Craft!

Losing Venus. Matt Smith, exhibition at Pitt Rivers Museum 2020-22

Drawing on the fields of ceramics, glass, textiles, jewellery and corpus, Craft! at Konstfack is a wide and expansive field. Craft research is defined not only by the practical and material knowledge, but also by the long history of the field and its theoretical contexts.

Craft! is a relatively young field of research and Konstfack has a key role in the field internationally. The focus of Craft! research at Konstfack is on the material knowledge and practice, and how handmade objects can help us understand, and inform, society and history.

Material is at the core of our research. The handmade, machine and digital production are all utilised to investigate crafts' ability to speak of diversity and pluralism. Materiality is both a source for investigating practical knowledge and the role of material culture in understanding, representing and reflecting society.

The relationship between criticism of norms and craftsmanship is important in the ongoing research, where experimental work with materials and ideas opens up for questioning of social and societal norms and hierarchies of power. The individual and handmade can also serve as a counterweight to the industrially produced and globally manufactured. It addresses questions about different identities, perspectives and personal freedom of action.