Crafting counterhegemony: A reflection
Burgher, V. 2026. Forthcoming. Crafting counterhegemony: A reflection. in: The scholarship of making: Craft as method, as knowing, as decolonisation, and connecting Taylor & Francis.
Burgher, V. 2026. Forthcoming. Crafting counterhegemony: A reflection. in: The scholarship of making: Craft as method, as knowing, as decolonisation, and connecting Taylor & Francis.
| Chapter title | Crafting counterhegemony: A reflection |
|---|---|
| Authors | Burgher, V. |
| Abstract | As a precious white commodity so entangled with the material culture of European empires, porcelain lends itself to discussions of ideological whiteness as a focus for anti-racist practice. Although a notoriously difficult clay to work with, being sensitive, fragile and friable – much like whiteness itself – raw porcelain’s haptic, therapeutic qualities make it an apt tool for crafting counter-hegemony. In collaboration with participants at workshops and ‘happenings’, a deliberately decolonial methodology is employed to ‘imagine otherwise’ as a praxis of resistance to envision and build a socially just future. These occasions encourage a witnessing of plural perspectives – listening, hearing, holding and embodying others’ voices, experiences and feelings – elevating sensation as a powerful tool for knowledge creation. This chapter reflects on one such event, a ‘Decolonial Dreaming Dinner’, where guests were invited to a special meal and gifted bespoke handmade porcelain plates decorated with quotes from African diaspora writers. The work centres communion and futurity, inspired by Fred Moten’s concept (after Denise Ferreira da Silva) of the condition in which we live being one of ‘difference without separability’ – craft and clay in the service of social justice. |
| Keywords | anti-racism |
| clay | |
| collaboration | |
| conviviality | |
| craft | |
| decoloniality | |
| porcelain | |
| social justice | |
| whiteness | |
| Book title | The scholarship of making: Craft as method, as knowing, as decolonisation, and connecting |
| Year | 2026 |
| Publisher | Taylor & Francis |