Craft Cubed

Presented by Craft Victoria, Craft Cubed celebrates experimental, skilled and ideas-based craft and design. As an umbrella project, Craft Cubed aims to be highly participatory and to act as a creative stimulus. For 2009 its three components - White Box, Perspective, Programs – explore the inaugural theme CITY|COUNTRY.

The intention of Craft Cubed is to create a space for craftspeople, designers and the public to engage with contemporary issues through the medium of craft, recognising that the arts environment is now spread across a broad, digital landscape. Combining the actual with the digital, it is hoped that the result will be both visceral and purposeful.

WHITE BOX is a curated, online presentation of some 50 online design projects sourced from around the world, that reference issues relating to the City/Country theme. The breadth of the curated selection is indicative of the interest worldwide in how societies are reshaping their approaches to concepts once very clearly labelled as either city or country. Housing as an outcome of design is now a preferred norm, and craft now enjoys a wider nomenclature, taking in such phenomena as slow cooking. We now live in a designed world, where we mark our presence through craft.

PERSPECTIVE comprises a curated selection of works made by Craft Victoria members, again in response to the topic of City/Country. A perspective is a point of view; it can be direct or indirect, implied or forthright – and in the case of members works, metaphorical or literal. The works on display represent those parts of the individual maker’s oeuvres’ that have connected with the theme, which is one that continues to have much relevance to the crafts in Australia.

The third aspect of Craft Cubed 2009 is simply but surely titled PROGRAMS. The wide range of events and activities listed under Programs represent ways for people to look into the lives of living crafts people, through visits to studios, participation in workshops, or attendance at satellite events.

Taken together, these three parts of the Craft Cubed project are designed to give contemporary craft a new platform, and to open up possibilities for further projects. Facilitated by an interactive website, the intention is that the widest possible public will engage with the works and the ideas they represent, either on screen, by visiting, or by participating.

The CITY|COUNTRY theme
This subject has a pressing value in 2009, as many people are seeking to understand anew the interface between the words city and country. Indeed, the nexus between the two is an alluring area for many people, as they try to construct their lives using the best from both worlds.

For craftspeople and designers, exploring this idea is a worthwhile journey, as it is a dichotomy they often perceive. For some it may mean an investigation into a memory or emotion, as they explore changes in the broader landscape, whilst for others the key lies in materials – the ‘look’ of a craftwork is often a reflection of the processes that have gone into its making – just like the zones that link city and country areas.

Noting that even the tiniest item of jewellery can depict a landscape, and a tapestry can function as a meditation on a single flower, craft is highly responsive to its context. And each day, as we see on our screens and share conversations about the world’s pressing issues, it is comforting to know that craft can supply both solace and wisdom.

It is intended that as the Craft Cubed project evolves, it will continue to inform and surprise, as well as reveal the talents of our craftspeople and designers, to local and international audiences alike.

Joe Pascoe
CEO & Artistic Director