Issue link: http://papercitymagazine.uberflip.com/i/1545128
71 Gjertrud Hals, Norway What craft means to you. F or me, craft is a way to express myself. As a young girl, there were many things I knew I wasn't good at. But I could get attention with what I made with my hands. That gave me confidence — and it still does. The work or artist that inspired you. I n the 1950s, when I grew up, the Norwegian coast was fairly bare of trees, and it was common to heat the houses with peat. My grandparents carried the peat on their back, in a basket woven of twigs. It was functionally designed, wide at the top and narrow at the bottom. When I, many years later, started making baskets, I always had this beautiful shape in mind. Jongjin Park, Republic of Korea What craft means to you. F or me, craft is the root that sustains my life. My journey into this world began simply by majoring in ceramics, but a few pivotal moments and mentors led me to explore the medium with deeper rigor. Currently, I express my craft through a cross-media approach: layering porcelain slip onto paper and firing it to explore the transformation of materials. This "Stratum" series allows me to preserve traditional ceramic values while pushing the boundaries through innovative intervention. Even now, this process remains a vital territory where I find endless questions to solve and new possibilities to test. Furthermore, as an educator, I find that every stage of the ceramic process offers a mirror for self-reflection and life lessons. To me, craft is more than a profession; it's the fundamental grounding of my identity as both an artist and educator. The work or artist that inspired you. W hile many artists have influenced me, the most decisive encounter was with Tony Cragg's Stack, 1975, which I saw at the Tate during my studies in the UK. My experience living in the West was filled with curiosity and unfamiliarity. Discovering Stack — a work from Cragg's own postgraduate years — was a revelation. It challenged my preconceptions through its liberated attitude toward materials and its sheer scale. It was the moment I realized that anything could become art if the premise is right. The energy radiating from those accumulated and condensed layers deeply resonated with me. This inspiration became the aesthetic foundation for my current "Artistic Stratum" series, where I continue to explore the tension and power found in the rhythm of layering. Misako Nakahira, Japan What craft means to you. F or me, craft is a generative process that engages with the questions that inevitably arise in the course of living. It is not limited to the acquisition or transmission of technique; rather, I understand craft as an essential structure for bringing images into being. This understanding took shape through my encounter with weaving. I hold deep respect for the techniques cultivated throughout the history of tapestry. The work or artist that inspired you. Textiles are closely tied to every day life and, for that reason, have often been marginalized within the context of fine art. However, the medium of tapestry has continually q u e s t i o n e d t h i s Dorothea Prühl, Germany What craft means to you. T he hands-on, craft-based work with material is a decisive motivation for me. There is a vague idea; for it to take shape, I connect it from the very beginning with a very specific material. In this process, the material is much more than just a tool — it plays a determining role. It is in this kind of collaborative agreement that the tension lies. The time I need cannot be predicted, because each attempt may fail or become the final result. Models or pen and paper are not suitable for helping me move forward. I need the manual process and the object in my hands. The work or artist that inspired you. D uring my studies at the Burg Giebichenstein University of Art and Design Halle, the metal sculptor Karl Müller was my teacher. He was a wonderful teacher and a great artist. Müller didn't say much. If, during his daily walk-through, he didn't just pass by my workspace but stopped instead, I could assume he was interested in what I was doing. The seriousness and uncompromising nature of his attitude toward the artistic profession initially left me feeling rigid and helpless. But it was precisely this standard that I internalized, and it developed into a driving force of my own. Jane Yang-D'Haene, United States What craft means to you. C raft, to me, i s a w a y o f w o r k i n g through repetition and time. It is built through small, consistent gestures that accumulate. The process is not about perfection, but about allowing marks and layers to remain visible. With clay, craft becomes a way to hold material and process over time. It is slow and does not aim for a fixed end. The work or artist that inspired you. I wasn't influenced by a single work or artist. My interest in craft developed through the process of working with clay and the way repetition and material can build meaning over time. condition from within, embodying both a historical lineage and a sense of contemporaneity. Archie Brennan liberated tapestry from decoration and pictorial representation, directing attention toward its structural and material conditions. While Brennan generated illusions of materiality through weaving, my interest lies in the conditions that make such illusions possible.