The Politics of Global Craft

As climate change, war, social injustice, gender and racial inequality, unchecked technology and exploitative capitalism remain urgent issues, the worldwide craft community has responded in notable ways. In this follow-up to Craft is Political (Bloomsbury, 2021), D Wood and contributors demonstrate how global circumstances have given rise to additional craft scholarship that further interrogates the political agency of craft.

With extensive global focus, this book features twenty-two essays on craft and politics that transcend the familiar Euro-American canon and demonstrate change through craft. Particular attention is brought to the Global South with authors writing about Brazil, Chile, India, Laos, Malaysia, Morocco, Nigeria and Thailand.

Chapters look at the erasure of Moroccan women weavers’ stories and digital archiving of Black craftspeople in the USA. They explore pottery and eel pots critical to the identity of Virginian Indian tribes, and women’s roles in Nigeria as depicted in ceramic art. One author reveals the revival of traditional practices in Laos, and another the increasing recognition of previously-maligned Sami people of Sweden.

Essays also explore craft sustainment in Finland, hand loom weaving in colonial north India, women’s craft organizations in Northern Ireland and an Australian textile artist’s exhibition devoted to climate change grief. Craft by LGBTQ artists from Malaysia and Canada is included. The mix of essays is topical, enlightening and intended to be provocative of the political agency of craft.