Basketry at Origin 2009

At this year's Origin: the London Craft Fair, the exhibitions and participatory elements focus on contemporary basketry. Origin runs from Tuesday 6 to Sunday 11 October and Tuesday 13 to Sunday 18 October, at Somerset House.

Coinciding with basket maker Mary Butcher’s current Crafts Council/V&A maker residency at the V&A’s Sackler Centre, basketry will feature in the Origin Intervention, Crafting Space and the Crafts Council Collection Showcase.

For Origin Intervention, eight leading basket makers, each with a highly individual approach to their work, will present an unique object within a series of intervention spaces throughout the Origin venue. The makers featured in Origin Intervention are:

• Laura Ellen Bacon weaving a large-scale organic structure on one of the exterior pavilion walls, exploring the processes of accumulation such as in the creation of a bird’s nest.
• Dail Behennah using monofilament fishing line to create barely visible cubes and columns arranged to suggest an urban landscape or cellular structure. These structures create shadows and lines that question the eye’s perception.
• Lee Dalby creating an architectural structure of bamboo and inner tubing, constructed on site in the corner of the courtyard, allowing visitors to walk through and experience the space before entering the fair
• Elizabeth Murton using the humble newspaper with its abundance in the urban environment. She will create an abstract form that explores the pattern and repetition in basketry construction.
• Shuna Rendel explodes scale, manipulates form, and challenges the materials and their natural qualities. Using traditional utilitarian craft techniques she will create three-dimensional flexible sculptures.
• Laura Street weaves her pieces and then coats them in paperclay before firing in a kiln. The pieces that emerge are reminiscent of fossils and are displayed in old containers and everyday discarded items.
• Kazuhito Takadoi creates an abstract form using materials collected directly from the landscape, exploring Takadoi’s interest in the elements beyond the makers control.
• Lois Walpole’s installation will address the question ‘when is a basket not a basket?’ in response to many contemporary basketmakers making houses, boats, clothing, jewellery, furniture, sculpture and much more with their skills.

The Crafts Council Collection Showcase will present pieces of contemporary basketry from the Crafts Council Collection selected by Mary Butcher.

Through various events at Origin: the London Craft Fair, the Crafts Council intends to highlight that contemporary basketry is a vibrant, dynamic and relevant craft form.