Hamza El Fasiki is a geometer, brass smith, bookbinder, Andalusian Oud musician, and founder of a Morocco arts studio. He offers an important perspective as a young person who has embraced the world of Moroccan traditional crafts. This gives him particular insight into the differences between modern and traditional worlds. Read more here.  

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Hamza El Fasiki ✿ Lockdown reveals the enduring crafts of Morocco

Kaamya Sharma is an academic who has recently turned knowledge worker for the crafts. We speak to her at home in Madurai, after leaving a secure position at the Institute of Technology, Jodhpur, and embracing an independent practice building technologies for artisans.  Kaamya is a talented writer and deep thinker who is able to see both sides of the story. We dwell on her research into the value of saris in Chennai, which features the concept of "sartorial bio-moralism". She questions the hierarchy that positions handwoven and natural-dyed over machine-made and chemical dyed. For Kaamya, this is often an expression of class value designed to differentiate upper classes from those in lower castes and menial livelihoods.  Her questioning poses a challenge. How can we sustain the value of the handmade without subscribing to the kind of snobbery that looks down on those who choose machine-made alternatives, often for utilitarian and sometimes even aesthetic reasons? Much to think about.  

Kaamya Sharma ✿ A salutary lesson for us craft snobs

We talk to Malika Kashyap about the origins of Border&Fall and the values that underpin the Śilpa series profiling Indian artisans. See Kanta Kadse ✿ Khajur ki pattiyo

Malika Kashyap on the Śilpa series

In our series of interviews with key figures of the craft world, we talk to Anna Battista, an Italian writer whose Irenebrination has published nearly 3,000 stories of the world through an intelligent fashion lens. We learn what sustains such as committed independent voice.  Anna Battista is a writer, freelance journalist and independent scholar. Her articles about art, architecture, culture, fashion, lifestyle, politics and social issues have been featured in American, British, French, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish publications. Among the publications she has contributed and collaborated with there are Dazed Digital, Port Magazine, The Guardian, Vogue Russia, Vogue Italia and Interview Magazine Russia. She has lectured for many institutions including the Museum of Photography in Moscow and the AA Visiting School Paris at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris. Anna’s architecture, art, fashion and film notes are collected on her site, Irenebrination, inspired by iconic Italian journalist and fashion and art critic Irene Brin and conceived as a reaction against commercial fashion publications. 

Anna Battista, the woman behind Irenebrination

Our first podcast of 2021 features one of the most innovative forces in Indian craft, reflecting Ahmedabad’s status as a unique cultural centre. We speak to Jay Thakkar on the eve of the legendary kite festival in Ahmedabad, and we begin by learning what the city is like during this spectacular event and how COVID has affected the themes of kite design. We discuss his ambitious project on vernacular furniture, which was told previously in our story by Mitraja Bais. We also hear about the five-year-long exchange with a Kutch village Guniyali which culminated recently in the launch of a virtual exhibition with the support of the British Council. Jay shares with us his thoughts on craft education in India and proposes a “fourth wave” in which designers seek learning from the villagers themselves in location. Finally, we learn some of the deeper values that underpin is work, and a saying of his father’s that money is like wheat. Listen and learn why this is so. Jay Thakkar is an Associate Professor, Head of Exhibition at CEPT University and Co-founder and Executive Director at Design Innovation and Craft Resource Centre (DICRC) at CRDF, Ahmedabad, India. You visit the virtual exhibition Celebrating Gundiyali here.

Jay Thakkar ✿ The fourth wave in craft education

Kuwaiti designer Laila Al Hamad speaks about the meaning of smell in Arab cultures and how it connects people together. One of the enduring themes of our journey is the meaning of ephemeral objects. We tend to see value in objects of lasting worth - as artefacts that survive millennia to rest in our museum shelves, or works that can be collected for their artistic value. But when we look at the kinds of objects that have meaning in the wider world, they are often of fleeting presence. We can look no further than the garland itself, as an object woven together with flowers that will last only a couple of days. What worth can that be? Here we need to consider other cultural contexts, like the value of offerings. In this podcast, we look at perhaps the most ephemeral substance - smell. What is the possible worth of objects related to smell, such as incense, perfume or soap? We explore this Laila Al-Hamad, a Kuwaiti designer who has previously shared her story on Garland about the fraught nature of craft in the Gulf. Poetry and images referred to by Laila can be found here. 

