Spring 2021 SDJ: Looped & Knotted: Contemporary Basketry, Out Now!
April 26, 2021
Surface Design Association is excited to announce Looped & Knotted: Contemporary Basketry, our Spring 2021 edition of Surface Design Journal. This issue, developed in collaboration with the National Basketry Organization and Guest Editor Carol Eckert, explores all the different ways artists express enthusiasm for basketry – a tradition that spans the globe and takes many forms.
Here’s a preview of what you’ll discover:
“Weaving History With Gullah Sweetgrass Baskets” by Corey Alston examines the history Sweetgrass basket weaving and its ties to the Gullah Geechee people– a Creole culture created as Africans of different tribes and communities adopted colonial traditions in the American South.
Corey Alston Art Expressions of 2020, sweetgrass floating elephant ear basket, 29′′ x 17″ x 16″. Photo by the artist.
“Where Do We Go From Here: Four Tales Of 2020” by Heather Sealy Lineberry looks at how four basket and fiber artists (Lisa Telford, Leon Niehues, Pat Hickman, and Lois Russell) have responded practically and emotionally this past year, and it has impacted their productivity, ideas, materials and forms.
Lois Russell Habitat: a.melliflora 2015, twined waxed linen. Photo: Kay Lyon.
“Innovative + Intertwined: Indigenous Basketry Today” by Manuela Well-off-man, chief curator at IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts (MoCNA), shares with us innovative, complex and thoughtful contemporary Indigenous basketry by Shan Goshorn (Eastern Band Cherokee), Kelly Church (Anishinabe; Ottawa, Chippewa and Potawatomi), Terrol Dew Johnson (Tohono O’odham), and Aranda\Lasch.
Shan Goshorn (Eastern Band Cherokee) Study for Pieced Treaties (Spider’s Web Treaty Basket) ca. 2007, Arches watercolor splints, acrylic, 14.25″ x 14.5″ x 10″.
“Two Takes On Basketry From Northern Europe” by Monika Auch explores the contrasting approaches and techniques of Dutch maker Esmé Hofman and her Norwegian colleague Hege Iren Wiken.
Hege Iren Wiken Splitting 2019, salix. Photo: Arne Fykse.
This edition’s Exposure department features galleries from the National Basketry Organization and Surface Design Association.
Lynn Francis Lunn Covid19: We Are All in This Together 2020, paper, acrylic gouache, waxed linen, diagonal plating, netting, 20″ x 20″ x 25″. Photo: Greg Anderson.
Seong Eun Lee Blinding Wave 2021, cotton thread, metallic thread, gauze, bast fiber fabric, casting, 10″ x 13.5″ x 12″. Photo: J.from studio.
Curatorial Perspectives by Monica Guilera & Tim Johnson showcases their exhibition: LOOKOUT, celebrating the best of European basketmaking at the Museu De La Pauma (Tarragona, Spain) in 2020.
LOOKOUT (exhibition installation) 2020. Museu de la Pauma, Tarragona, Spain. Photos: Tim Johnson.
Informed Source: “The Woven Moonjar” by Hyunsoo Alice Kim features her research into the history of the moon jar and Kim’s explorations into creating woven versions of the ceramic pieces.
Hyunsoo Alice Kim Woven Moon Jar Collection I 2018 (4 pieces) 2018, leather, braided, coiled, knitted, 8″ x 10″ x 12″ each. Crafts on the Hill Gallery. Photo by the artist.
Legacy by Patricia Malarcher highlights the work of Dorothy Gill Barnes (1927–2020), an internationally recognized adventurous artist whose creations in wood might attain the scale of sculptural installations. Barnes was also renowned as a teacher with a passion for working outdoors, ready to experiment with whatever materials a landscape provided.
Dorothy Gill Barnes Millcreek Willow 1996, partly peeled corkscrew willow, copper wire, poplar bark wrap, 17″ x 20″ x 10″. Photo: Tom Grotta, courtesy of browngrotta arts.
First Person: Norman Sherfield creates works that are constructed with a simple overhand knot formed around a core of waxed linen threads. With variations of this knot, repeated over and over, he is able to create a variety of shapes, textures and color patterning.
Norman Sherfield (left to right, back) Porcelain Fetish, dog 1999, 3.5″ x 6″ x 1.5″, Cowboy Clown 2019, 8″ x 2.5″ x 2″, Porcelain Fetish, Knothead 2001, 3.25″ x 2.25″ x 2″; (left to right, front) Super Spider 2002, 2.5″ x 5″ x 4″; and Porcelain Fetish, Rocker 2016, 4″ x 4″ x 2.5″, knotted waxed linen, rock, found objects.
Made Aware: Sarita Westrup’s work is rooted in sculptural basketry techniques and bricolage, inspired by the Rio Grande Valley of the South Texas-Mexico borderlands, where she was born and raised.
Tierra Firme: Analise Minjarez and Sarita Westrup Orbital Migration 2000 2018, woven reed, foam, thin set, wire, cinder blocks, cardboard, paint, hardware, dimensions vary. Photo: Analise Minjarez.
In The Studio: Sui Park’s organic and biomorphic forms are created in many ways. She finds the shapes constructed with fiber art methods particularly attractive for their narrative and aesthetic qualities. In other words, they are delicate, touching and moving.
Sui Park Sprout 2016, cable ties, tent stakes, woven, dimensions vary. Photo by the artist.
In Print: “The Fabric Of Civilization: How Textiles Made The World” by Virginia Postrel and reviewed By Vivien Zepf, which remedies how we think about textiles, and the many factors that helped us achieve the abundance we enjoy today— the ingenuity, the innovation, the brainpower.
In Dialogue: D Wood talks with Arlene Mcgonagle about how she started making baskets, where her inspirations comes from, her teaching, and more!
Arlene McGonagle Copper Verse 2009, wire, waxed linen, paper, copper foil, 12″ x 8″. Photo: James Beards.
To buy a copy of Looped & Knotted: Contemporary Basketry, go to the SDA Marketplace, or you can check out a free digital sample on our SDA Journal page.
