Craft Australia Research Centre
presents the conference paper delivered by Virginia Kaiser as part of the Cultural Strands/Woven Visions conference hosted by FORM: Contemporary Craft and Design in Western Australia in February, 2006. Virginia Kaiser is a leading basket making practitioner. She has exhibited in both national and international institutions including the National Gallery of Australia and SOFA Chicago (2001, 2005). Kaiser is a workshop facilitator and lecturer at the University of Wollongong.

Speaking from my own experiences and observations and from a non-Aboriginal perspective I have been asked to address the subject of how Australian basketry fits into a national and international context. There has been so much growth in Australian basketry in the last 25 years and the start of this growth can be pinpointed to the time of the visit of the American artist the late Douglas Fuchs in 1981. Forgive me if I repeat a history you already know but I feel it is important to remember this visit because of the legacy left by it and the impact it had on so many makers including myself.

Douglas was to spend 12 months at the JamFactory Craft and Design Centre in Adelaide which in those days was situated in the suburb of Payneham. Behind the shop and gallery was a rabbit warren of workshops and it was here that he worked. The JamFactory was and, I am sure still is, a wonderful place to work. The studios and workshops were occupied by artists working across a variety of mediums. There was opportunity to interact with other artists or work on your own. I was a tenant at the Jam Factory in the late 1980s and had my first solo basketry exhibition there in 1990.

Adelaide was the logical place for Douglas to go as there was already a very active group of basketmakers led by the late Jean Lange. Jean had an amazing knowledge of plants suitable for basketmaking. She taught basketmaking as part of the Art and Craft Certificate course in Adelaide in the 1970s, encouraging good workmanship and especially experimentation in design. It was from this course that the Fibre Basket Weavers of South Australian was born. Nancy Duggan and Marlene Thiele whose work is in this exhibition, Woven forms: Contemporary basket making in Australia, were part of the original Fibre Basket Weavers of South Australia. In 1989 this enthusiastic group produced one of the best basketry books called Fibre Basketry - Homegrown and Handmade. The book contained enough information about plants and techniques from which you could teach yourself basketry.

Prior to taking up residence at the JamFactory Douglas Fuchs spent approximately 2 weeks working with Aboriginal weavers in Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory observing the gathering, preparing and processing of plant materials prior to the making of a basket. This must have been an amazing experience for the New York based artist.

His time at the JamFactory was spent creating his environmental installation The Floating Forest. He used local plant materials which were new to him, some he collected himself and some were given. His workshop looked like a 'forest' itself with plant material hanging from the rafters and lying over every flat surface.

He used traditional craft techniques in his work, drawing on things in his life and work that had been 'developing for a few years'. He also called on his experience with the weavers in Arnhem Land and also myth and ritual to create his installation. His "forest" was a "symbol for man's earliest and deepest fears".

Fuch's installation was first exhibited at the JamFactory in Adelaide and then travelled to Melbourne and Sydney. He travelled with the installation and conducted workshops in conjunction with the exhibition. Many makers still working today attended his workshops and were inspired by him. I attended his workshop in Sydney and as an introduction to these workshops he gave a slide lecture and talked about what was happening in basketry in America. Those were the days before you could "google" to see what is happening elsewhere. Also the distances seemed greater and travelling overseas was more of an adventure, you stayed away for longer than a week or two!

The images Douglas showed, together with his own incredible work stimulated a rise in the awareness of the possibilities that basketry techniques offered which was for me as important as learning technique. The images showed the seemingly unlimited choise of materials that could be used with these techniques. The vessel form took on a new dimension, the word basketry seemed a limited definition for what was happening within the medium. The new basketry was hard to categorise because there were no limitations on form or materials and sometimes even the technique had no relation to the traditional basketry techniques.

In the workshop we started working with local plant materials, people arrived with armfuls of stuff and ever after we started looking at our environment through basketmakers eyes. We became more aware of our immediate environment. To me what makes Australian basketry unique is our use of materials and our natural dye material.

After the workshop I couldn't get enough basketry information. Slowly things started to change, especially in Melbourne. I was living in Sydney and felt very isolated. I remember reading about a basketry conference in Melbourne in the America publication The News Basket - by then it was too late to attend. At one stage I was a member of basketry groups in South Australia, Victoria, Tasmania, Los Angeles and also belonged to the Crafts Council, Textile Fibre Forum and had subscriptions to National Association for Visual Artists(NAVA), The News Basket, Craft Arts International and Fiberarts Magazines. That is an expensive outlay for a struggling basketmaker and I nearly had to take a part time job to pay for subs! It was also hard to find a book on basketry in those days.

Of course that has all changed now. People have been working hard across Australia to make the changes and both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal basketry continues to gain significant recognition. Because of this collective contribution there is a vibrant community of basketmakers across the country and it continues to grow.

I still feel a certain amount of isolation as there is no group in New South Wales and it is hard to get to the National Gathering and other happenings interstate. As a member of the Basketmakers of Victoria I receive a newsletter which keeps me informed. The newsletter has information about plants, members profiles and tells me about what is happening at the Cottage at Wattle Park where the group tend a basketry garden, have a library, display and sell their work, hold workshops, and have regular days when you can meet with other makers. If you are visiting Melbourne I know there would always be a welcome as a fellow basketmaker on these days. There are also regular member's exhibitions. This year it is to be held in May titled Branching Out.

