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Crafts CouncilStories

New exhibition Gaining Ground showcases craft in harmony with nature, says curator Ligaya Salazar


21 April 2022

As the Crafts Council Gallery’s latest show opens, we hear how it shines a light on sustainable making practises worldwide


21 April 2022

  • Sustainable craft
  • Crafts Council exhibition

Making Nature - handles for sapu Iijuk (brooms)

What’s the idea behind Gaining Ground?

The exhibition explores craft practises across the world that are in tune with nature and connected to their localities – whether that’s in, say, the Philippines, the UK or the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Each of the nine featured projects are part of the British Council’s Crafting Futures programme. They focus largely on areas where the practise and passing down of heritage crafts has been disrupted or undermined by extractive capitalist activities. Medium-wise, the show is incredibly varied, spanning everything from basketry and woven textiles to ceramics.

How do these makers work in close harmony with nature?

It varies from project to project – each depends on its local environment and its craft traditions. One example is the broom-makers from Western Java, who use bark fibres from the local palm tree, called kawung. They use harvesting methods that have been passed down over generations – the entire trees can be utilised, including the leaves, fruit and sap, so nothing is wasted. The bark fibres only appear for the first 10 years of the trees’ life, and the palms rely on weasels to disperse their seeds, so working with this material requires ecological balance to be well-maintained. Gaining Ground features beautiful brooms made in this tradition by Mr Sunarya and Mr Hendrayana from Bojong, Purwakarta, which is one of Indonesia’s centres for crafting with palm fibre.


Making Nature - Sapu Iijuk

Each project depends so closely on its local environment and its craft traditions


Ligaya Salazar

How are these time-honoured crafts being preserved for the present day – and for future generations?

One important tactic is to record these practises for posterity. For example, the show includes a film featuring 60 Munduruku inhabitants of a village in Bragança, beside an Amazonian river, in which they document their everyday making practises. In doing so, they also demonstrate the ways they manage to live in balance with their environment. That project, called ‘Building a library for the future’, is an ongoing collaboration between Chief Domingos Munduruku and design educators at the Royal College of Art, London and the University of Brasília.

Another important way to increase the reach of such practises beyond their immediate localities is mapping. This can be done through analogue methods (such as handbooks) or through digital platforms – we have several open-access websites represented in the show, such as the international tool Making Nature. These sites are all works in progress, which should grow throughout the run of the exhibition and beyond.


Gaining Ground exhibition at the Crafts Council Gallery. Photo: © BJ Deakin Photography

Can you tell us about the positive impacts of the projects in Gaining Ground?

Again, it’s very particular to each – they are all so varied. One good example is the earth-building initiative in Nicaragua. Earth-building is a traditional craft that has been increasingly replaced by the use of concrete; as this has happened, technical knowledge around the architectural use of mud has dwindled. However, concrete is hugely unsustainable – and doesn’t stand up well to hurricanes and storms, which are increasing in number thanks to global warming. In a collaboration between the women’s organisation Asociación Mujeres Constructoras de Condega, and the UK-based earth-building trainer Helen Shears and lime-stabilised soil consultant Bee Rowan, women in Condega have been trained in using so-called ‘magic mud’ (a soil and lime mix) to create buildings that are both eco-friendly and can stand up well to climate change.

What do you hope that people will take from seeing Gaining Ground?

I hope that visitors will spend time really engaging with the subject, giving it real thought. To help this happen, we’ve created a comfortable reading space in the centre of the exhibition. It’s an informal setting – we ask that people take their shoes off before stepping onto the hand-woven mats – with the hope that people will feel comfortable dwelling there awhile.

'Gaining Ground' is at the Crafts Council Gallery in London from 13 April until 25 June 2022

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