 Brighton Craft Fair Reviewed |
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Sunday, November 25 2007 @ 08:05 PM GMT
Author: Dan. Views: 348
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In the 21st century, 'craft' has many definitions. There's craft for the country crowd; welly boots, wax jackets and a passion for basketmaking, turned wood chairs and traditional trugs. It's all about tradition.
There's the renegade craft scene; a quirky take on knitting, oddball handmade books and badges, and retro and reclaimed textiles and fashion. It's lo-fi and leftfield.
Brighton Craft Fair aims for the 'Yummy Mummy' market, according to organiser Jon Tutton. So this year, it's jewellery, soft ceramics, and handbags all the way.
In fact, there are nearly 30 jewellers exhibiting, around the same number of people offering ceramics and silverware, and more than a dozen handbags photographed in the fair's catalogue.
So if that's what you do, it's a tough marketplace. The work that really catches the eye is that which borders on
the alternative, renegade scene, or which crosses over with more fine
art practices.
Ceramicist Christiane Kersten and photographer Alison Milner combine their two practices, applying transfer decoration to slim, elegant ceramics. Together, the pieces are more powerful than their individual parts.
Sarah Grove has a distinct take on handbuilt porcelain, producing vases inspired by quilted textiles, dimpled and ruffled. And Kerry Russell produces teapots and other tableware in 50s pastel colours, with kitsch floral decorations. Both marry a love of textiles with their pottery practice.
Nick Orsborn's jewellery stands out; chunky resin shapes and a range of cicada bugs and butterflies have more character than the silver which takes up so many stands. Joanne Tinker's recycled jewellery, made from tinfoil and sweet wrappers, is also distinct.
Newcastle-based Prod are exhibiting for the second year. Screenprinting onto leather, every belt and badge is unique. The designs are loose, scribbled and sketchy; there are hints of faces, monsters and organic forms.
Corinna Rothwell (pictured, right) also applies dawing to her work, producing monochrome, machine-embroidered cartoons, either framed or applied to roughly-finished shoulder bags.
Westbourne's The Art House Gallery apply maps to a variety of products, including mugs and sketchbooks.
And Lucie Pritchard (pictured, top) screenprints found text, taken from a range of sources and in a variety of beautiful scripts, to badges, bags and neckerchiefs. Of course, presented with text taken out of context, the viewer is invited to create their own narrative.
And Worthing-based fig. - the craft offshoot for popular printer Sarah Young - produce strange, framed dolls that are, somehow, a 21st century take on the 1960s love of the Victorian era. They also produce tea-towel sized printed patterns for two children's toys, a cat and an oddball doll, inspired by the '70s Clothkits label.
So while Brighton Craft Fair targets one market (and does it very well - the mums outside Brighton's leading public school apparently all carry Brighton Craft Fair's canvas shopping bags) there are still enough interesting and unusual artists and makers exhibiting to remind the visitor that craft practice isn't static, and is still changing in the 21st century.
The country crowd won't like it.
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