2005 was a great year for basketmaking in Australia with two major exhibitions, one being Woven Forms: Contemporary basket making in Australia in Sydney and the other Twined Together in Melbourne both with a publication. Twined Together: Kunmadj Njalehnjaleken, that incredible book by Louise Hamby that is so hard to put down once you start reading it and the other the catalogue documenting Woven Forms. There was also a Gathering of Basketmakers at Magnetic Island in Queensland, the Old Traditions New Ways II exhibition at Sturt Gallery at Mittagong in NSW and baskets at Gig Gallery at Glebe and Sherman Galleries at Paddington (both Sydney venues). There were also baskets in the National Alice Acquisition in Alice Springs and The Seven Sisters exhibition was still touring. It is now not uncommon to see baskets in sculpture exhibitions.

We still need to remind people we are here so I feel it is important to take every opportunity to exhibit baskets. Exhibiting is also a way to develop personally by creating a challenge and take a step forward. This Woven Forms exhibition will go a long way to showing people across the country the wonderful work that is being done in basketry in Australia but this exhibition I feel only scratches the surface.

In the international context I still think we have a little way to go although that is gradually changing. Australia does not have the population to support a gallery which specialises only in baskets nor does it have the collectors like those in America who exclusively collect baskets. But through publications and exhibitions our baskets can be seen and included.

In the past there has been a trickle of exhibitions travelling overseas from Australia which have included both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal makers. A few thatcome to mind are the Crossing Borders exhibition which toured America from 1995 to 1997, The Material Speaks exhibition organised by Craft Australia which went to SOFA in Chicago in 2001 and the Tracking Cloth touring exhibition which went to Indonesia in 2002 as well as travelling to other venues in Australia.

Our most acclaimed Australian basketmaker to exhibit internationally is Yvonne Koolmatrie whose work went to the Venice Biennale in 1997. Yvonne set a benchmark for Indigenous and non-Indigenous weavers. I have been fortunate to work with Yvonne on several occasions. One being the Weave project at Casula Powerhouse in Western Sydney where weavers from Australia, New Zealand, New Guinea and the Pacific Island of Niue came together for an exhibition, residency and to conduct workshops. Apart from our own work we all collaborated on the weaving of a huge mat that is now in the Australian Museum in Sydney.

But in the past there have been major international basketry exhibitions overseas with little or no representation by Australian Indigenous or non-Indigenous makers. One example was the 1999 English curated Contemporary International Basketry Touring Exhibition that was accompanied by a catalogue/book - which is still available and still a wonderful resource. There were no Australian baskets in the exhibition and only one example in the catalogue. A photograph of a string bag by Alice Gandaburrburr from Maningrida, that was in the collection of one of the curators, so clearly there was an awareness of Australian baskets. Also in the catalogue's extensive bibliography there was no mention of the Fibre Basket Weavers of South Australia book, Fibre Basketry - Homegrown and Handmade.

There is such a high level of skill and innovation in Australian basketry today, the work has grown and matured and can stand strongly beside the work of overseas artists. Through books, magazines and exhibition catalogues Australian basketry can be seen and appreciated. Collectors see the work, and therefore it generates more work for the artists, gallery directors and curators use these publications as a resource and also the general public are made aware of the medium.

In 2000, Guild Publishing in America produced a book called Baskets Tradition and Beyond and again only one image by an Australian, South Australian Marlene Thiele (P.103) whose work is represented in Woven Forms.

It is also interesting to note that very rarely do basketry books include the work of contemporary Indigenous weavers with non-Indigenous work when clearly contemporary Indigenous artists are exploring non-traditional forms and materials in innovative ways.

Australian baskets have appeared in two important Australian publications, Masters of Their Craft by Noris Iounnou (Craftsman House) and Grace Cochrane's History of Australian Craft (Uni of NSW Press). The Fiberarts Design book series from Lark Books in the USA has for several years included images of the work of Australian artists. For inclusion in this series textile and fibre artists from around the world are asked to submit slides of their work for selection. As the maturity has grown in the work in Australia so has our confidence to submit.

Later this year a new book with images of the work of basketmakers from around the world will be published also by Lark Books in the '500' series, 500 Baskets. Again artists from around the world were asked to submit images and hopefully the work of many Australian basketmakers will be included. 500 baskets should keep us inspired and stimulated for a while! And certainly raise a global awareness to the incredible diversity in the field.

Time and again some of the best work is excluded from publication because of bad photography and for some reason there is a reluctance by Australian basketmakers to invest in good images. There are now many opportunities for us to exhibit overseas and more often than not good photography is required for the best opportunities.

The importance of good photography cannot be underestimated. Even with the advent of all the marvellous digital cameras I would still use a recommended professional photographer at least once a year. The cost is minimal in comparison to the benefits. My photographer takes slides of my work and now also puts the images on a disc. Publications such as the above and our own Craft Arts International magazine won't look at bad images, they just don't have the time especially when there are good images available. Can you imagine having to look at 2,500 images to select 500.

Since Douglas Fuchs came to Australia in 1981 many other top international artists have followed such as Jane Sauer, who now owns the Thirteen Moons Gallery in Santa Fe which specialises in textiles and ceramics and represents many top basketmakers. John McQueen and Dorothy Gill Barnes who have both done residencies here, and Maggie Henton from the UK, and there have been others. Artists from overseas are now aware of the work being done here so word is spreading and we are now very much part of the global basketry community.

For the future I would like to see more critical writing on Australian basketry and a new book exclusively devoted to Australian baskets, our own 500 baskets. I'd also like to see more baskets in state gallery collections. As basketmakers we have a strong connection to the past and with other basketmakers whether Indigenous or non-Indigenous. The language of basketmaking is universal and weaving is a place where cultures can meet and share a common strand, a place for understanding where there are no barriers of language or prejudice. The spirit of basketry is with us everyday and as artists we can use this medium in a peaceful way to raise awareness to the environmental, cultural and other issues that are important to us as individuals.

Virginia Kaiser, Perth, February 2006

Papers presented at Cultural Strands/Woven Visions will be published by FORM Contemporary Craft and Design.