Curatorial fellowship
29 July 2021
Artisa Foundation Inaugural Fellow Shai Akram reclassifies the Crafts Council Collection
29 July 2021
Inaugural Artisa fellow, Shai Akram
In 2019 the Artisa Foundation selected the Crafts Council as the recipient of the Curatorial Fellowship — a programme designed to support mid-career curators in developing their critical practice.
A call for applications invited ambitious proposals that make use of our primary collection and handling collection of contemporary craft - an archive that spans 50 years of making in the UK. The opportunity attracted 26 submissions from a diverse range of creative backgrounds, with the successful applicant set to receive a grant of £7,500 for the fellowship period, covering stipend and production. The selection panel included our head of exhibitions and collections Annabelle Campbell, Artisa director Adriana Paice, Chisenhale Gallery’s Zoe Whitley, and artist-maker Matt Smith.
“We were struck by Shai's desire to understand the deeper narrative around each piece as much as the resulting display. Every conversation has stimulated new connections between works that are already familiar friends to the Collections team.”
- Annabelle Campbell, head of exhibitions and collections
In November 2019, the Crafts Council’s inaugural Artisa Fellowship was awarded to designer, educator and researcher Shai Akram. With a background in design-thinking and localised manufacturing techniques, Shai’s expertise was uniquely positioned to reveal new narratives in our collection whilst making craft more accessible to a non-specialist audience.
The original proposal aimed for a public showcase in the Crafts Council Gallery, allowing visitors and staff to contemplate how craft is contextualised, categorised and discussed. In Spring 2020 the global spread of Covid-19 led to nationwide lockdowns and a project extension was granted. Working with the Collections team, Shai pivoted to an online output and the resulting report Machine ghosts and scissorhands: reclassifying a craft collection is now available to read online - see below.
Research aims
Over the course of six months, Shai deconstructed universally accepted museum frameworks and systems to identify new connections between objects and their manufacturing roots. The selection criteria required objects to be 'clearly impacted by the active intelligence of a human hand'. Shai's work highlighted two objectives:
- To expose making processes as a language independent of material, scale or outcome.
- To identify and explore the verbs that are arranged and rearranged throughout the journey of a material to an object.
Research themes
Instead of looking for differences, the research sought to identify characteristics that could unite and enhance our understanding of objects. Shai describes production as a ‘sliding scale’ in which we can find ways to cross-pollinate and take advantage of the ‘symbiotic relationship’ between craft and industry. Over thirty objects made the final selection in response to three key themes...
1) Variations on a blank
Items that share a repeated starting point or common and uniform repeated part. The beginning is always the same before hand manipulation interrupts the making process.
Pot, Hans Coper, 1972, Crafts Council Collection (P40). Photo: John Hammond
2) Disrupting a process
Items that demonstrate mind and machine working together or a deviation from the rules to challenge the limits of tools and technology.
Tablet-Woven Belts, Peter Collingwood, 1982, Crafts Council Collection (T66). Photo: Heini Schneebeli Photograph, Installation view of 'Weaving', photographer unknown, 1981, Crafts Council Collection (AM171)
3) Off-plinth
Items that are removed from their usual context (e.g a factory floor or foundry workshop) into new environments that shift the focus from outcome to process. Not necessarily a physical object, these items may be 4D, performative, ephemeral or ‘off-plinth’.
Wire Frame Reversible Bench, Shin & Tomoko Azumi, 2006, Crafts Council Collection (W156). Photo: Heini Schneebeli Felt Chair and Footstool, Jane Atfield, 1992, Craft Council Collection (W105.2)
Long-term impact
In a post-covid world that sees makers embracing technology now more than ever, Shai’s reclassification framework shines a light on the role of tools as an extension of self, stating; “We’ve travelled through a period of fascination with machines and then a rejection in favour of hand-made craft that celebrates flaws, but now there’s a splicing of humans and machines, a melding together. You are the making, there’s no separation between your tools and your art”. The manufacturing world must grant makers access to their facilities, so that human, machine and material may work in harmony, inventing new possibilities for innovation.
The research also emphasises the value of language, proposing that ‘making’ is an enduringly complex verb that defies the categorisations of craft and industry. With this in mind, museological terms should reflect the human act of making as much as the artist-maker to provoke new and intriguing groupings that reflect how everyday people connect with objects.
“The collection could be cut in so many ways using synonyms and more intellectual rigour to make it accessible to everyone. There is no single or correct way to group objects. Different starting points lead to different readings.”
- Hannah Ford, programmes producer
As a result of the Artisa fellowship, we are further committed to the early documentation of acquisitions. We hope to see a similarly holistic approach adopted across the cultural sector, with museums and galleries nationwide centring the act of making in their classification of objects.
Reflecting on the digital outcome, Annabelle said ‘It’s been really refreshing to see a different outcome - partly enforced by covid but also informed by Shai’s research and the need for an ongoing, provocative debate that presents new possibilities. Exhibitions are a point in time, they are a moment - whereas this curatorial research will embed in ways we don’t even know yet!'.
Download the research report
Peg collection from around the world, Shai Akram for The Mantelpiece exhibition, curated by Kerry Curtis, 2010
About Shai Akram
Shai Akram is a maker-designer and co-founder of Studio Alt Shift, a London based practice set up in 2006 with Andrew Haythornthwaite. The studio is dedicated to the design and research of spaces, furniture and lighting through experimentation and production.
Shai graduated from the Royal College of Art with a Masters degree in Design Products. Under the mentorship of designer-architect Ron Arad, Shai’s work emphasised the importance of collaboration and intelligent making. Since graduating, Shai’s academic contributions have continued at Bath Spa University, where she wrote an undergraduate programme titled ‘Three-dimensional Design; Idea, Material, Object’ and at the University of the Arts London where she teaches material culture philosophies.
From commercial interiors and exhibition design to furniture collections and bespoke products, nowadays Shai’s work can be found in the permanent collections of Design Museum, London and MoMA, New York.
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About Artisa
The Artisa Foundation is a charity that fosters professional development in the visual arts, working with universities, museums and other cultural bodies to develop new awards, fellowships and residencies. The foundation focuses on supporting the development of curatorial roles within leading arts organisations, offering graduates a multifaceted, immersive experience to act as a stepping stone towards the next stage of their career.
For more information please visit artisaorg.uk
