Where is the way out for craftsmen?

This article is selected from Yin Jingzhuo's Zhihu.

I don't remember when the revival of traditional arts and crafts became a trend. Collectors from all walks of life are calling for the revival of traditional arts and crafts. It seems that there are idealists everywhere, longing for poetry and distance, and eager to live a slow life of literary elegance. I was excited about this for a long time, but when I tried to join this force, I found that there was never an idealist group. In this hustle and bustle, I hardly feel any "silence" related to "slowness" and "elegance" except the empty excitement. And once there is no "loneliness" as the creative background, I don't believe that I can produce first-class works in the lively crowd.

Undoubtedly, it is the wisest choice to find a way out from the mother culture. It's just that before we launched the slogan "Reviving traditional arts and crafts", we didn't think about giving craftsmen a room to grow up, and no one cared about their future career development direction, and then we couldn't wait to show our spiritual civilization to the world. It is more realistic to open the market eagerly. Of course, there is nothing to criticize and question about establishing cultural self-confidence and opening up the market, but before that, we can't ignore the living conditions and psychological demands of craftsmen. Whether culture and art can prosper or not, we must first pay attention to the creators, which is common sense. As a creative group, craftsmen have never been truly respected. The meager income is the most intuitive embodiment. I don't think anyone would be stupid enough to make a living by craft if it weren't for his heartfelt love and strong desire to create.

Frankly speaking, if it weren't for my mother, I might never pay attention to these craftsmen. Although craftsmen also belong to creative groups, they are more like senior processors of products than designers and artists. Of all the creative people, craftsmen receive the least respect. There are four reasons for this:

1. The inherent concept that "skills are not as advanced as ideas" determines that craftsmen's social status will not be very high.

2. In more people's minds, "skills" mainly refers to service, but in our culture, we don't really respect those occupations with the nature of service.

3. Before industrialization, the "common sense" that tied "skill" and "practicality" was oppressing artists' creative freedom. Therefore, under the pressure of survival, it is difficult for craftsmen to get a deeper aesthetic education, and "production" is far better than "creation".

4. The aesthetic demand of the public is generally too low to fully mobilize the enthusiasm of engaging in creative industries. Young people are even more reluctant to join the team of inheritance, and development is out of the question.

So today, when traditional crafts are in urgent need of inheritance and development, where should the craftsman as the protagonist go? What are their own inner desires?

In real life, I don't know any other craftsmen except my mother, but because of our special relationship, I can probably see the psychological state of other craftsmen by knowing her. At first, what I saw in her was not the bright light of "traditional culture" and the thriving market, but just a craftsman's creative desire. It may be a compliment to say that a craftsman may have praised her. A few years ago, according to her own definition, she might have been more suitable ―― nothing. At best, he is a clever craftsman. Compared with those craftsmen who are deeply hidden in the people, he is really embarrassed to call himself a craftsman.

But I don't know where my confidence comes from, but I firmly believe that she can become not only a master of arts and crafts, but also an artist. As the saying goes, ingenuity is unique. But in fact, the hand of the mind is not necessarily skillful, and not everyone with an answer can write with God. But a handy person's heart must be smart. I simply believe that a sensible craftsman can do anything if he wants to.

But the difficulty is that she doesn't want to, or rather, she doesn't dare. But based on my trust and encouragement, and her deep desire for creation, she finally embarked on the road of pursuing the ultimate aesthetics.

I remember that since I went to college, I have been brainwashing her: "You can! You can! You can! Then she held up a little frog she made to show off to everyone, and she never forgot to say, "My mother is a master! "Like a mental patient! But no one could stop whispering in her ear, and later, she went crazy, too. Later, there were fewer and fewer relatives and friends around us, but we became more and more determined.

Cao Hongmei hand-woven frog

It is my ideal to help her become a real artist, and it is her support as a mother to cooperate with me to become an art manager. In the process of cooperating with her, my identity is varied, but I have always firmly called her an "artist". Because among all creative people, only artists have absolute creative freedom. As a creator, nothing is more important than striving for creative freedom.

Unconsciously, today, with the firmness and self-confidence gained by pursuing Excellence, I think that the ultimate destination of craftsmen is to get rid of the shackles of inherent concepts and become an artist, whether from the personal development direction of craftsmen or from the perspective of revitalizing arts and crafts.

