LAGUNA EXHIBITION BLENDS HIGH TECH WITH HIGH CRAFT

After viewing “Craft Today: Poetry of the Physical,” which opens today at the Laguna Art Museum, one thing is clear: Crafts have progressed considerably since macrame and beads were the rage in the 1960s.

There is no prevailing stylistic trend dominating the more than 300 pieces in the multimedia exhibit examining American crafts in the 1980s, although many of the 286 artists have created works that emphasize technology and post-modern aesthetics.

The traveling exhibit, which continues through Oct. 4 at both the main and satellite locations of the museum, features a diverse range of pieces that blend high tech with high craft. Paul Seide’s twisted, glowing glass construction, “Frosted Radio Light” is charged with inert gas. Vernon Reed incorporates a microcomputer into the design of his choker, “Cyberscape Zero.”

“2-D Thonet” by Capistrano Beach-based artist John Cederquista is an illusionistic wooden sculpture that resembles a chair but does not accommodate a sitter.

Cederquist, a Saddleback Community College instructor, said technology has played an integral role in the development of contemporary crafts.

“There are a lot of us (craftsmen) using technology in very traditional ways, but I think we’ve brought contemporary design elements to it,” he said in a recent interview at the museum. “The technology has been made more available to us, and we are finding our way through it. We may be exploring it more than fine artists do--you may find they are stuck with more traditional techniques.

“One of the things you’ll see in the show, compared to the stuff done in the ‘60s and ‘70s, is more exploration. We can go piece by piece and see how technology has affected the work. Without the technology, it would be real boring. It adds a personal challenge to master it, and it’s exciting what it does to the art.”

The curator for “Craft Today” is Paul Smith, director of the American Craft Museum in New York. It is billed as the largest crafts exhibit assembled since “Objects USA” in 1969. The exhibit, which displays sculpture, furniture, vessels, design objects, clothing and jewelry, is composed of clay, fiber, glass, wood and metal works by such artists as Viola Frey, Sam Maloof, Robert Arneson and Peter Voulkos. The exhibit was organized to commemorate the American Craft Museum’s 30th anniversary and the Laguna Art Museum’s relocation in 1986.

In the catalogue, Smith writes that craft “refers to the creation of original objects through an artist’s disciplined manipulation of material. Historically, craft was identified with producing objects that were necessary for life.”

Now, Smith said, crafts don’t adhere to such a rigid definition. He said crafts in the 1980s are “more sophisticated and refined” than they were during the crafts boom of the 1960s.

“In the ‘60s, things began to open and people began to explore whole new ideas, whole new aesthetics,” Smith said in a phone interview from his New York home. “But a lot of that was just trying things for the sake of trying them. When one looks at crafts today, the art is better. It’s more cohesive in terms of statement.”

The exhibit is divided into four categories to highlight the artists’ intent: “The Object as Statement”; “The Object Made for Use”; “The Object as Vessel,” and “The Object for Personal Adornment.”

Some of the works in “Craft Today” emphasize utilitarian functions--such as Belmont Freeman’s quite operational “Bird Cage”--while others are more geared for the “fine art” arena, such as Stephen Dale Edwards’ “Man,” a primitivistic concrete-and-glass bust.

“The barriers between what’s art and what’s craft have been broken down for quite a while,” said the exhibit’s preparator, Tom Dowling, in a recent interview at the museum.

“The vast majority of these works are not functional--they may allude to function, but they really aren’t. This is art. The materials may be traditional craft materials, but this is the state of the art in this country.”

Curator Smith said crafts are benefiting from the current resurgence of popularity in the arts nationally. Yet despite the increasing patronage, craftsmen continually have to fight the “crafts” label.

“We do suffer from the word ‘craft’ being a second-citizen category,” Smith said. “We’re hoping this exhibition will (help change that).”

Craft, he said, is “not a second-citizen category of activity, but perhaps represents some of the greatest vitality of what’s happening in the visual arts today.”

Cederquist, who would rather be called an “artist” than a “craftsman,” said: “I think it’s an unfortunate thing that somehow we had to develop this relationship between the craft world and the art world. Even the title of the catalogue had to have that (reference) on it. It’s the problem of the word (craft).”

The Laguna Art Museum is at 307 Cliff Drive in Laguna Beach. The satellite gallery is at South Coast Plaza, 3333 Bristol St., Costa Mesa.