COUNTER PRODUCTIVE
Gracia Haby & Louise Jennison, Natalie Lleonart, Katherine Myers, Tiffany Parbs, Lyndal Peake, Stuart Williams

Gallery 1, Craft Victoria, Melbourne

I shop therefore I am

Take a cup, put it on a pedestal, write about it, honour it, and admire the shape and form. Take that same cup and make fifty of them. Put them in a shop, put them on sale. Have a party, lose a few, maybe leave one or two on the front porch to be found in the haze of the following morning. It's ok, I can always buy more.

I am the buyer so I can only speak from my side of the bed. A cup is a cup and at the end of the day I want it to hold water. I want it to be beautiful. i want it to be well made, I want to know who made it and sometimes just like in Art - I want to know how many of them there are, just in case I don't want to put hot water in it, just in case it belongs on the shelf under perspex with archival information beneath it. I am the buyer, I will decide how much reverence the object deserves because the customer is always right... right?

Buyer doesn't really get to know Maker, only the made. Where that object is positioned for both parties may be wildly different. But my hands are going where their hands have been. I can sense the Maker just out of reach. My experience of the cup I have to wash and watch in my day to day life is vastly different to the cup under the glass. This is an intimate relationship, a private one, a quiet one. One that is not often celebrated.

Like many long term relationships that initial buzz of falling in love is often replaced by a kind of gentle familiarity that can sometimes render the object almost invisible. Its usefulness and loyalty is often taken for granted until a chip appears. Then decisions need to be made. Do I discard the cup, replace it with another? Do I push it to the back of the cupboard never to be used again? Or do I ignore the flaw and continue using it? What would the Maker think of all this? Appalled by the flaw or pleased at the objects continued life?

What if we all got together, the three of us and had a party. We could talk about this long time love we've had for one another. A party where we can finally celebrate our friendship. Where Maker would be chuffed that Buyer put tea in cup, toast on plate, scarf on neck, ring on the finger, brooch on the coat, flowers in the vase, notes in the book.

Maker, Buyer, Made all aware of each other, equal partners delighting in each others contribution to the process that gives the object a life beyond the studio, beyond the gallery and beyond the Counter.

Ramona Barry, Writer, buyer, maker and Craft Victoria Administrative Officer.