The stubborn boundary between “art” and “craft”, itself a puzzling and arbitrary division, is often reinforced in contemporary art settings. “Art” is deemed to be conceptually sophisticated and relevant, while “craft” is the unoriginal repetition of tradition.
At the Centre for Heritage Arts and Textile (Chat) in Hong Kong, that hierarchy comes tumbling down.
At the new exhibition titled “Lining Revealed – A Journey Through Folk Wisdom and Contemporary Vision”, the distinction between art and craft fades as soon as you walk among the exquisite pieces made from straw weaving, beadwork and patchwork, paper craft, embroidery, and other traditional techniques, as every single work has strong connections to our contemporary realities.
“Folk craft and contemporary art are often considered two totally separate worlds, but in this exhibition I want to display them together to create a dialogue,” says Wang Weiwei, the curator of the show.
“From my perspective, I see folk craft and contemporary art actually representing people’s most fundamental desire for creation, for expression, for carrying knowledge and appreciating the world, and respecting our ancestors. They are not exactly the same, but they share a lot that is universal.”
To explore these themes, Wang has invited 13 artists and craftspeople from mainland China, Indonesia, Turkey, Kazakhstan, South Korea, Japan, Azerbaijan and Hong Kong, each working in different media.
