The Loewe Foundation Crafts Prize, founded in 2016, is already a venerable institution. Set by Loewe creative director Jonathan Anderson, highlights how far the art has come, not only in technique but also in reputation. If ceramics, tapestries or glass are increasingly considered “art”, it is partly thanks to awards like this one. When it was launched, “ultimately, there was no global award for craftsmanship,” says Anderson, whose obsession began when he was 21, with a salad bowl of Lucia laughs. At first it was difficult to get people to apply, he says, but this year they received 3,900 submissions. “It’s become an award that has changed people’s careers,” Anderson says. Jury member Deyan Sudjic, director emeritus of the Design Museum, adds: “The line between design, art and craft is eroding.”
This year’s Award featured 30 finalists from 16 countries and regions. The winner, the Mexican Andrés Anza, was announced yesterday afternoon by I only know what I have seen, a bright, menacing piece of ceramic that could be a cactus or a deep sea creature; was chosen by a jury made up of Anderson, the president of the Loewe Foundation, Celia Loewe, Sudjic, ceramist Magdalena Odundo and last year’s winner, Eriko Inazaki. “It was a very intense deliberation,” Anderson says, but the decision was unanimous. (Actor Aubrey Plaza presented Anza with his award.)
Here are some takeaways from this year’s edition.
Those cow intestines look good on you
The Prize always has a good line of surprising materials. This year we have rubber tires and seashells, but the piece de resistance is blue bird wings by Eunmi Chun: an elegant, oversized turquoise necklace whose “feathers” are actually made from cow’s small intestine.
Chun, who is from the Republic of Korea, had been looking for a new, sustainable material to work with; something she could take “from the earth” and return to it. A cow’s small intestine measures 18 meters long, but she still needed several to make her “wings,” constructed once the intestines were dried and dyed, and then sewn together. And yes, you can use it.
You can touch! (Maybe)
Craftsmanship is defined by the materials used, but there is a fine line as to whether it can be tactile. Ikuya Sagara from Japan positively encourages you to play reminiscent wind, an elegant piece of Japanese rice and grass straw thatched on a wooden board. Brushing it with your fingers is like touching particularly tall toast.
Other manufacturers wince if you get too close. Emmanuel Boos has received a worthy mention for like a laymana narrow coffee table in porcelain, black tenmoku and wood, which can be assembled and reassembled thanks to its 98 loose hollow bricks.
But it’s not something you should play with: black glaze is incredibly difficult to get on porcelain and can be easily scratched by clumsy fingers. Then there’s Ange Dakouo’s. Grigris Harmony, a lace work that has protective qualities, according to the Malian artist; a “grigris”. Considering its venerable quality, it is best to avoid stroking its tassels.
Always return to nature.
Profusion of shapes this year reminiscent of the natural world: Racso Jugarap echinoida spiky mix of galvanized iron, gold leaf and resin that resembles a disco sea urchin; holly shell, by Alison Croney Moses, made of curved holly wood, evokes a seashell; Weon Rhee’s Primitive structures (botanical) It is a small coffee table that looks like two mushrooms; while the winner, Andrés Anza, has made a totemic and thorny piece that could be a plant or a beast.
The observation that the surface evokes an oversized lychee does not surprise Anza: “I get it a lot,” she sighs.
A message matters
Craft is not immune to politics. Raven Halfmoon’s monumental piece Weeping Willow WomenMade of ceramic glaze, it is painted a bloody red, a reference to the murder of indigenous women in the US (Halfmoon has ancestors from the Caddo nation and uses Caddo ceramic traditions here).
Kazuhiro Toyama’s large bowl is made of cracked copper, which speaks to “social and environmental collapse.”
And Kevin Gray Displaced was inspired by a Birmingham resident who heard how many people were displaced around the world. The circularity of the piece, almost a hollowed bowl, refers to the endless journey of these people; Its hard, serrated edges, made of bronze, nod to the harshness of the conditions.
Oversized jewelry please.
In a series of display cases, the three “jewel box” finalists are the center of attention, and the items are defiantly strange. Everyone has fun playing with size and color. Norman Weber uses 3D-printed plastic and acrylic to produce lush, color-pop brooches; Karl Fritsch pukaná It is a set of five rings where synthetic gemstones protrude almost randomly from the bands.
One of the special mentions, the Japanese Miki Asai, has produced works that at first seem tiny: small evocations of vases and vessels. She is called Still life. The work has been meticulous: the artist separates seashells and then applies them to the surface with tweezers. When you realize that these are rings that you can wear on one finger or even two, it turns out that they are actually quite large.
The totems are in…
The totem is back in fashion; here, both the winner and Saar Scheerlings Talisman Sculpture: The Column Evoke its classic structure. However, neither of them claims to have any great spiritual practice.
In Scheerlings’ case, the real story is in the fabric used: his “totem” is assembled from dozens of pieces cut from old mattresses, which he has covered with sleeves made from old French linen and tied with rope. He bought 30 mattresses from a man who had bought them from old hotels, thinking he could resell them, “but nobody wants old mattresses,” he says.
…just like African threads
An entire generation of artists, often from the African diaspora, are weaving threads at work, evoking their culture and heritage. Among the finalists for the award were three artists who have produced very different types of wall hangings.
Ozioma Onuzulike from Nigeria has created a large handmade “pottery tapestry” from clay palm kernel shells woven with copper wire, nodding to prestigious African textiles such as aso-oke. Patricio Bongoy CY15 interweaves something very different: recycled rubber from old tires, valves and old metal cables. And Dakouo’s Grigris Harmony It is based on a grid of briquettes covered with newspaper, then covered with cotton thread and cowrie shells. He hopes it will protect his fellow Malians in a country torn apart by jihadism. As for the newspaper itself, it’s a nod to his father, who was a printer, so when you glimpse the words “Julie Burchill” between the threads, there’s apparently no deeper meaning.
Japan and Korea continue to raise the bar
Japan and Korea (along with the United States) had the most finalists this year, with five each. These are countries where the craft is established and respected – almost every day, says Eriko Inazaki, the Japanese winner of last year’s edition. “Craftsmanship is perceived in a very different way there,” says Anderson. “He is more protected.” Why are the Japanese doing well? “The will, the determination!” Inazaki says. The Japanese, he says, “have the will to move forward.”
Sheila Loewe, from the fifth generation of the Loewe family who founded the brand in Madrid in 1846, says it was particularly good to see Anza win this year, as it has been harder to find entrants from Latin America or India. “A winner from Mexico will give the world a very, very strong message,” says Loewe, “that the world is big; it’s not always the same places that have the most beautiful pieces.”