Zhuo Hua's works: Elf Valley | Group? 6? Mingyuan (Fiber Soft Sculpture)

However, the existing problems are still outstanding. First of all, growth takes time, and the renewal of ideas is actually much more difficult than the improvement of technical attainments. Without 65,438+00 years of painstaking cultivation, I am afraid it is not enough, and it may take longer. In addition, with the pursuit of "existence", the problem of "survival" will become more severe. Unfortunately, the living conditions of artists all over the world are difficult. What is even more desperate is that the "value" and "price" of works of art need time to balance. How long has it been? A lifetime may not be long enough, and choosing art basically depends on feelings and the sponsorship of relatives and friends. But in fact, it is equally difficult to choose to make a living by craft. Therefore, I have never been keen on selling works, and the significance of the store is more about display and dissemination for me.

But fortunately, craftsmen have a particularly friendly cooperative group, designers. Like craftsmen, the living conditions of designers are not very optimistic. Although no one will deny that designers are engaged in creative work, the difference between design and art is that design must take into account the practical function and beauty of products. Interestingly, when people talk about practicality, aesthetics is definitely in the second place, so designers' creativity is always taken for granted, but customers can easily distinguish the beauty from ugliness and claim that they must be high-end and elegant. To this end, designers keep protesting and demanding due respect, but unfortunately, the "market" on which designers live does not buy it. The customer will plausibly answer: "Your ability is not worth that much money. 」

That sounds reasonable. Indeed, big-name designers are not only cool in ability, but also calm in mind, but behind the calm is actually considerable income. But the question is how many big-name designers do we have? Maybe, but neither you nor I have seen it. The reality is that the average salary of designers is not only low, but also the entry threshold is low. So why don't we have such expensive designers? Or, do customers allow designers to become expensive?

Zhuo Hua's Works: Yuhua Spring | Beauty Hidden in a Broken House (Creative Card Holder)

When the customer's aesthetic demand is far less than that of the designer, either the designer reduces the demand and becomes a software operator who caters to the customer, or makes more efforts to balance the final product, which takes a lot of time to educate the customer. When income and pay are seriously out of balance, this model is naturally difficult to last.

In addition, there is another option, that is, to find a congenial craftsman, build an independent design brand and start a business. This is the best development model I have seen so far. However, although this cooperation model is ideal, it is difficult to coordinate the problems in reality.

Theoretically, designers are responsible for creativity, craftsmen are responsible for production, and creating some original small brands with high market acceptance can also support the sustainable development of creation if successful. But the problem is that the "slowness" of craftsmanship and the "madness" of modern society are almost irreconcilable contradictions. For people with purchasing power, they are willing to collect an expensive work of art, but they are not willing to spend too much money on a "product". No matter how great your creativity is and how sophisticated your technology is, consumers must be cost-effective in "practicality". In the long run, designers can only design some relatively simple products as much as possible, and craftsmen have no chance to pursue Excellence in artistic creation. In order to meet the market demand, we finally have to rely on semi-industrial assembly line processing.

If the handmade brand does not reflect the "expensive" of handwork, it will not help the career development of rival artists or the inheritance and development of craftsmanship. Even from a commercial point of view, it is difficult to have a more optimistic development.

Although we all know that manual customization is very expensive now, it is still a few people who are really willing to pay for it. In other words, if craftsmen don't create with an artist's mentality, on the one hand, it is difficult to gain high-end customers, on the other hand, there is no chance to cultivate a wider collection group. But as I said just now, although this process is long and difficult, with the participation of designers, everything is possible. It's just that I think "participation" is not a rush to make products and markets, but a transitional mode of cooperation, learning from each other's strengths and achieving each other's achievements, with the ultimate goal of dissolving each other's identities. In other words, instead of selling specific products, it is better to provide art courses that combine skills and creativity, open up a broader market for students, and train more potential artists to grow with them.

Because we lack neither skilled craftsmen nor creative talents, what we lack is only independent artists. The rise of craftsmen is the hope of the revival of traditional crafts and the foundation of enhancing cultural self-confidence.

Zhuo Hua's Works: Fairy Valley | Harmony (Fiber Soft Plastic)

Personally, the "preciousness" of handwork lies not only in the work itself, but also in achieving and helping more people to calm their impetuous hearts, improve their aesthetic cultivation, complete their self-identity, and finally become a person with a complete soul.