ze pracrices | prariques Re-Negotiating Materiality: Craft Knowledge and Contemporary Art This portfolio acknowledges and represents the diversity of positions enacted by artists who are re-negotiating materiality in their work by using knowledge that is craft-based. As seen in recent contemporary art exhibitions, artists’ knowledge of craft materials, processes, skills, and discourses enrich the re-materialization of artistic practices.’ To name a few well-known examples: Shary Boyle, who represented Canada at the 2013 Venice Biennale, makes, among other works, intricate ceramics figurines; 2014 Sobey award recipient Nadia Myre, a Quebec- based Algonquin artist, creates beadwork for political impact; Shannon Bool, Chris Curreri, and Haegue Yang, whose works were exhibited at LeGrand Balcon—the 2016 MAC Biennale—use respectively jacquard tapestry weaving, ceramic throwing, and basketry to support diverse conceptual positions, including queer politics. Whether they embrace the ready-made or found object, optto make their own pieces, have them made by others in small workshops, or employ a combination of methods, these artists intentionally reframe conventional narratives of production through deliberate choices of making and materials. They embrace conceptual, procedural, and process-based art, while at the same time relying on craft skills.* They do not employ tacit knowledge to fetishize the handmade; rather, their gesture is a critical one that suggests a different form of ethical engagement. This re-negotiation of materiality through craft knowledge has broader implications. Itis interwoven with ongoing cross-disciplinary reflections on new materialisms, that is, innovative materialist critiques that are emerging across the social sciences and humanities, as well asin the sciences. In these critiques, matter and processes of materialization are re-conceptualized origine dela sectionPratiques remonte’une demande ds arises mmembresdel nave desire, 6s revses devoirplusde raauxd artistes onternporainscirculerdanslecadre eRACAR Leformatvsed multiplier lesrencontres posiblesentreunethé matiqueacueleetsespratiien nes. es buitarstersoliht.e.schok -issentcommemoded expression lesmésersd'atetfouerploent des pratiqueranisnaes lvagaité un ‘ypederflxvitéquipaseparune ‘Rougoiion dearer des ‘zureseteursprocesssau moyen ‘essoifareatsanaux Cetere négocation parla connaissance 3 ‘anaes des implications aries. Ces rises etleurs cues contibvent udlscoursdescrtiquesmatéaltes Spparaes dans diferent domaines ‘ausnoi 'Nouravons demandéachaquear- tistedesoumettreuneimageet une ‘courte description deleureeurela lumitredenotrethématigue 2. Miele Peron, "The eater ination odes," Suo mage Fal Wi teraoni2: 30-34 2 Prcsantemphaszesthe"pro- ces of makingaaterthan apredeter- Fined pn/procedure Procedural ati, Take othe dgtalresimandemp Szespoceduralgererationasamethod tereting nformstonalpoerm cals ElzaAuswerkiseempayofanew combinalonof procedural werkand rranalvork 3, Buthchamber, “Messing wth Aolingan Meaning ncurencea® Media" abet ao 2 inte 3038)toaddress ethical and political concems. Significant aspects ofthese accounts include a post-humanist con- ception of matter as enlivened, as exhibiting agency, and asteengaged with both the material realities of everyday life and ts broader geopolitical and socioeconomic struc- tures.* Through this material agency the meaning of craft isre-located through a re-view ofits longembrace with. the quotidian and with questions of labour. ‘The material and conceptual interrogations seen in these practices have contributed to a reconceptualiza- tion ofthe fluid borders between design, craft, art, and the maker's movement.® Craft theorist Glenn Adam- son observes that post-secondary education in many art schoolsis, toa large extent, responsible for "anew breed of post-disciplinary artists." Signs ofthis attitude are already emergingin the workof some wide-open minded ast with extensive ta craft media. They ce their silenot scinherentlyvaltable ‘orideologicaly comet, butasa neutral tool—awayto invest theie work with authorty—and aso 25 atopic, which an be submitted tote same introspection as any othe term in the anit equation * Other contributors to an analysis of post-disciplinary prac- tices include craft theorist David Pye and arthistorians Ezra Shales and John Roberts, who argue for more nuanced interpretations of artisanal labour, skilled production, & Pracices| Pratiques ‘mechanization, and factory handcraft. Disciplinary exper- tise is concurrent praised and refuted through an aticu- lation of making that revisits the triad of skil/deskilling/ reskilling, wherein reskiling bridges the gap between ‘material and immaterial labour. In his examination of fabour in design, manufacturing, and craft, Pye argues for a conception of workmanship that drifts between riskand certainty as an alternative to polarized “made by hand! vs “made by machine" thinking. Roberts proposes a alternative to disciplinary distinctions by positing product- ive (artistic) and non-productive (non-artstc) forms of labour ina dyad of deskilling/reskilling whereby the pro- ess ofreskilling integrates what an artist does materially (through craft) and immaterially (through concept) to Create meaningful artworks. Shalesis similarly unwilling todifferentiate “where craftsmanship ends and ordinary manufacture begins,” goings far as to propose that manufacturing be recognized asa neglected “Other” in his argument foran inclusive definition of significant objects.” Inthis Practices section, we present the work of eight Canadian artists in support of broadening interrogations (of materialism and post-disciplinarity. They enact the range of new approaches described above. 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