For the past few days, I've been trying (in vain) to clarify ideas for my dissertation, which is about craft. Since I'm not getting anywhere with that, I thought I'd post some photos of craft workshops I saw in Bhutan.
The first 5 photos are from the art school in the capital. They have departments for sculpture in clay and in wood, thangka (religious) painting, mask-making, weaving and embroidery. Interestingly, when we think of art in our part of the world, it's all about self-expression and experimentation. In the art school in Bhutan, it's sort of about reproduction. Everything was religion-based, and students were learning how to reproduce the image of a diety, based on previous sculptures or paintings. Individuality (at least at this stage) is not wanted, the focus being solely on technique.
Another thing which I found fascinating was that they dont fire their clay sculptures. So after spending days putting all that detail into statues, someone could easily bump into them, and that's it, they'd be gone. Back to clay. But those are the transient ways of Bhuddism, I guess. Dont get attached to earthly things.
Oh, and the other 3 photos are from a traditional paper-making factory. They feel a bit out of place now.
