ABSTRACT

This book reflects on the methodological challenges and possibilities encountered when researching practices that have been historically defined and classified as ‘craft.’ It fosters an understanding of how methodology, across disciplines, contributes to analytical frameworks within which the subject matter of craft is defined and constructed. The contributions are written by scholars whose work focuses on different craft practices across geographies. Each chapter contains detailed case study material along with theoretical analysis of the research challenges confronted. They provide valuable insight into how methodologies emerge in response to particular research conditions and contexts, addressing issues of decolonization, representation, institutionalization, and power. Informed by anthropology, art history and design, this volume facilitates interdisciplinary discussion and touches on some of the most critical issues related to craft research today.

chapter 1|27 pages

Introduction

chapter 2|18 pages

Critical cloth

The contemporary Toile de Jouy print as postcolonial critique in art and design

chapter 4|15 pages

Narrating indigo

Telling and re-telling subjectivities of craft in India

chapter 7|18 pages

Theorising Indigenous art practice, practicing Indigenous art theories

Māori weaving as research methodology

chapter 8|14 pages

Encountering gendered sociality on field

People and objects in Kashmir

chapter 9|15 pages

“Writing practices” and writing “practices”

Observation and struggle in fieldnotes about artisanal work 1

chapter 10|5 pages

Coda