Page 92 - Constructing Craft

concerned with their own sphere through to a fervent vilification of the trend for

crafts to seek the status of fine art. The accuracy of his understanding of the
relationship between craft and art in the past was at times questionable, but

because he possessed considerable symbolic capital within craft circles he was
very rarely challenged.

At a conference organised in 1963 to study and make recommendations on the

future of craft in New Zealand, Davis was invited to present his thoughts on how

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craftspeople might organise themselves to meet future challenges. The speech he
gave, entitled ‘The Craftsman Today’, was ostensibly about how the crafts must

adapt and work with modern-day business practices and machinery without

becoming corrupted by crass commercialism. The underlying theme encouraged
craftspeople to experiment, but to avoid being seduced by current trends.

Craft movements of the revivalist type, that is to say all craft
movements today, tend to get bogged down in some sort of cul-
de-sac. There is a tendency to strive for … [the] artistic with the
maximum possible purity. … There is a tendency today to put
creative and artistic vigour in a place of top priority. … Aesthetic
creativity is only one of man’s many creative faculties and this is
why I prefer the concept of human fulfilment for the position of
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number one in a scale of values.

Later he dismissed those who sought the title ‘artist’. ‘[T]here are those who have a
horror of making two things alike. This jeopardises their souls and for them

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craftsmanship is out anyway. They are artists they will tell you.’ Nevertheless, he
was concerned that craftspeople had an opportunity to be creative and he provided

a simple definition of self-expression and creativity.

I have … said that creative gifts are inherent in the nature of
man. Some men who exercise these gifts are called artists, but
these gifts are in some degree peculiar to all men, only most
men never develop them. Why? The answer is that our
materialistic society offers very … little scope for the exercise of
such gifts, … Self-expression is a baffling phrase to many, but
behind it there is a very simple and natural process. The
creative process expressed in its simplest terms is the exercise
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of choice – personal choice.

Constructing Craft