© 2004 by Design History Society
Here Today, Gone Tomorrow
Transient Materiality in Contemporary Cultural Artefacts
Camberwell College of Arts, University of the Arts London
The identity of crafts has been based on their material specificity, skills, and function designated by the terms used: ceramics/pottery, metalwork, textiles, jewellery, furniture, and engraving/calligraphy, to name a few. By the end of the twentieth century, however, this material essentialism could no longer be sustained as a defining indicator only within craft as a new concern with the semiotics of materials became evident in the fine arts and design.
Rather than focusing on the collapse of genres as arising out of ideological positions, this article will explore materiality in order to expose the common ground between design, craft and art as materialexpressions, and consider the possible genesis of the attention to the symbolic capital of materials. Beginning with a discussion of the historically contingent meanings of materiality, the article will explore the shared theme of transience to be found in contemporary arts and crafts. The paradox of ‘rubbish’ becoming ‘durable’ in art and craft, and the transition to ‘endurable’ in the museum are also examined within the context of the conservation issues arising out of the preservation of transience in a memorial culture, as signalled by Andreas Huyssen. The article draws on the work of sociologist Michael Thompson, literary critic Jonathan Culler, and anthropologist Mary Douglas, and Freud's work on transience and loss to consider the meaning and significance of materiality expressed as transience.
Key Words: art—craft—materiality—modernity—museums—transience