A Museum Guide to Chan's Cabinet of Curiosities (or your 15 minutes of fame)

My work involves the creation of an experimental space in order to explore how contemporary craft can be reframed within the artistic institution. In this space, a facilitated exchange of displayed objects will occur, where the audience will have the chance to participate in the development of my project. It is important to note that my work will carry itself out in exactly this order: theory, practical work, and then audience participation. The initial decision to create this experimental situation, stemmed from my interest in challenging the traditions which define the artistic institution, especially in relation to craft.My paper will therefore be a method of contextualization and through the analysis of the institution, the craft object, and collecting practices, I will provide a background for why I believe, institutional experimentation should occur. The next phase of the project is practical work in the studio, where the original objects for this project will be created. The objects will be governed under the criteria of being either in ceramics or glass, and will be personally handmade, hand-chosen, and/or hand-altered, all serving as a statement of contemporary craft, seen through the eyes of a student/craft-practitioner/artist living in Sweden from 2009-2011. The last part of the project will take place after the examination, when audience participation occurs. The interactivity of my work and subsequent action of exchange will not only readjust my vision of contemporary craft, but it will also serve as a model of how material culture can shift based on contributory democracy. Through my work, my main aim is to challenge the potential of many things- from the definition of craft and its contemporary representation, to the formation of material culture, to the role of the artistic institution, to the democratization of art and trust in audience participation. My hope is that many questions surrounding these topics will be answered, but also that many more questions will be raised