Asante Sana
European dialogue with Ugandan basketry
European dialogue with Ugandan basketry This exhibition shows the Ugandan basketry and at the same time the Ugandans’ conditions of living. Besides this the exhibition is also an appreciation of the great influence the Ugandan crafts have had on our basketry. “Asante Sana” is the title of the exhibition which translated from Swahili means “Thank you very much”. Basketry in Uganda has never been a work for schooled craftsmen. Men and women create what they need for housekeeping in a spontaneous and unsophisticated way. Ugandan basketry is therefore not particularly art but more of a craft as its main purpose is functionality in everyday life. Eight Western Europeans; Helle Baslund, Annette Holdensen, Tim Johnson, Marianne Lium, Dorte Tilma, Susanne Whittingham, AnnaMaria Väätäinen and Jette Mellgren – all with a passionate relation to basketry – have freely interpreted the Ugandan basketry tradition based on it’s technique, material and form. Jette Mellgren – February 2012
The baskets’ characteristic. Basketry is one of the most fundamental crafts in a primitive society; the ability to tie, lace or weave branches, roots or fibres together has been an obvious advantage to improve your conditions of life. The Ugandan people’s baskets which are mainly used for transporting or storage of food and animals are made with passion and appear truly authentic. In that way the baskets - even the simple ones - show a detailed knowledge to form, technique and material which gives the products artificial quality. So the baskets reflect a story about people and their everyday life. Baskets are made without any kind of tools or aids, and the work is often taken place under a shady tree. The rough things such as fences, huts and heavy baskets for the field are made by men while baskets for storage, mats and dishes are made by women. From childhood everyone will help with housekeeping, and the basketry is therefore handed down from generation to generation though the last decades of civil war in the north western part of Uganda has caused a partly loss of this knowledge.
Uganda is inhabited with many different tribes who have their own way of perceiving life. The infrastructure in Uganda is very poor developed. Most people don’t have money or desire to travel around in the country, and that’s the reason why the many tribes still stand. Uganda is a green, vigorous and partly virgin soiled land, which has larger impassable areas such as bushes, swamps and pastures. The varying nature contributes with different plants, which are created into articles for everyday use for which reason expenses for materials is an unknown thought. A mix of these facts gives the Ugandan baskets a special local touch. Materials Nature is a supreme supplier of plants to the production of baskets. So you find growths as bushes, papyrus, bamboo, banana and other palm sorts including different grasses. A lot of energy and many hours are spent on collecting and work up the plant materials and the pay for the hard work
is not prized. The materials are often split and cleaned before use. Colourings of the materials are sporadically and often limited to a conspicuous pattern. Colourings are mostly done with plants but in some places it happens with chemical powder. Technique The baskets’ structures are defined by the material and they are weaved, sewed or tied together. They are created only by hand and not by use of any form or frame. The only tools they use are a knife, a razorblade or a needle. The most common techniques are parallel weaving, pairing and coiling for dishes, storage baskets and smaller transport baskets. Rarely you find waling used for bigger transport baskets. A local way of tying you even find as a construction for the whole product or as a final decoration.
Anna Maria V채채t채inen, Finland. Professionel basketmaker This collection of bags is inspired by Ugandan hexagonal baskets. I am fascinated by the various ways basketry is presented. Nowadays baskets are often exhibit in galleries, but their roots are in everyday life, and they are often very little valued. I chose to work with Ugandan hexagonal baskets because they are the quintessence of work baskets: made for hard use, thrown away if not useful anymore and easy to replace - just like our plastic bags. I have been experimenting with materials, and while doing so my thoughts have been overtaken by the fascinating names of places in Uganda.
Annette Holdensen, Denmark. Visual artist and weaver Marianne Lium, Norway. Designer
Spin around and walk in circles as unrestrained words. A form, a binding, a coiling, a spiral as a path for the mice, who haunt us in the cold winter months. As the migrating starling who makes our adventurous heart pump with joy. Baskets made far from here fill us with dreams and delightful imaginings. Each and together we have carved, cut and created a hymn for the Ugandan basket tradition.
Dorte Tilma, Denmark. Musician and experimenting basketmaker.
In 2003 at Moesgård Museum I was very fascinated by this beautiful African basket because it was like a unified whole. When the bottom is defined the basket’s form and structure is already given so it is only the rhythm that can be balanced. Since then I have been exploring this procedure in my own work often seeking a simplified and minimalistic expression, but in a way so I don’t loose the energy and power in the object.
Helle Baslund, Denmark. Painter and weaver with basketry as a sideline.
The dishes are weaved so smooth that their surfaces are almost like a screen. The paintings of the dishes are done with great humility, because they appear so pure, clean and beautiful in the colour nuances. They are very sophisticated in their weak form increases that just accurately make them to dishes and not just random surfaces. I try to fit into the materials’ fine colour nuances by working with one colour at the time and then see what happens. Then I continue with another colour and returns to my starting point to try to make a unified whole which harmonizes with the dish.
Susanne Whittingham, Denmark. Labourosly self-taught weaver.
“The Ugandan poultry house” is executed in open hexagonal weaving which is a technique I have been using for years now and I thought I knew almost everything about the technique. It quickly turned out that it was weaved backwards compared to how I usually work. It isn’t that simple to turn a charming crooked piece of applied art made for a purpose into an aesthetic piece of art. I aim at symmetry and systems that can be solved, but I also weave for fun. So the consequence for me has been battery hens instead of hen house!
Tim Johnson, England. Experimenting basketmaker, sculptor and photographer.
It’s not everyday that a Ugandan Dragonfly basket arrives in your studio! A beautifully made openwork vessel twined from stiff grass, the basket is both elegant and perfect in form and function. As a maker challenged to respond to this basket I responded to material and technique rather than idea and function. So I created a serie of three mats using the same making technique and more specifically the ‘windmill’ start at the base of the basket. Using different materials for each mat provided a fascinating insight into the ancient technique of twining and as each material had it’s own very specific qualities I was forced to re-think technique and aesthetic as I progressed. Each mat has it’s own distinctive qualities and different details.
Jette Mellgren, Denmark. Experimenting basketmaker.
Seen from a beneficial and useful way of thinking the Ugandans add cow pat to some types of their baskets for sealing them and giving them a clean and even surface. To illustrate our diametrically different approach to sealing our baskets I have sealed my basket with fibre concrete and grinded and painted it to achieve a ceramic expression. On this expense the basket’s function of being useful isn’t prioritized.
THis project is supported by Netop, Projektr책dgivningen and Danida