Made in Canada: Craft and Design in the Sixties (review)

The book Made in Canada: Craft and Design in the Sixties had its origins in the exhibition Cool '60s Design organized by Alan Elder, curator of Canadian crafts, decorative arts, and design at the Canadian Museum of Civilization. Elder's book is not a catalogue of the exhibition, but rather a literary complement to it, with eight essays from writers across Canada and a preface by artist Douglas Coupland. The effect created is rather like a literary exhibition, providing a side-by-side comparison of nine entirely different approaches to the topic. Like an exhibition, the book's impact derives not just from the separate pieces, but from their juxtaposition with each other, which provides a glorious collage of colourful information about Canadian design and craft in the 1960s.

Turned loose to frolic upon her favourite subject, curator Rachel Gotlieb, coauthor of the seminal Design in Canada (2001), heads straight for the spherical wonders of Sputnik. Her essay captures the goofy charm of the whole era, when the first blooming of Canadian national self-confidence made anything seem possible. Craft historian Sandra Alfody takes the opportunity to explore more deeply a topic touched upon in her book Crafting Identity (2005): the exhibition Canadian Fine Crafts held at Expo 67 in Montreal, which was the foundation of the crafts collection held at Confederation Centre, Charlottetown.

Historian Paul Bourrassa of the Musée nationale des beaux-Arts de Québec also writes on Expo 67, about the furnishing of model suites for Moshe Safdie's Habitat 67. Together, Alfody and Bourrassa eloquently conjure up the spirit and feel of Expo. Perhaps it is the vivid physical descriptions – of burnt-red brick and internally lit lime-green polyethylene – that evoke the conflicting aesthetics of the age. Certainly, true Canadian spirit lies in descriptions of endless committee negotiations, and those touching moments when artistry was compromised out of noble intentions (choosing conservative furnishings for radical Habitat to make visitors feel more comfortable.)

In one of three essays about government initiatives into national identity, graphic-design historian Michael Large of Sheridan College uses the topic of the new flag to illuminate 'the systematized use of visual symbols of nationhood' in terms of broader issues like artistic purism, media environments, and the nature of Canadian national identity. Bernard Flaman makes similar points on the disarmingly unexpected topic of Canadian airports, demonstrating how during the 1960s they became a focus for government presentation of the modern Canadian spirit to international audiences. Michael Pokopow offers a nice take on the success of Scandinavian design in Canada, where its ideologies – humanism, modesty, and thrift – complemented our own favourite conceits, though the argument might have been stronger with a discussion of why proud spendthrift Americans were also so fond of Scandinavian chairs.

Alan Elder himself provides an introduction and concluding essay that frame the entire book, asking whether the 1960s were the end of Canadian spirit – or the beginning. In 'When Counterculture Went Mainstream' he moves the story forward, as 'back to the land' movements migrated to downtown villages like Montreal's Crescent Street and Vancouver's Fourth Avenue, bringing concerns about society and the environment with them into the present time.

The only low moment in the book comes with Brent Cordner's assertion that plastic is a utopian sort of material. Petty factual errors adorn this thin thesis. Rubber is not plastic – it's tree sap. Youth of the 1960s were not 'raised with Lego' because it wasn't imported here until 1961. And no, plastic has not experienced a 'subsequent downfall.' It may be recycled and granite-coloured today instead of shiny pop white, but that's why the material is called 'plastic' – it's a malleable expression for ideas; now more than ever.

Still, you can't fault Cordner for trying. He's got some nice pictures. And unlike Alfody or Elder, he is not a paid researcher, but a freelance designer/educator (teaching, ironically...