Gaining Ground at the Crafts Council Gallery explored craft as a form of living knowledge that shapes global cultures and our relationship to nature.
Curated by Ligaya Salazar, Gaining Ground highlighted global craft practices that value soil, biodiversity, local materials and production systems. Nine making projects were featured in this exhibition through a display of films, photography, audio, handbooks, raw materials, and craft objects.
The exhibition drew on the British Council’s Crafting Futures programme and included work by artisans and researchers from countries across the globe, including Bangladesh, the Philippines, the Democratic Republic of Congo, India, Argentina, Nicaragua, Guyana, Brazil, Indonesia and the United Kingdom.
The Crafts Council Gallery was transformed into a site for learning, where visitors can engage with craft processes from across the globe. In particular, the exhibition drew attention to territories where colonialism and extractive capitalist processes have disrupted craft knowledge being passed on to future generations. Each project, although geographically and socially distinct, questioned what we can learn from craft to inform climate action and in our quest to build a more sustainable future.