Laila Al Hamad ✿ The craft of smell

We talk to Dylan Rogers about his discovery of the true significance of the garlands that feature in Pompeii murals. Pompeii offers a snapshot of Roman life in 79AD. It reveals the prevalence of murals, not just as decoration, but as instructions for living. As part of his investigation of "lived religion" in Roman times, archeologist Dylan Rogers uncovered the real purpose of these garlands. The inclusion of painted garlands on walls is an enduring reminder to individuals and the community that garland-giving is a vital part of the veneration of the deities depicted in that space. This discovery emphasises the true meaning of garlands as "living" objects that help maintain cultural order. This is a challenge for our understanding of art as made of fixed objects that live separate from life in galleries and museums. Visit this world of ancient Rome with Dylan Rogers. Reference: Rogers, Dylan. 2020. “The Hanging Garlands of Pompeii: Mimetic Acts of Ancient Lived Religion.” Arts & Health 9 (2): 65.

Art for life: The hanging garlands of Pompeii according to Dylan Rogers

Maikel Kuijpers an Assistant Professor of the Archaeology of Early Europe at Leiden University as well as a research coordinator for the Centre of Global Heritage and Development, a collaboration between Technical University Delft, Erasmus University Rotterdam, and Leiden University. Kuijpers is a key thinker in what has been called the "material turn", in which knowledge is seen not just as an abstraction to be housed in books, but also something embodied in materials and things that resides in our hands. His book, An Archaeology of Skill (2017), argues that to understand objects of the bronze age, we need to account for the experience of the metalsmith in dialogue with materials. We cover in particular the video Kuijpers produced in Cambridge, The Future is Handmade, which advocated for the renewed value of craft in trades. Why would an archeologist make a film about a contemporary tailor?

Maikel Kuijpers on material thinking and the Future is Handmade

Ashoke Chatterjee is an Indian craft leader. He was executive director of National Institute of Design (NID) from 1975-85, Senior Faculty Advisor for Design Management and Communication from 1985 to 1995, and Distinguished Fellow at NID from 1995 until retirement in 2001. In 1975, NID was invited to be involved with the Rural University, a new concept in education and rural development initiated by Professor Ravi Matthai, first director of the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Ahmedabad. Ashoke Chatterjee became part of the Rural University team that worked with people of the Jawaja block, which included about 200 villages with a population of approximately 80,000 people in a drought prone district of Rajasthan. Ashoke Chatterjee shares his journey and reflects on the secret behind the success of the Jawaja project. He concludes with a rousing call to heed the message of Gandhiji in protecting the poor who have been betrayed by the lure of urbanisation and now face a long and hard journey back to their village and possible starvation.  You can read his Garland article here. 

Ashoke Chatterjee - We must revive the villages

Our latest podcast interview with leading craft scholars includes Chandan Bose, whose study of naqqash artisans in Telangana reveals the rich social world of this narrative art form. There is a new generation of craft scholars who seek to work in partnership with artisans. Chandan Bose recently published book on patam art in Telangana is very much a conversation a naqqash artist, Vaikuntam. The book is a very thorough account of this graphic art, along with the complex social relations it involves. But Bose also reflects on the active role played by Vaikuntam in leveraging ethnography to promote his caste. As he quotes Vaikuntam, “It is only because you are asking these questions that I am telling all of this.” As part of our series of podcasts on leading craft scholars, we interviewed Chandan Bose about the path that led to Vaikuntam and the issues it raised. We learn about how the plight of Gond folk artists prompted his concern about the role and value of the artisan in contemporary India. He reflects on the value of formalised heritage structures such as Geographic Indicators and future challenges to be explored. Chandan Bose is Assistant Professor of Anthropology and Sociology, Department of Liberal Arts, Indian Institute of Technology, Hyderabad. His work focuses on the meaning of work and livelihood, and ways of knowledge production and sharing among skilled communities. His first monograph Conversations Around Craft (2019) is an ethnographic study of a household of artisans in Telangana, who share their experience of making ‘crafts’ and of being ‘craftspersons’ in contemporary India. He is currently working with second-generation artisans in urban India to understand how inheritance, technology and urbanization help shape visions of a future. See Garland magazine for more details and images.  Further reading Bose, Chandan. 2019. Perspectives on Work, Home, and Identity From Artisans in Telangana: Conversations Around Craft. Springer.

