Tuesday, September 12, 2017

Making by hand

Rosemary Hill, art historian:

To make objects by hand in an industrial society, to work slowly and uneconomically against the grain, is to offer, however inadvertently, a critique of that society.

From “Explorations of a Third Space,” Times Literary Supplement, April 23, 1999. Quoted in Morris Berman, The Twilight of American Culture (New York: W.W. Norton, 2000).
I’d like to think of objects very broadly, so as to include, say, a garden, or a handwritten letter.

comments: 5

count reeshard said...

Undeniably, Prof. Leddy, this will be the most important quote I'll read this week...and it's only Tuesday. Thank you.

Michael Leddy said...

I wish the whole piece weren’t behind a paywall. But I’m happy I can share this much of it.

Fresca said...

I may just have to embroider this... :)

Michael Leddy said...

That’d be great!

Fresca said...

In process...