About

The inaugural 2021 Indian Ocean Craft Triennial: Curiosity and Rituals of the Everyday presents the latest modes and conversations in craft making around the Indian Ocean Group of Countries (IOR). Curated in Perth, Australia across the vast Indian Ocean, it brings together works from several countries with a curatorial vision that explores our innate curiosity and rituals that connect us to elements beyond ourselves and immediate geography. Curators of the 2021 edition are Jude van der Merwe, Maggie Baxter, Carola Akindele-Obe, Qassim Saad, Chad Creighton and Gerald Sanyangore. The Indian Ocean Craft Triennial will enable cultural sharing and provide a platform for diverse community engagement locally, and internationally.

Mission

While societies globally experience rapid and vast transformations based on technology, innovation, and mass communication, the emotional value of craft and the hand-made is increasing. As studio artists and traditional artisans respond to new circumstances, we witness a re-engagement of contemporary craft by makers willing to sustain the value and benefit of the hand-made in contemporary life.

Throughout the Indian Ocean region craft objects and artifacts have traditionally been linked to specific uses. Whether on a daily basis, for special ceremonies or acts of worship, rituals of the everyday touch each of us in different ways:

Votive: describing systems and formalities of belief

Family/Utility: objects with their roots in function and domestic use

Shelter: referencing the architectures of physical protection

Adornment: a process of embellishment or beautification.

Countries in the Indian Ocean Rim Group of Countries

AUSTRALIA, BANGLADESH, COMOROS, INDIA, INDONESIA, IRAN, KENYA, MADAGASCAR, MALAYSIA, MAURITIUS, MOZAMBIQUE, OMAN, SEYCHELLES, SINGAPORE, SOMALIA, SOUTH AFRICA, SRI LANKA, TANZANIA, THAILAND, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES, YEMEN.