Page 230 - Constructing Craft

Craft as a Symbol of National Pride: Expo ‘92

Commissioned craft reached a peak of acceptance in 1992 when crafts (mainly
ceramic work) were employed to promote New Zealand at the world expo in Seville.

It was suggested that the purpose of the expenditure by the government and

corporations was motivated by the desire to ‘imprint the brand name of New
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Zealand Incorporated upon the minds and wallets of potential trading partners’. In
1991 fourteen craftspeople working mostly in clay were commissioned to produce a
massive display, both in terms of the size of the pieces and in numbers, for the New

Zealand pavilion at Expo ‘92 in Seville. James Mack, the exhibition designer and
curator, in a statement loaded with hyperbole, tried to link the works with the notion

of national character. He stated that he ‘chose ceramics as the medium to represent

this country in this way “mainly because I believe it is the branch of the arts making
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the strongest portrayal of who and what we are as New Zealanders.”’ Mack was at
the time the Director of The Dowse Art Museum in Lower Hutt, which had gained a

reputation for its willingness to exhibit New Zealand craft when most other public
galleries would not.

Ann Robinson’s Pacific bowl at Expo ‘92 in Seville. Photo: Alexander
Turnbull Library.

Constructing Craft