
signed with this last issue. Cur-
tis Benzie tried to counsel and
did an eloquent job. His re-
marks were met with the same
“yes, but” that had been
thrown at me. Testimony to
the demise came from Glenn
Adamson, whom I had always
admired for his ability to see
both sides of an issue. Maybe
he still does. But his admoni-
tion to give up on the past,
once-vital approach to craft
was the coup de grace. It was
time for me to accept that I,
along with my beloved autono-
mous and rarified objets d’art,
must remain trapped in a ret-
rograde exercise but continue
to embrace it.
I will heal. I do not wish
ill for my former partner. We
simply find ourselves, as so
many couples do these days,
wanting different things. It
was a beautiful relationship
while it lasted.
So I will find comfort with
dinosaurs of like mind—the
ones that are still awed by the
tangible beauty of the well-
made object. They will be my
comfort as w'e die out. But
who knows, maybe in some
distant millennium when the
hand is atrophied from disuse,
some brash young scientist
will want to clone one of us as
a curiosity. A creature of an-
other time. A creature content
to have lived when the oppos-
able thumb w'as at its zenith.
R O N P O R T E R
Columbia, South Carolina
Editors’ Note: A t the risk o f mak-
ing another inadequate reply, may
we ask why a sentence or two of
Adamson outweighs the evidence
o f eight pages o f Kathy Ertemati’s
beautiful objects, or the documen-
tation, in our other two features,
that handmaking continues to
have significance as well as broad
appeal? A nd as to your loyalty
to some definition o f craft, do you
mean the crafts o f the 1950s or
those o f the 6os ? The crafts o f the
jos or those o f the 80s ? Craft was
certainly not just one thing, static
all that time. As Adamson points
out,
Craft Horizons
represented
an enormous variety in approach-
es to craft, and, as its successor,
this magazine remains committed
to examining that invigorating
range o f handmaking.
More on Kyoko Okubo
Since the August/September
issue of American Craft came
out, Mobilia Gallery has gotten
calls and e-mails for more in-
formation on Kyoko Okubo
(Material Culture). The gallery
is offering her more shows,
including a one-person show'
at the next
S O F A
New York.
I met Kyoko at a free-for-
all art event in Tokyo, when
I first moved there five years
ago. This is an event where
over 1,000 people bring their
things; 99 percent are not
so good, but when I saw' her
work I was amazed and felt,
“This w'oman has no idea how
great she is.” So I have been
helping her ever since, and
the response has ahvays been
very strong.
At this point, the gallery
is handling everything for her,
with the help of ajapanese
independent curator. This
article w'as my last effort, since
I have left Japan. Thanks so
much for publishing it!
Some information that is
not on the gallery site is avail-
able at artfoundout.blogspot.
com/search/label/Okubo.
S C O T T R O T H S T E I N
Bangkok
W rite to us:
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