MANCHESTER.- Eastern Exchanges: East Asian Craft and Design will be presented at Manchester Art Gallery from 2 April - 31 May 2015. The exhibition combines historic pieces from Manchester Art Gallery’s collection with some of today’s most exciting international contemporary design to give fresh perspectives on historic East Asian craft and illustrate how traditional craft skills still inspire innovation. Displaying everything from Imperial treasures to modern minimalist furniture, Eastern Exchanges investigates the rich heritage of ceramics, metalwork, furniture, lacquer and textiles from Japan, China and Korea.

Introduction by Curator Janet Boston, Curator of Collections Access, Manchester City Galleries: “The ceramics, metalwork, jade, silk and lacquer of East Asia, have been admired and imitated by the West since the late 1600s and many of today’s most exciting international designer makers use East Asian traditions as a springboard for innovation.

In Japan, where painting and drawing were not valued above any other creative media, crafts have always been thoroughly enjoyed and appreciated. Thoughtfully designed objects, made by skilled hands enhanced life at all levels of society and even everyday storage jars and plant pots represented an opportunity for artistry. But craft was not, and is not, merely useful: it also expresses identity, philosophical ideas and spirituality.

Respect for tradition is all important in the East, and its rich, if sometimes daunting craft heritage is evolving through integration of new ideas and international influences. This exhibition highlights this dynamic process: treasures collected by Manchester’s pioneering connoisseurs of East Asian art meet today’s most exciting designer makers.”

Exhibition Themes
Eastern Exchanges: East Asian Craft and Design will be staged around three central themes; Distinctively Eastern, East Meets West and Future East

Distinctively Eastern
Distinctively Eastern explores the strong regional identity within East Asian craft and the long history of working with local materials such as porcelain, lacquer, jade, bronze and silk.

Chinese, Japanese and Korean crafts have much in common. Porcelain, silk, lacquer and metalwork are shared media and all have been influenced by Confucianism and Buddhism. China pioneered the majority of crafts, which then spread to Korea and to Japan. There is some overlapping of styles, but each country developed distinctive national forms and decorative specialties - such as the Korean moon jar, or Japanese lacquer decorated with gold. These national craft traditions are special sources of pride and identity, particularly in Japan, where leading practitioners are honoured as Living National Treasures; preservers of important cultural properties.

East Asian craft’s sure foundation of highly specialised skills has been developed over many generations and was supported by Imperial patronage in each country for long periods. This provided funding and impetus for creating luxury objects requiring high levels of specialist skill and investment of time to a degree unmatched elsewhere.

Chinese Confucian philosophy emphasised respect for elders and promoted imitation of past masters. Buddhist ritual required crafts in a wide variety of media, but its conventional forms and iconography have been a conservative influence on design. However, Japanese Zen Buddhism promoted more experimental approaches to craft by emphasising the importance of becoming totally physically and mentally absorbed in the process of making objects and relying on intuition not reason. Zen also advocated appreciation of qualities such as ruggedness, imperfection and the beauty of the ephemeral and the chance effect. These ideas were the opposite of the Imperial demand for luxurious, monumental craft and design.

East Meets West
East Meets West showcases the cultural exchange of diverse skills and styles between the East and West through trade and travel.

China was the first East Asian country to trade with the West, exporting tea and porcelain from the 1600s. Initially, Europeans believed porcelain was a type of glass because it was so different from the coarse ceramics and stoneware that they were accustomed to. Tea and porcelain were imported in increasing quantities and by the mid-1700s they inspired a fashion for all things Chinese among middle class Europeans. Japanese porcelain and lacquer also began to be imported to Europe from the port of Imari in the late 1660s. These exotic luxuries inspired European pastiches of both Chinese and Japanese style.

China and Japan had little interest in importing European goods during the 1700s, apart from precious metals. However, Chinese workshops studied British products in order to make wares for export that would appeal to European tastes, which the Chinese considered fussy and over decorated. Japan also began to make large numbers of craft objects specifically for the Western market from 1868, when the country embarked on rapid modernisation.

Korea was completely isolated from the West until 1893, when Britain was the first European country to make contact. Prior to then, very little Korean craft reached the West, and the small amount that did was often misidentified as Chinese. Korean crafts were collected by a mere handful of Western collectors, either people with professional connections to Korea or those with an existing interest in Chinese or Japanese craft.

Future East
Future East showcases contemporary artists whose work demonstrates new directions in craft and design.

Crafts have deep roots and remain as important as ever in today’s high tech, rapidly developing East Asia. Japan is one of the foremost international producers of premium quality craft, Korea is rediscovering and reinventing its ceramic history, and China, the most rapidly developing country in the world, is re-connecting with its heritage by buying Imperial craft.

Traditional craft centres like Jingdezhen and Kyoto, established centuries ago, continue to thrive and in an age of increasing global similarity of culture, there’s a desire for authentic regional identity. However, it is the special East Asian attitude to innovation in craft, not traditional motifs or forms that sustain the region’s identity and international reputation for exceptional craft and design.

New directions in craft take many routes. Some makers look to new materials and to technologies like computer aided design, while others take fresh approaches to established materials like porcelain and metal. There’s also increased opportunity for Eastern and Western makers to train in each other’s traditions more easily than ever before, enabling Eastern makers to bring radical Eastern flair to materials which are more commonly used in the West, such as glass.

East Asian designer-makers combine technical skill and unswerving attention to detail with immense originality. These qualities - perfectionism, creativity and flexibility - are the true legacy of traditional craft to its future.