Craft, writes author Olivier Dupon, "is no longer a trend; it is at last enshrined in contemporary life."
Encore! The New Artisans:
Handmade Designs for
Contemporary Living, by Olivier Dupon
320 pages.
Thames and Hudson, Nonfiction.
Although filled with references to "slow design" and all things "artisanal," this 320-page book, dense with colorful photos, doesn't reveal what underpins the cultural turn toward to the material and bespoke. Instead it focuses on the "who" — a selection of 60 mostly young craftspeople from Australia to Japan — and asks them to speak about their connections to the beautiful and sometimes gimmicky objects they make by hand. These are not the anonymous, everyday life goods praised by Sori Yanagi, but decorative museum pieces.
