Baskets & Architecture

摘要

For the past decade, our design practice ArandaLasch has been experimenting with the making of baskets as a way to blend traditional Native American craft with procedural design. What has resulted has both deepened our engagement with rule-based techniques and also informed our understanding of how to locate them within a larger cultural context. The explorations began with the observation that weaving is at its core an algorithmic process; one that builds form through action, developing material in discrete steps to eventually create a complex cultural artefact. The parallels with contemporary architectural design are unmistakable. In 2006 we collaborated with Native American weaver Terrol Dew Johnson to explore this unexpected shared foundation between our two practices and made a series of baskets for an exhibition at the Artists Space gallery in New York called 'Baskets: Rules of Exchange'. This collaboration continued piecemeal until 2016 when we redoubled our efforts in our 'Meeting the Clouds Halfway' show at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in Tucson, Arizona.