900 baskets

During the last eight years, I have made over 900 baskets from my proofs, rejected prints and prints donated by fellow printmakers. I use found yarn – firewood and fruit bags, rope found on the beach, the ends of weavings left when cutting from the loom, with the aim that this body of work would not use any material that had not already been used before.

The basket making began as a way to ‘recycle’ discarded prints that were not of a high enough standard to exhibit and as a response to the waste produced in the making of work. They eventually grew to form an installation. The installation speaks of the creative process, our response to the land and our need to respond to an overabundance of waste product. Within the installation, each basket represents a narrative, the telling of the story of the artist’s original conception and printing, the reason why the print was rejected, the gifting to me, where the yarn was found, the story of its weaving, and its placement in a changing installation.

When the baskets are installed they create a landscape which changes with each installation in response to the space and the space’s surrounds.

Exhibiting history of the baskets:

Artist in residence, Ruthin Craft Centre (200 baskets), 2017

Sui Generis, Plas Bodfa, Ynys Môn, (500 baskets), 2019

This is a Language Warning, School of the Art galleries, Aberystwyth University, (900 baskets), 2021

Y tir wedi’i dad-dewi / The Land Unmuted: Field Notes, Decolonial Diversions, Online Journal, 2021

I gam o gam, Stiwdio Maelor, Corris, (950 baskets), 2022

Bodfa Continuum, Plas Bodfa, Ynys Môn, (300 baskets), 2022

Postive Environmental Art, Mid Wales Art, Caersws, Wales, (900 baskets), 2022

900 Baskets, Ffenestr y Piazza, Aberystwyth Arts Centre, Aberystwyth University, 2022

They can be viewed (and purchased) as single baskets @900baskets, where I attempt to post a basket a day.