About Eggs and Baskets_
Allen & Overy_London
About Eggs and Baskets is about containing, holding and keeping in.
For Allen & Overy 2015 Artbeat program, Fabiane Lee-Perrella worked with Year 9 students from Bethnal Green Academy alongside pro-bonus A&O staff engaging all involved in an intimate new experience that encouraged debate surrounding natural structures, diversity and plurality through making.
Basketry is frequently perceived as a process tailored to create vessels to contain things. It hasn’t always been like that. As a process that sprung up spontaneously on every part of the planet, basketry has historically been employed to also contain livestock, people and land.
"The ancient techniques of basketry pre-date those of pottery and some textile weaving and have long been used to make many other things besides baskets – for example houses, boats, bridges, clothing, footwear, weapons, furniture, toys, jewellery, fish traps and animal pens.” Shane Waltner, Pratical Basketry 2012
However, in contemporary basketry artists and makers are not confined to local materials and immediate needs. Our sense of place today is rather more connected to a global landscape and its multicultural expression and identity.
The goal of About Eggs and Baskets project is to engage project participants and exhibition’s visitors at Allen & Overy’s foyer in a friendly first-hand experience motivated by novel interpretations of basketry and making techniques using a mixture of traditional and unconventional materials.
So, students, teachers, Allen & Overy’s volunteers alongside Fabiane embarked into intimate and a fresh experience powered by making together. The workshops were also a hands-on induction and exploration into contemporary basketry and cultural diversity.
Fabiane Lee-Perrella guided the participants through a journey enthused by nests, eggs, cocoons, husks and chrysalises in its traditional and contemporary interpretations. Participants enjoyed demonstrations and practical making sessions.
Reels of vibrantly shaded polypropylene twine, rope, cord, wire, sisal, jute, satin ribbons and fiberglass rods were the materials the participants employed to craft their creations.
Individual artworks were exhibited along with a site-specific collaborative piece made by the participants with Fabiane Lee-Perrella and a small group of selected students from the BA 3 Dimensional Design course from Camberwell College of Art – University of the Arts London – where Fabiane is also a lecturer. This is a collectively constructed lightweight temporary installation exploring new urban visions of basketry.
Partners:
Allen & Overy
Cocoons installation at Bethnal Green Academy
Cocoons installation at Bethnal Green Academy
Cocoons installation at Bethnal Green Academy