{"id":1277,"date":"2021-10-13T08:25:59","date_gmt":"2021-10-13T00:25:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/?p=1277"},"modified":"2021-10-08T10:22:40","modified_gmt":"2021-10-08T02:22:40","slug":"how-i-made-this-theresah-ankomahs-repurposed-produce-baskets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/artist\/how-i-made-this-theresah-ankomahs-repurposed-produce-baskets\/","title":{"rendered":"How I Made This: Theresah Ankomah\u2019s Repurposed Produce Baskets"},"content":{"rendered":"

Theresah Ankomah<\/a>\u2019s monumental and immersive artworks put a new spin on West African basket-making traditions. Having learned basketry from local craftspeople, the Accra-based artist uses a variety of natural fibers such as kenaf, palm leaves, jute, and rattan to create woven environments whose appearance changes as light filters through them and casts shadows within and around them.<\/p>\n

Repurposing is central to Ankomah\u2019s art making, and her work often makes use of the kenaf produce baskets, or\u00a0chalis<\/em>, that are found in marketplaces across Ghana. Embedded in her art are the geopolitics of the region, where traditionally handmade items like baskets are being replaced by cheap imported goods.<\/p>\n

Ankomah began incorporating baskets into her installations after a visit to the Anloga onion market in Kumasi, where she watched baskets filled with onions being off-loaded to traders\u2019 stalls. Today she collects her onion baskets from Anloga and another major onion market in Ghana, the Agbogbloshie market in Accra.<\/p>\n

The onion baskets are taken back to Ankomah\u2019s studio, where they are dyed, cut apart, and woven together into sculptural forms. \u201cAfter I get them<\/a>,\u201d she says, \u201cI go through the process of sorting them into sizes, then soaking them in water before dyeing them in a sudine\u201d\u2014a special vessel used for this purpose\u2014\u201cusing different colors depending on the dyeing routine for the day.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The dye baths color the normally pale brown baskets in an array of reds, greens, yellows, purples, and oranges. \u201cI dye them to mimic how tradesmen identify their produce by tying colored fabrics or polythene to their baskets,\u201d Ankomah explains. \u201cThey are then dried in the sun, after which I cut them into semicircles using scissors and a knife.\u201d Then she spends time \u201csplitting and collaging, cutting and stitching together, joining and reweaving.\u201d She adds, \u201cMy body of work becomes an appropriation of individual weavings collected through encounters with people, experiences, and narratives.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Ankomah, woven baskets are not simply objects but also embodiments of a host of social and economic structures. In Africa, basketry is usually practiced by women, who pass down time-honored techniques from generation to generation, and the craft has historically provided them with a source of income. Ankomah\u2019s\u00a0Untitled #2<\/em><\/a>\u00a0(2017), a site-specific installation in the Anloga onion market, returned the transformed baskets to the place where she first encountered them, activating this public space in a performative way that drew new attention to it\u2014and to the baskets.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe tradition of basket weaving has been neglected as a result of modernization, industrialization, and technological booms<\/a>,\u201d she says. \u201cThe importation of polythene and plastic baskets into the West African region not only contributes to a decline in this traditional craft but also contributes to the increase of plastic waste and subsequent pollution of the environment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Over time, handwoven baskets decay, perhaps even returning to the earth as compost and becoming part of an endless cycle of transformation and renewal. \u201cI must say, I\u2019m a lover of nature. I see myself in dialogue with fibers, studying their ecological processes, especially the climatic and environmental forces that affect their materiality over time,\u201d Ankomah says. \u201cMy interest in exploring the dynamics of fiber lies in its ability to generate a dichotomy between temporality and permanence.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Source: https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Theresah Ankomah\u2019s monumental and immersive artworks put a new spin on West African basket-making traditions. Having learned basketry from local craftspeople, the Accra-based artist uses a variety of natural fibers such as kenaf, palm leaves, jute, and rattan to create woven environments whose appearance changes as light filters through them and casts shadows within and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1278,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5,13,7,4,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1277","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artist","category-auction","category-events","category-gallery","category-latest-news"],"yoast_head":"\nHow I Made This: Theresah Ankomah\u2019s Repurposed Produce Baskets - Investable Art Auctioneer<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Theresah Ankomah\u2019s monumental and immersive artworks put a new spin on West African basket-making traditions.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/artist\/how-i-made-this-theresah-ankomahs-repurposed-produce-baskets\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How I Made This: Theresah Ankomah\u2019s Repurposed Produce Baskets - 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