Asante Sana

EuropEAn diAloguE with ugAndAn bASkEtry

European dialogue with ugandan basketry

this exhibition shows the ugandan basketry and at the same time the ugan-

dans’ 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 unso-

phisticated 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 inter-

preted 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 ani-mals are made with passion and appear truly au-thentic. in that way the baskets - even the simple ones - show a detailed knowledge to form, tech-nique and material which gives the products arti-ficial 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 gen-eration 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 differ-ent 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 na-ture contributes with different plants, which are created into articles for eve-ryday use for which reason expenses for materials is an unknown thought. A mix of these facts gives the ugandan baskets a special local touch.

Materialsnature is a supreme supplier of plants to the production of baskets. So you find growths as bushes, papyrus, bam-boo, banana and other palm sorts including different grasses. A lot of energy and many hours are spent on collecting and work up the plant ma-terials and the pay for the hard work

is not prized. the materials are often split and cleaned before use. Colour-ings of the materials are sporadically and often limited to a conspicuous pattern. Colourings are mostly done with plants but in some places it hap-pens with chemical powder.

techniqueThe baskets’ structures are defined by the material and they are weaved, sewed or tied together. they are cre-ated only by hand and not by use of any form or frame. the only tools they use are a knife, a razorblade or a nee-dle. the most common techniques are parallel weaving, pairing and coiling for dishes, storage baskets and smaller transport baskets. Rarely you find wal-ing 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.

this collection of bags is inspired by ugandan hexagonal baskets. i amfascinated by the various ways basketry is presented. nowadays baskets areoften exhibit in galleries, but their roots are in everyday life, and they areoften very little valued. i chose to work with ugandan hexagonal baskets be-cause 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 thoughtshave been overtaken by the fascinating names of places in uganda.

Anna Maria Väätäinen, Finland. professionel basketmaker

Annette holdensen, denmark. Visual artist and weaverMarianne lium, norway. designer

Spin around and walk in circles as unrestrained words. A form, a bind-ing, 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 adventur-ous 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 Afri-can basket because it was like a unified whole. When the bottom is defined the basket’s form and structure is al-ready 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 every-thing 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 con-sequence 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 materi-als for each mat provided a fascinating insight into the ancient technique oftwining 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 distinc-tive 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.

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