Page 254 - Constructing Craft

Women Only

Rather than attempt to challenge the validity of the dominant art world élite ‒ but

also to make a statement about the effect of that dominance ‒ some women
responded to their exclusion from male-dominated establishments by displaying

their work in women-only exhibitions or galleries dedicated to showing only
women’s work. This form of ‘cultural feminism’ was criticised by some women as a

retreat into women’s culture because it appeared to neglect important issues such

as employment, health, education and social welfare, but it helped raise the profile
of craftswomen.

Events celebrating important milestones in the lives of women also provided
opportunities for craftswomen to display their work and were seen as statements

about craft. In 1979 a women’s arts festival was held in Christchurch – a weekend
of displays and activities – and in the same year the Waikato Art Museum displayed

korowai cloaks made by Rangimarie Hetit and Diggeress Te Kanawa to coincide
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with the United Women’s Convention held in Auckland. In the 1970s and 1980s,
feminist exhibitions making a political declaration usually combined paintings and

sculpture with written statements by the artists to explain their aims. Such
statements offended male Modernists who believed ‘that politics (in this case
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feminism) spoiled art, which should be “universal” and “sexless”’. Craftswomen
were less inclined to make overt political statements, but exhibiting with women

painters and sculptors in conjunction with women’s conventions implied that they
held similar views. In the late-1970s craft and feminism received international

validation through an exhibition in the United States.

Constructing Craft