Today when we hear the word “craft,” a whole host of things come immediately to mind: microbreweries, artisanal cheeses, and an array of handmade objects. Craft has become so overused, that it can grate on our ears as pretentious and strain our credulity. But its overuse also reveals just how compelling craft has become in modern life. In The Shape of Craft, Ezra Shales explores some of the key questions of craft: who makes it, what do we mean when we think about a crafted object, where and when crafted objects are made, and what this all means to our understanding of craft. He argues that, beyond the clichés, craft still adds texture to sterile modern homes and it provides many people with a livelihood, not just a hobby. Along the way, Shales upends our definition of what is handcrafted or authentic, revealing the contradictions in our expectations of craft. Craft is—and isn’t—what we think.

The Shape of Craft

Crafts, Hobbies & Home

Shales, Ezra

Crafts & Hobbies

Reaktion Books

Forty years after Lithuanian immigrant George Maciunas began organizing concerts and penning publications in New York, Looking for Mr. Fluxus brings together artists from New York and Central and Eastern Europe to explore the legacy of Fluxus and its transcontinental influence on the contemporary work of emerging artists. This book documents the artwork shown at Art in General and serves as an ongoing Fluxus project with new submissions by the participating artists, an essay by the curators, and an interview with Fluxus founder George Maciunas.

Looking for Mr. Fluxus: In the Footsteps of George Maciunas

Arts & Photography

Brown, Melissa

Turner, Grady T.

Alexa, Cristian

Chang, Patty

Dirzys, Redas

Hailey, Tim

Helgason, Skuta

Hyde, Scott

Jablonskis, Linas

Killoran, Patrick

Liskevicius, Dainius

Lowery, Christopher

Miksys, Darius

Shobrys, Diana

Skersyte, Alma

The So-Called Records

Other Media

Art in General Inc

The animals in Beth Cavenerâ€™s work are better described as avatars, embodiments of persons or emotions that disguise her subjects. In this way she gives her subjects an expanded identity, pairing each with an animal that, to one extent or another, explains or parallels their behavior. The animal reveals the subjectâ€™s primal roots and serves as the lens through which we see the evolution of the subject into a modern being. We ultimately come to understand that the human and the animal are inexorably linked together. The dynamism of Beth Cavenerâ€™s figures comes from the constant shifting in our minds from human to animal. It is kinetic, releasing emotional energy caused by the disparity between what we seeâ€"the animal formâ€"and what we knowâ€"that this is a human portrait. Thus the fascination in Cavenerâ€™s art is perpetual.

Human: The Art of Beth Cavener

CLARK, Garth

Redding, Lauren

Individual Artists

SF Design, llc / FrescoBooks

A fascinating documentation of EarthCloud, the world's largest installation in porcelain in the world.

Wayne Higby - EarthCloud

Reference

Drutt English, Helen W.

McInnes, Mary

Foreign Language Study & Reference

Arnoldsche Verlagsanstalt

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Books by Shales, Ezra