Planning ahead for the book launch of the Practical Basketry Techniques during my exhibition at Siobhan Davies Studios in February, Ranbing and I have been making these interlaced constructions out of hand drawn lining paper. The paper baskets will be part of a number of woven pieces displayed at the launch. The technique for making these tie in with one of the interlacing project in the publication. The felt tip pattern was designed to mirror the structure of the basket, and add a touch of colour to differentiate the inside from the outside surface of the baskets. Where the openings were created, the strips were reversed and the coloured pattern switched from inside to outside, and vice versa. The idea was to make these constructions as light as possible so a helium filled balloons could be placed inside these to make them float about us at the event. For information on the launch and exhibition, click here.
Working on these had me think of Tim Ingold's fantastic book 'The Perception of the Environment: essays on livelihood, dwelling and skill'. Writing about weaving a basket, he says 'The world of our experience is, indeed, continually and endlessly coming into being around us as we weave. If it has a surface, it is like the surface of a basket: it has no 'inside' or 'outside'. Mind is not above, nor nature below; rather, if we ask where mind is, it is in the weave of the surface itself. And it is within this weave that our projects of making, whatever they may be, are formulated and come to fruition. Only if we are capable of weaving, only then can we make.' (Ingold 2000, pg.348)
Well, this confirms it, the world is one big weave, and any action we take in it consists of weaving and tying things together.
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