THE Basket Case II Exhibition opened at the National Art Gallery of Zimbabwe in Bulawayo yesterday.
MILTON SITHOLE OWN CORRESPONDENT
Basket Case II is a visual art, design and crafts exhibition curated by Raphael Chikukwa, chief curator of the National Gallery of Zimbabwe, and Christine Eyene, guild research fellow in contemporary art at the University of Central Lancashire.
British Council Zimbabwe director Sam Harvey would be the guest of honour.
The curatorial concept developed during the preparation of this project consisted of interrogating the basket as an object encapsulating notions of container and content, and looking at weaving both as a technical and conceptual process.
In a statement acting regional director of the Bulawayo National Art Gallery, Clifford Zulu, said the exhibition features new commissions by artists Ifeoma Anyaeji (Nigeria), Alexandra Bircken (Germany), Tapfuma Gutsa (Zimbabwe), Delaine Le Bas (United Kingdom) and Michel Paysant (France) as well as designers’ matali crasset (France) and Sebastian Herkner (Germany).
“This exhibition is the outcome of a series of artist residencies and design workshops held from April to July 2014 at various locations in Zimbabwe,” the statement said.
The artists and designers have collaborated with five weaving communities, the Binga Craft Centre, Bulawayo Home Industries, Lupane Women’s Centre, Zenzele Foundation (Masvingo) and STEP Trust (Honde Valley).
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Executive director of the National Gallery of Zimbabwe, Doreen Sibanda, said: “Basket Case started with The New Basket Workshop which culminated in the Basket Case travelling exhibition from Bulawayo in 2009 to Harare in 2010. This focused on basket makers from Binga, Lupane and Bulawayo and was co-curated by Bulawayo-born designer Heath Nash.”
Basket Case has produced artists like Zimbabwe’s Tapfuma Gutsa, whose interest in weaving dates back to the first edition of the exhibition in 2010 when he worked with Honde Valley weavers to create pieces that are organic and geometrical.
Basket Case II exhibition will run up to March 21 2015.
