Sabin Garea's project explores how to better connect haptic material knowledge and theoretical knowledge in the context of workshop education at KABK. Using an expanded conception of craftsmanship, which puts the emphasis not on the exquisite production values previously inherent in the word ‘craft’ but, rather, on the innovative attitude and openness to failure also implicit in this practice, he aims to assemble a library of exemplars and resources to encourage such an approach.
Sabin Garea is a Romanian visual artist who lives and works in The Hague, the Netherlands. He has a BA in Fine Arts and an MA in Fine Arts in Photography and Time Based Media, both from The National University of Arts, Bucharest, Romania, and also an M.Mus., Master of Artistic Research, from a joint program of The Royal Conservatory and The Royal Academy of Art The Hague. Through his recent research Garea attempts to problematize the broad concepts of craft and craftsmanship. Using his own practice as a medium for investigation, he explores how craft might be embodied and perfects techniques to make works that critically analyze his cultural background and question the value embedded in an object. In this regard, often his approach exploits an absurdist point of view, building works where a great amount of time or skill is invested, challenging the norms of efficiency governing the production of goods nowadays. In his role as workshop instructor at KABK, he wants to help students to develop a solid set of skills and material knowledge, pushing them to conduct their theoretical research through directly working with matter.