Duna,
Sculptures shaped by hands like dunes shaped by the wind. Slowly, intuitively, allowing time and thoughts to flow.
The Palmeira-anã is a strong plant, growing on sandy, rocky Portuguese land and withstanding salty winds. Duna is the transformation from this earthy sturdiness into a collection of curvy, woven sculptures. It’s a conversation between nature and human.
The eternal repetition of plaiting and sewing gestures makes me travel back to a time where ‘empreita de palma’ was rooted in the Portuguese rural daily life.
Duna is a respectful engagement with a culture that isn’t mine. It’s a humble request of acceptation.
© Patrick Shah
‘Empreita de palma’ is a traditional basket weaving technique from the Algarve using palm leaves from the native Palmeira-anã.
The palm leaves are harvested in early summer. They dry during one month, letting nature’s rhythm take over. The heat of the Portuguese sun during the day alternated with the humidity of the night, slowly turns the dark green leaves into pale beige. Once fully dried, the palm leaves are plaited into a long strip and slowly sewn into shape.
The Duna pieces are currently part of the exhibition Contra/Tempo by Portugal Manual. Some of the pieces are also available at Icon Shop in Lisbon.
Tucumã,
a collection of sculptural baskets, lampshades and vases, reusing discarded ropes from a vineyard - plastics in motion. As if frozen in time, the permanence and static state of the plastic sculptures intent to immortalize the flowing lines and dynamics of nature.
Each piece got built up patiently, applying traditional basket weaving techniques - twining and wrapped twining - learned with local basket weavers in Amazônia, Brazil. The collection embodies Amazônia, its lush shapes and rich cultural heritage, its motion, its emotion.
© Birgit Sterckx
Tucumã is the name of a small river community along the Rio Arapiuns in Pará, a special place deep in the jungle and close to my heart. It’s named after the tucumã palm tree and its oily, orange fruit. The artisans of the village use its palm leaves for their traditional basket weaving, a technique I’ve learned with them and applied on discarded ropes to create this Tucumã collection.
Joya: AiR,
an art residency for contemporary artists and writers in the Sierra María-Los Vélez Natural Park in Spain.
We're nestled in a bright, almost lunar landscape. The hills are covered with rosemary, helichrysium, almond trees, pine trees, but it's the abundance of esparto that caught my attention. I wasn't sure if I would have enough time to properly dry the grasses. Using them green and freshly picked means they would shrink over time when they dry. So I started applying various basket weaving techniques directly on the plants, without actually harvesting the grasses.
This resulted in a series of actions in the landscape reconnecting basketry with its original context, skipping the harvesting/drying/soaking process. By keeping the final woven shapes in the landscape, rather than placing them in a gallery or an interior, I want to shine a light on esparto as a plant and its impressive characteristics of strength, flexibility and resistance. Integrating some (almost) dried, bright esparto, creates contrast with the dark green grasses. The actions become more visible in the landscape.
As they are living sculptures, I expect them to transform, maybe disappear, over time. If you ever walk around in the Sierra María-Los Vélez Natural Park and stumble upon braided/coiled/twisted esparto sculptures, let me know how they evolved.
My residency at Joya: AiR was made possible thanks to the Culture Moves Europe mobility program, funded by the European Union and implemented by the Goethe Institut.
This work was produced with the financial assistance of the European Union. The views expressed herein can in no way be taken to reflect the official opinion of the European Union.
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© Emilie Terrier
Entwining Nature,
an exploration of how we can understand, interpret, collaborate with, be inspired by and conversate with nature. Locally available natural fibers were collected, dried and transformed into new shapes.
Entwining Nature seeks value in the process of making. Time seems to slow down as we surrender ourselves to nature’s rhythm. Set in this Algarvian landscape, the sun, the wind and the occasional rain take the lead and orchestrate the harvesting and drying process with their heat, their airflow and their humidity. As if it was a choreography of the hands, the repetitive movements of joining, twisting and braiding increase the strength of the collected fibers. Next comes the patient weaving, coiling, sewing, knotting until - slowly - shapes and objects appear.
Entwine yourself with nature and let its botanical poetry become tangible.
Coral,
a collection of coral shaped vases, using ghost gear -- abandoned, lost or discarded fishing ropes and nets that pollute the oceans - and waste materials from fishermen/harbors along the Costa Vicentina.
After washing and untangling the ropes, the coral shapes are built up by patiently playing and experimenting with a wicker weaving technique.
© randwerk
Commissioned work,
Wall hanging. Mix of discarded ropes from fisheries and agriculture, discarded electric wire and marram grass. Combination of various traditional basket weaving techniques such as twining, wrapped twining and coiling.
Diameter 2m, height 1,50m.
Lampshade made of handpicked and dried marram grass and discarded, untangled fishing rope.
Diameter 2m.