Chandan Bose ✿ The rich social world of patam art in Telangana

Object-tellers from our current issue came together to reflect on their stories and consider some of the issues that they evoke, particularly about the Indian craft of love. The speakers were: Shirley Bhatnagar and Ishan Khosla Eina Ahluwalia Aarti Kawlra Manasee Jog Mitraja Bais Varuni Kanagasundaram This fascinating discussion brought together voices from Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata and “Mumbai of the South” (Melbourne). The consensus seemed to be that Indian culture was more diverse before colonisation. During the British Empire and subsequent modernity, the distinctions between caste and gender became more rigid. Today, artists and makers have the potential to use the rich traditions of love as tools to open spaces for bringing people together.  See our Uphaar issue here.

Love across the Indian Ocean

We go to Kochi, the ancient port city in the southern tip of India, to visit its most renowned historian, Bony Thomas, who features in our current issue Uphaar with an article about the history of the Jewish populations in the city and its touching presence today with the young Muslim man, Taha Ibrahim, who continues the tradition of Jewish embroidery taught him by his adopted mother, Sarah Cohen. Bony Thomas shares his rich knowledge of this Indian-Jewish culture with it's many Romeo and Juliet love stories that give a personal dimension to India's unique mix of faiths. We're sitting in an old Dutch home, overlooking a busy intersection, in the days before our current lockdown. See the original story here: https://garlandmag.com/article/jewtown/

A romance between a "white" and "black" Jew in southern India: Interview with Bony Thomas

Craft travel packages are booming. As well as companies offering specialist tours of craft centres, many practitioners are sharing their local knowledge and contacts with specialist travel packages. Such tours can have many benefits. For the participants, they help deepen their appreciation of the crafts through the immersive experience of place. As has been the case with pilgrimages in the past, these exceptions from daily routine can give overall meaning to the shape of a life. For the hosts, these visits can be an important source of recognition and pride in their community. There’s also the material benefit of sales and sometimes fees for entertaining guests. But there are also questions raised. What are the basic ethical principles that should be followed during craft travel?  As we move into the “experience economy”, people seem to be buying less and valuing more what can be shared with family and friends. Should artisans expect to be paid for a visit or does this contradict the core value of hospitality? Listen to our discussion, featuring: Julia Raath Swadha Sonu and Gopesh Singh from Kamalan Travel Fiona Wright from Pushkar, Rajasthan Sahr Bashir Layla Walter This was recorded on Tuesday 29 October 2019. 

To meet makers in distant lands: A global discussion

Genevieve Weber follows up her article Gratitude in the Archives with an account of how she became an archivist and the role that "radical empathy" plays in her custodianship of historical Canadian documents. We learn about the history of Residency Schools and the resulting Truth and Reconciliation Commission. 

Genevieve Weber on "radical empathy" as an archivist

We talk with Aarti Kawlra, author of We Who Wove the Lotus Thread, about her intellectual journey in the crafts and the development of a pan-Asian sensibility. Kawlra also reflects on the nature of caste in India as a social construction. 

A conversation with Indian craft scholar Aarti Kawlra

The stories behind what we make. Over a five year journey of the Indo-Pacific, we explore beautiful and thoughtful objects. What do these objects tell us about our world today? We see a striking revival of ancient traditions that re-orients us to the future.

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