Cast-off: Revisiting Modernist Abstraction Through Vernacular Craft Practices

Abstract

This paper explores how contemporary art practices blur the historical divide between fine art and craft, particularly in relation to domestic crafts, material culture, and abstraction. Using my work, Sirens Net, as a case study, I examine how everyday objects and memories inform artistic practice and challenge notions of high art.

Considering the intersections of Modernist Abstraction, craft, and vernacular narratives, challenging the traditional view that positions fine arts as intellectual and relegates craft to utilitarian roles, the discussion focuses on marginalised practices like fiber arts, often associated with gender, domesticity and amateurism, to reexamine the cultural significance of craft techniques in relation to contemporary painting and abstraction. Drawing from personal experiences while growing up in a Greek fishing community, the discussion reflects on how domestic crafts, like knitting and net-making, can inform artistic methodologies. The featured work, Sirens Net, becomes here a pretext for elaborating on how vernacular craft techniques can challenge and disrupt hierarchical binaries today. Looking at abstraction painting, modernist critiques of ornamentation, and the revival of fiber arts through movements such as Pattern and Decoration and notable artworks, the study highlights the importance of vernacular creativity that challenges traditional conventional boundaries and categorisation within artistic practices, contributing to a more nuanced understanding of art, everyday materials, and their historical contexts.