I've wanted to do scientific lamp work for a long time but I wasn't sure what the material could offer or what was available in pre-fabricated glass. And while I might blow glass for several hours a week and successfully produce several objects in that week, in lamp working I can work for hours and only produce one thing, and then it breaks. And that's because I don't know how to do it. I haven't been doing it for thirty years. But working with my mentor, [who asks me about what I've done this week], it's made me want to show him that I really appreciate the time he puts in, but also to feel confident that I will get to my end result over a period of time.
Gabriella Bisetto, Trades participant

Trades is a Craftsouth project linking craft, design and visual arts practitioners with tradespeople. Eight artists ₁ are undertaking working partnerships with eight tradespeople through which new work will be developed and produced in response to this developmental process. Trades will culminate in an exhibition presented in partnership with JamFactory Craft and Design from 25 October - 3 December 2008. The exhibition will be accompanied by a catalogue featuring essays by Kevin Murray ₂ and Mark Thomson. ₃

Gabriella Bisetto, glass artist with
Monty Clements, scientific lamp worker

The Trades partnerships include: David Archer (sculptor) with Rod Archer (plumber); Gabriella Bisetto (glass artist) with Monty Clements (scientific lamp worker); Annabelle Collett (textile artist) with Jethro Adams (electrician); Deb Jones (glass artist) with Hugh Gooden (panel beater); Irianna Kanellopoulou (ceramicist) with Kirsten Tibballs (pastry chef); Adrian Potter (furniture designer-maker) with Amy Duncan (tattooist); Maria Parmenter (ceramicist) with Andrew Willsmore (arborist); and Annalise Rees (visual artist) with Jonathon Bowles (carpenter).

Conceived in late 2006 and initiated in 2007, the project developed from a Craftsouth member's interest in working with a tradesperson: not to commission them to produce a product that the artist didn't have the skills, tools or experience to produce themself, but to experience a genuine exchange based on mutual professional interest and respect.

The symbolic importance of craft, Kevin Murray suggests, [is] not just limited to those who practice it as an art form, but [is at the] core of all working practices. ₄ And it is within these terms, through projects such as Trades, that Craftsouth aims to explore the intersection where craft, design, visual art and other industries meet, offering artists the opportunity to experience specific skills and industry knowledge that may not normally be available to them in their day to day work practices.

Kirsten Tibballs, pastry chef

The Trades project model ₅ has provided artists with the opportunity to observe new skills and be exposed to different work-based experiences, ideas and production processes, but it has also given the tradespeople the opportunity to understand artists a little better, while at the same time demonstrating their own skills, expertise and creativity. Participation in Trades is currently informing new directions in the artists' practice, as well as deepening knowledge and understanding between practitioners working in arts and non-arts industries.

For example, Maria Parmenter's ceramic practice to date has been predominantly based on the vessel and sculptural form, exploring the domestic object as a carrier of personal memories. Maria sees participation in Trades as a welcome challenge; an opportunity to experiment outside of her own professional practice, using a diverse range of ideas and working methodologies gleaned from arborist, Andrew Willsmore.

Maria believes that successful contemporary craft practice demands a need for diversity, flexibility and adaptation. And having direct access to a tradesperson is reinforcing the need for artists, such as Maria, to embrace alternative approaches and working methods, as well using alternative mediums to problem solve.

Having spent the majority of her practice to date investigating conceptual issues pertaining to the interior domestic sphere, Maria has chosen to professionally engage with a tradesman who predominately works in the exterior environment. Accompanying Andrew on his jobs provides Maria with an alternative environment for conceptual inspiration, while continuing to touch upon certain elements present in her own practice. Issues surrounding territory, boundaries, form and negative space are considerations an arborist faces during a day's work. ₆

Deb Jones, glass artist with
Hugh Gooden, panel beater

Another example involves artist Deb Jones, who normally works with clear glass. Deb enjoys the purity of clear glass, which she sees as form without substance. She also works with a variety of other media and enjoys working as part of a team on large-scale installation works and public art projects.

She is very interested in the work and skills of professionals from other industries and cultures, and recently worked with Fumio Ueda, a Japanese gardener, to create a collaborative installation which reflected the working styles and cultural influences of both practitioners.

Through the Trades project, Deb is experiencing a creative shift in her artistic repertoire and is regularly spending time alongside panel beater Hugh Gooden immersed in his working methods and techniques. She is respectful of the knowledge, skill and patience that this type of trades professional needs to successfully fashion and produce the perfect automotive form. However, having spent many afternoons and weekends wandering around car wreckers seeking the perfect panel, both Deb and Hugh have finally decided to take a risk. Instead of straightening panels (but still adhering to traditional panel beating methods), they are now accentuating and perfecting the crumpled metal form. Hugh explains that, "this is the total opposite to what you would do with a panel. It's an inversion of what I would normally do. The total opposite, but it's so interesting."

The flexibility of this project model has resulted in a variety of partnership approaches and interactive working arrangements. Both artists and tradespeople have had to be broadminded about their open-ended engagements, and by now have realised that it doesn't always help to pre-empt the exact nature of the creative outcomes. With just over ten weeks remaining before the Trades exhibition, works continue to be produced collaboratively or individually by the artist. Whatever the case may be, whether producing the work alone or together, the outcome reveals a genuine engagement supported by the tradesperson's skills and creative hand.

Niki Vouis
Craftsouth Membership Services and Projects Manager
July, 2008

This project is sponsored by Arts SA Health Promotion Through the Arts and the Visual Arts and Craft Strategy (VACS), an initiative of the Australian, State and Territory Governments.

Footnotes

1. The term "artists" refers to craft, design and visual art practitioners.
2. Kevin Murray is a writer, craft theorist and former Director of Craft Victoria.
3. Mark Thomson is an artist, writer, and author of Rare Trades: Making Things By Hand in the Digital Age (HarperCollins, 2002.)
4. Email dialogue with Kevin Murray, July 2008.
5. Craftsouth has facilitated access to the tradesperson, over twelve months, in a method negotiated and decided upon by all parties involved, in order to gain the greatest exchange of ideas, skills and creative outcomes. We aimed to make this an inclusive and flexible process, where both parties are able to negotiate, exchange ideas, collaborate, give advice or even contribute to the production of new work in a way which best suits them.
6. In conversation with Deb Jones and Hugh Gooden, July 2008.
7. Maria Parmenter, Trades expression of interest, September 2007 and in conversation with Maria, July 2008.