Output details

Basketry: Making Human Nature, Exhibition and Associated Events, Texts, Resources (Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, 8 February -22 May 2011).

The exhibition was one of the main outputs of ‘Beyond the Basket’, a research project funded by AHRC through the ‘Beyond Text’ programme. The project aim was to explore the place of basketry in human culture, as a global phenomenon from prehistory to the present and the exhibition was the principle means of public dissemination. The wall texts from the exhibition, indicating the main themes of the research, are submitted as part of the portfolio; these and other material can be accessed through the website http://www.basketry.ac.uk

The exhibition included researching material from about 50 collections from three continents, much of it never seen in public before. Three new films (made in Papua New Guinea, Amazonia, and the UK- part of the latter can be viewed on the website) were commissioned from members of the research team, and another film compilation was edited from archive footage about historic basketmaking in East Anglia. The catalogue incorporated short essays by each of the researchers as case studies of the kinds of research being undertaken.

The exhibition also provided the framework for a major international conference Basketry and Beyond: Constructing Cultures (see the website), including papers from all members of the research team, which are now being published (Brill, Leiden).

Reactions to the research are available through the Evaluation Report by Dr Patrick Yarker and an academic review by Pref. Penny Sparke, both included in the portfolio.