The basket maker’s practice is earth-bound and somatic. As noted Native weaver Julia Parker instructs, “You touch the plants and you feel the soil in your hands.” But as a system of knowing, bodily perceptions have been undermined in the Western mind-over-body paradigm. Despite the fact that basketry is privileged in many Indigenous contexts as a meaningful form of cultural production, it has rarely been championed within the fine-arts arena because of its modest materiality, ephemerality, functionality, and gender-, race-, and class-informed associations. As a form of resistance to these hierarchies, we will investigate the “lowly” practice of basket making through hands-on projects with the three basic techniques—twining, plaiting, and coiling. Through readings, research, and lectures we will consider an expanded understanding of basketry from ancient to contemporary, from miniature to architectural, and from physical to metaphysical. This course is open to students in ALL majors without prerequisites, but may be of special interest to students in Animation, Illustration, Painting/Drawing, Photography, Textiles, Sculpture, and Writing.

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