Why do we not just 'bite the bullet' and accept that tradition is dead? Our craft has become self-aware. We are free. Where pottery was once the stuff of prescribed, inherited precepts, it is now (in 'westernised' society) the preserve of self-conscious choice. Is not the eclectic vibrancy of contemporary practice proof that we have at last cast our yokes aside? Yet notions of tradition simmer on as an unresolved half-truth. The hackneyed fine art/craft 'divide' is felt now more keenly than ever. Uneasy 'debates' rumble about levels of discourse, emphasising the need for more theoretical and contextual writing and thinking.Our yokes are subtle and invidious. Erudite, incisive analysis is indeed needed, and important work has taken place regarding definitions and delineations. This dissection has had a certain polemic timeliness but I think an important point has been neglected.
展开▼
