>[!NOTE]+ Meta Author:: [[Aarti Kawlra]] Reference:: https://garlandmag.com/loop/wheel-kawlra/ Date:: 2020-10-21 Tags:: #warp/talk #Japan #India WeftLinks:: [[Reinventing the Wheel]] [[Cultural value of craft]] ### Summary <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/cYoTeaqI2aM" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe> #### Introduction by Kevin Murray Reinventing the Wheel aims to develop a discourse about craft that is open to the many different cultures in the wider world. Craft knowledge keepers will share with us how their own culture has valued work of the hand. It is part of a broader project to develop a knowledge house where we can share our learnings about craft. The wheel is a classic symbol of innovation, signifying the evolution of a civilisation. It is critical to many crafts such as ceramics and textiles. But it also represents a singular track of development, implying a superiority of wheel-based cultures. The wheel has other associations, as we will learn this evening. To quote [[Mahatma Gandhi]], "The music of the wheel will be as balm to your soul. I believe that the yarn we spin is capable of mending the broken warp and woof of our life". But as well as learning about craft, we also face a challenge of learning how to talk with each other. Rather than default to abstract formal academic discourse, it seems important to start by finding a way to dwell on our difference. Reinventing the Wheel follows a highly successful series Tok Stori, featuring object-tellers from across Moana. These talks began with a statement in language from Lagi Maama, in the persons of [[Kolokesa Uafā Māhina-Tuai]] and [[Barbara Makuati-Afitu]]. I'll let Kolokesa introduce the source of the Tongan concept of *fakatapu* which offers us a model for how we might begin these gatherings. Then to start us off, I would like to call on [[Hyeyoung Cho]] from South Korea to offer a salutation in her Korean language. Hyeyoung Cho is Secretary General, Korea Craft and Design Foundation, previous director of the Cheongju International Craft Biennale and a wonderful advocate for her culture. I'd now like to introduce [[Aarti Kawlra]] to share her understanding of a key journey in India craft. Aarti Kawlra is a scholar affiliated to the International Institute of Asian Studies in Leiden The Netherlands. She is the author of many articles and her book We Who Wove with Lotus Thread is featured in Garland and is a wonderful telling of the Padma Saliyars caste of sari weavers, and reflects a new generation of Indian crafts scholarship which is in partnership with its artisan subjects. This evening Aarti will share with us her understanding of Indian craft in the early 20th century and the role it played in the broader decolonial process across Asia. #### Learnings from talk by [[Aarti Kawlra]] After a warm introduction in [Tongan ]([[Tonga]])from Kolokesa Uafā Māhina-Tuai, we heard from Professor Hūfanga-He-Ako-Moe-Lotu Dr ‘Ōkusitino Māhina about the way heart and mind are inseparable in Tongan culture. Fakatapu brings together minds and hearts. We leave the chaos and come to a common point, where we can both connect and separate. We are here to investigate, transform and communicate. A fakatapu sets the scene. It brings symmetry, harmony and beauty. To acknowledge the different languages present in the conversation, [[Hyeyoung Cho]] offered some Korean words. She spoke about the core of the craft movement in Korea as a combination of heart, hand and mind and immersion in nature. It is a period of Gong-saeng "co-survival" and Gong-jon "co-existence" with nature. #SouthKorea Under British rule, the crafts in India were framed as "backward", reflecting a lost splendour that had no place in the modern world. British schools in India produced compliant artisans who conformed to a standard of authenticity as timeless To [[Rabindranath Tagore]], as an Indian and colonial subject, this was humiliating. He was emboldened by his experience in Japan to consider the East with its own path that diverged from Western materialism. In response, he established Shantiniketan in 1901, modelled on the ancient gurukul system. This expanded to a university, Visva Bharati: "the whole world meets in one nest." [[Rabindranath Tagore]] hoped to blend the East and West in a milieu that fostered creative play. He invited many Westerners to help, such a Leonard Elmhirst. In the context of the independence struggle, [[Rabindranath Tagore]]'s understanding of swadeshi (self-reliance) focused on samaj, or the collective life. By contrast, Gandhi was inspired by Western thinkers such as [[John Ruskin]] to see salvation in labour, as symbolised by the spinning wheel. For Gandhi, education was a matter of "earning while learning" and "bread labour". In this he was inspired by Dr Kumarappa's *Economy of Permanence*, Schumacher's *Small is Beautiful* and Radhakamal Mukerjee's *The Foundations of Indian Economics*. [[Rabindranath Tagore]] saw Gandhi's model as fostering drudgery and boredom. Leading up to World War 2, there was a wave of thinking about the potential of an Asian version of modernity. [[Ananda Kentish Coomaraswamy]] joined [[Rabindranath Tagore]]'s circle and looked to the Japanese, particularly Yanagi. Meanwhile, [[Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay]] tied craft to socialism in independent India, advocating for the "self-conscious way of life of the artisan" in the Global South, as opposed to the mindlessness of factory worker. She admired greatly the way Japan taught a sensitivity to craft. With these values, she established the Crafts Council of India alongside the World Crafts Council, which included awards for "Master Craftsman" parallel to the Japanese model of "living treasure". However, Japan took a different course of industrialisation of craft not found in India. In India there was rural reconstruction involving small-scale industries like soap-making an oil-pressing. #Japan [[Hyeyoung Cho]] felt that we are still in the process of decolonisation. Much Korean craft was exposed through [Yanagi]([[Yanagi Sōetsu]]) and [[Bernard Leach]]. The Korean word kong-ei is a combination of "skill and aesthetics" is very different from its Japanese interpretation. There is still sensitivity about the period 1910-1935. Industrialisation occurred in the 1930s led by Japanese. This extracted many resources from Korea. Koreans continued the industrial path after the Japanese left. The Korean craft movement began in the 1950s after the devastation of the Korean War, with the influence of Britain, USA, France and Russia. The government passed a law for universities to find Korean heritage. From 1960 onwards, craft became an academic subject. So there was a two-track development: the artisan and academic (influence by USA and Japan). Today, with the new Seoul Museum of Craft Art, the decision was to follow the Japanese concept of Kogei as "craft art" allowing the collection to be expanded. [[kôgei 工藝 - Japanese for craft]] Professor Mahina noted the positive influence of [[Rabindranath Tagore]] in Tonga and recalled fondly performing one of his plays at school. He also acknowledged the flow of energy from hand to heart and mind. Questions left over were: Given the association of craft with cultural heritage in India, the question is posed, heritage for who? For the state, for humanity, for tourism or for the artisan communities? We look forward to hearing about the [[One Village One Product]] movement of the late 20th century, which originated in Japan but seems to embrace the path of rural regeneration found in India. [[Question - Is self-consciousness a problem for craft]] Yanagi's "unknown craftsman" seems to celebrate craft as a transcendence of selfhood and self-consciousness". How does this compare with Kamaladevi? [[Question - What is the Asian perspective on craft]] We look forward to hearing about the comparative path of craft in the Arab world. Was this also framed within anti-Western discourse? How does the discourse of authenticity evolve in Europe, with say, the Sami in Norway? What role does craft place in the development of "socialism in one country" as found in China? Is there a same celebration of "self-consciousness" as promoted by Kamaladevi? #China