We landed in Harewood House for a look at the Useful/Beautiful exhibition. 'Why craft matters' showcased various handmade artifacts against the backdrop of a stately home.
It reminded me of that scene in 2001 when the spaceman Kier Dullea arrives at the recreated squeaky home.
Marketing copy would be bereft without artisan crafts. But if, today, craft is used to describe architecture, beer and sausage rolls, the Harewood Biennial explores why. We can bestow strength, skill, force, cunning, magic, deceit, knowledge, science, trades, professions, boats, decorative arts and domestic hobbies with the description.
Now Harewood is a bit of a posh place, so there was a bias towards similarly upstanding craftsmanship.
Fox umbrellas, Huit jeans, that kind of thing. It made its case impeccably, for the rise of carefully produced goods, crafted from fine materials. As an exhibition, it could also be seen as a showcase, for the varied craftsman present.
Who wouldn't like a pair of hand made jeans? what about a knife hand-forged from the steel of the area? the silk-stitched bed covers were enormously attractive, even with a modern day and hard edged housing estate tale stitched into their pattern.
Conflicting then, to see Meghan Markle modelling the (grey) umbrella for a style magazine and seen wearing the £250 jeans. Aye there's the royal rub; the need for cheaper alternatives for the many others less able to select from the pages of 'how to spend it'.
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