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A
gift for my wife from a daughter, the woven basket is used for all
sorts of carrying operations and each time I see it I feel warmed and
satisfied: it is such a beautiful thing, woven with skill by someone
I will never know personally but whose skill I admire just the same.
It
is not just pretty in the conventional sense, but is sturdily made
and will be with us for the rest of our lives, - a faithful
companion, you might say, til death do us part. Someone has built it
carefully within a long tradition of basket making and with a care
for materials and colour combinations that goes beyond the merely
practical. It is interesting how an inanimate object can be, will be,
invested with so much meaning, so much of our identity.
We
see these baskets for sale in our local markets and stores, and they
are not expensive. When one calculates the original purchase price,
the shipping costs and resale markups, the maker must have received a
pittance, and yet she still made it with care and pride, really put
herself into it, independently it seems from any consideration of the
purchase price.
Could
this really be thought of as art, that elusive quality that never
lacks for definitions, definitions that always seem to fall short and
change with every definer? For me it is simply excellent craft; it
does not aim to talk about anything more exalted than form and
function, no matter how much I appreciate it. Its just a beautiful
example of how powerful craftsmanship can be.
What
is really being show here is how seldom we see it in our mass
production machine-made world of plastic throw away items. This
African basket rests comfortably on the floor and is a valued part of
our surroundings. Whoever you are, you maker, I feel I do know you
after-all: strong, smart, dependable and very beautiful!
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