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Issue 10: Dante Marioni (US), Free blown glass forms, 1986, ht 35 cm
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In some respects, Craft Arts International is a cele-
bration of the handmade and crafts-people’s hard-won
acceptance into the sphere of Western art. In par-
ticular it is a celebration of the cultural diversity of
contemporary art practice itself, emanating from
all corners of the globe, with special emphasis on
one of the world’s most resilient multicultural soci-
eties: Australia. Since federation of the seven States,
an amalgam of formal fine-art practice (painting
, sculpture), “making do” domestic handicraft (furni-
ture and patchwork) and skilled immigrant artisans
(ceramics, glass, gold and silversmithing) has been
the driving force behind this nation’s stimulating
and eclectic visual art production at the level of both
subject and medium. The emergence of the Arts
and Craft Movement in 19th-century Britain, insti-
gated by John Ruskin and his disciple William
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Morris, to counteract the proliferation of what they
perceived as the dehumanising effect of industrial-
isation, prepared the ground for a revival of craft.
The momentum of this revival shifted to America
where the Arts and Craft Movement encompassed
a broader spectrum sociologically as well as stylis-
tically than its English counterpart. But it was not
until after World War II, when the burgeoning of
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Issue 11: Virginia Kaiser (Australia), 'From
the Far Side of the Ocean', basket
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Issue 12: Alison Britton (UK), 'Blue and
White Jug', 1987, slab-built ceramic, ht 30 cm
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Issue 14: Trudy Billingsley (Australia), 'Sydney Harbour on
a Sunday Afternoon', 1988, art quilt, silk, satin, lurex, cotton,
organza, applqued and beaded, 200 x 220 cm
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Issue 14: Frank Boyden (US), 'Salmon and Raven Vase', 1985,
thrown stoneware with porcelain slips, ht 68.5 cm
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technology, educational resources and automated
mass-production eliminated the need to make by
hand the essentials for living, thereby allowing more
opportunity for leisure, that the contemporary craft
movement really began to develop.
The tenor and character of what we now regard as
the contemporary craft world was cast in the midst
of an epoch of technological revolution and mas-
sive social upheaval, which began in the late 1960s
with the eruption of student unrest, anti-Vietnam
War demonstrations, the civil rights movement and
the emergence of feminism. The collective impact
of these social forces was largely responsible for
ushering in the tenets of postmodernism. The crisis
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