Amateur Craft: History and Theory

Description

Amateur Craft provides an illuminating and historically-grounded account of amateur craft in the modern era, from 19th-century Sunday painters and amateur carpenters to present day railway modellers and yarnbombers. Stephen Knott's fascinating study explores the curious and unexpected attributes of things made outside standardised models of mass production, arguing that amateur craft practice is ‘differential’ – a temporary moment of control over work that both departs from and informs our productive engagement with the world. Knott's discussion of the theoretical aspects of amateur craft practice is substantiated by historical case studies that cluster around the period 1850–1950. Looking back to the emergence of the modern amateur, he makes reference to contemporary art and design practice that harnesses or exploits amateur conditions of making. From Andy Warhol to Simon Starling, such artistic interest elucidates the mercurial qualities of amateur craft. Invaluable for students and researchers in art and design, contemporary craft, material culture and social history, Amateur Craft counters both the marginalisation and the glorification of amateur craft practice. It is richly illustrated with 55 images, 14 in colour, including 19th century ephemera and works of contemporary art. Cover page Halftitle page Title page Copyright page CONTENTS ILLUSTRATIONS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS INTRODUCTION History of a definition Method and structure 1 Surface Using enamel paint The philosophy of the surface What is needed for amateur surface intervention Paint-by-number kits: popularity, production and appropriation Intervening-by-number: appropriation and paint- by-number as art 2 Space Amateur space and everyday life Amateur labour The late-nineteenth-century ‘professionalization’ of amateur practice The malleability and invisibility of amateur tool organization Everything in its right place: security and possession Everything in its right
place: efficiency/comfort Consuming one’s own tool organization: amateur and retail space The aesthetics of the workstation Making suburbia productive: poultry keeping, 1870–1920 Chickens and eggs, a complicated story 3 Time Is free time free? Critique of the atemporal construction of amateur time Amateur time as displacement: ‘the busman’s holiday’ Amateur railway modelling Experiences of time in amateur railway modelling From bodge to botch The busman’s holiday manifesto NOTES INDEX