craft is dead: long live craft

The bowl both holds and offers up. The bowl in animated suspension makes that offering more elusive. If a vessel is a subconscious container of secrets, then the secrets of virtual vessels may never be unlocked but paradoxically, in a moment, may also be universally transmitted.

Hobart has been my home for the past year and is a great distance from the familiarity of the far north coast of NSW. In a new place one can see the magic that passes as mundane for the familiar observer. Through photography I collect images of the 'everyday' and compose an order out of those random moments to use as surfaces for the virtual vessels that I create. From the interplay of city lights and water surfaces, reflections occur that are real, metaphorical and profound.

My earlier work utilised compositions created from heavenly bodies, images available from the Hubble space probe, the universe is a big place, it interests me.

The work is neither art nor craft. Somewhere within the creation of images I hope to unravel some of the secrets that hold me apart from the universe. Its a personal journey that may be of interest. There is no meaning.

Ken Ford Hobart, Australia May 1998

Above is my artist statement for the exhibition Craft Is Dead; Long Live Craft at Craft Victoria in May 1998. My contribution to the show was a set of large format inkjet prints. "Reflective States I - IV" Ken Ford 1998

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