Seminar Research- Report # 2
The National Basketry Organization (based in the U.S.) held a “textile talk” webinar on Wednesday Nov. 4th, with artist and makers Ramekon O’Arwisters and Nathalie Miebach. I was lucky to have the opportunity presented to me through our capstone execution teacher Meghan who shared it online. I chose to tune in because it was free(!) and I wanted to hear from artists specifically working in baskets.
Ramekon O’Arwisters grew up in a family of textile workers and mentioned his grandmother being a quilter. His art making practice started in painting but according to Ramekon, in order to be true to himself, he began to make work with textiles as a nod to his family origins. In a description from his Mending series, he writes: “I combine traditional crafts into a dimensional woven tapestry, stripping both cloth and ceramic of their intended function.” (O’Arwisters).
He recycles materials considered thrown away or broken, celebrating and not hiding their “brokenness”. After sharing he grew up as a Black, gay man in Jim Crow South during the Civil Rights Movement, he added he aims “to use materials authentic to my experience”. While repurposing the materials, he wonders how to communicate emotionally with the broken objects as they are integrated into crochet structures.
Ramekon emphasized the importance of making work that you want to see, prioritizing using a process that you like/ for yourself. While this statement can be seen as too idyllic, I see the core of what he means. In order to help other people in your community to express themselves, you need to learn to liberate yourself with creativity.
He organizes regular “crochet jams” which help him encourage public artwork and engage the community where he’s based in San Francisco. He lets participants “commune” with the materials. Ramekon sees this collaborative artmaking as “healing and subversive to authority.”
What I gathered from his approach to making was the importance of maintaining your own agency as an artist/ craftsperson. Interaction with the community with the intention to create together can makes relaxing in public spaces possible, allowing for more openness and new ideas. His practice is enriched by the intention of having an ongoing conversation with his community.
The use of recycled fabric in strips that he uses to crochet the sculptures with directly mirrors my thesis, as I use recycled fabrics to wrap and weave to build structures. And I crocheted recently while making samples for material exploration this past month! I continually use crochet as a technique to have to make something with my hands without an end goal. It's accessible and it can be adapted into sculpture in lots of ways.
The interest Ramekon has in what emotion the material can convey differs from my project in terms of where I am making space for emotion- since my concept focuses on helping another being and is indirect in connection to my self. I am interested in considering where emotions are guiding my work and I believe it’s more connected than I first thought, especially if I am expressing grief as well as my love connected to bees as species at risk.
Nathalie Miebach explained she uses baskets to translate data. Her work has inadvertently become political as it relates to science and ecology. She mainly gathers data related to climate change and weather systems. I was excited to hear her refer to the word “solastalgia” to describe her work because it’s a word I have found consistently useful in my thesis development thus far. "Solastalgia" describes feelings of anxiety, sadness, stress, etc. related to ecological grief we may have due to climate change.
"And the Winds Kept Roaring Through the Night" (Oct 28, 1991 - Sable Island) data, reed, wood. 24" x 18" x 20", 2011. https://nathaliemiebach.com/gulf08.html.
Nathalie started collecting weather data and quickly realized her training in traditional basketry could be an important tool to translate and make sense of all the information. She designs a basket like a “sculpture-by-number”- taking graphs showing weather data and translating the vertical and horizontal grids (x and y axis), representing things like time and other indicative parts, into a basket structure (warp and weft, etc). She explained she wanted to better understand science and also engage people in the conversation about climate change. Nathalie’s work is not limited to basket making, and she shared her collaborative projects involving writing music scores connected to weather data (such as hurricanes) which eventually get used to build a basket structure.
"Hurricane Noel" III 18"x18"x18", 2015 Reed, wood, rope, data
"3D musical score of the passing of Hurricane Noel through New England, Nov 2 - 5, 2007, using two weather stations and an ocean buoy as data sources."
Nathalie made the “Weather Score Project” to collaborate with musicians and the public, displaying her work with the community witnessing the music and visual art together. The goal is for storytelling to happen from the connection of the data, baskets, and music combined.
I think Nathalie’s work relates to my thesis on the foundation of bringing art, people, and science together- all in the context of our current climate crisis. This also means what I’m making is political too, like Nathalie's work. Her choice of building structure with baskets and expanding on traditional craft knowledge to innovate and communicate new information is something I want to strive for in my project.
The main difference I see is in that of direct translation of scientific data. There are statistics and other quantitative data about wild bees I could use in my process to translate physically, but I have not considered this approach until listening to Nathalie speak. Up until now, I have interpreted the data to further justify and motivate my reasoning if asked “why bees”? However, I did not think about how it could directly make its way into my work visually to influence structure. I will remain open to the possibility of a similar method in my process if that’s where my making goes.
After both Ramekon and Nathalie presented their work, the discussion with the audience brought forward some important ideas around the context of where we see art. The accessibility of art and where it is experienced changes its meaning. Nathalie gave the example of having her work shown in a science museum vs. a contemporary art gallery vs. a community craft/basketry space- and how it had a different treatment each time. And Ramekon expressed that it is important to question “is the piece done?” if work is interactive. In both artist’s work, they are letting the community contribute. By letting people in to look at details more closely, they are creating a vital opportunity to play.
Perhaps the work is never “done” if we make space for it to change. This can remove barriers through engaged conversation but the question of who is included still remains. I am wondering if the context of where my work is shown will be impermanent, will it make enough of an impact? Who will see it and interact with it? There are a lot of factors in this I do not have control over, so I will think about what I can control and the specific challenges if installed outside.
I am curious to continue reflecting on the role of community in my learning and art- How has it played a role in my thesis idea connecting to bees and pollinator conservation in the city? And how can I communicate the connection between what I make and what awareness exists (and lack of) for wild bees and their nesting in Toronto communities?
I think it's important to ask, as makers and community members: what do we value? While speaking to the listeners in the webinar, many being artists/makers, Ramekon said:
“We are conduits for what will be.”
This is inspiring for me to continue creating my project with the intention to engage people to truly care about the health of bees in the city! They are key to the health and future of much of our ecosystems and acknowledging that we are all interconnected means it’s for the future of us- humans- too.
Works Cited
Nathalie Miebach. 2020, https://nathaliemiebach.com/portfolio.html Accessed Nov. 14th, 2020.
“Portfolio- Mending series.” Ramekon O’Arwisters, https://ramekon.com/section/447016.html. Accessed Nov. 14th, 2020.
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