Basketcase in Lockdown

During the Covid 19 pandemic Unlimited commissioned Kristina to explore Basketcase in the context of lockdown. Using notions arising from this period of isolation: a reliance on communication through technology, barriers to the outside world, and vast range of associated emotions, behaviours and experiences, Kristina has explored use of new materials like phone charging wires, electric fencing, FRAGILE tape, and materials lying around the house to create new baskets.

The gradual, methodical weaving process itself is indicative of the slower pace of this enforced confinement, yet we are also given insight into periods of unsettled intensity, reflected by the chaotic tangled effect of some of the baskets.

Kristina’s explorations have been recorded in playful interactions between artist and basket, captured on camera and in film.

Coil basket using yellow fabric, with black spikes protruding in a spiral around the basket. Yellow lampshade to rear uses the same fabric print as the basket.

Early lockdown kept the artist housebound ,and restricted her availability of materials. She used what was to hand, in this case fabrics from her previous work My Dirty Secret! She felt it fitting to be stuck in the domestic, and using material printed with images of turmeric-stained washing up froth. There was comfort in the familiarity of well-loved materials and domesticity, but Kristina also wanted to convey the strong barricades that encircled and protected her home and family. As metaphors for masks, handwashing and the four walls of her house, she used black cable-ties to erect a spiky defence around the soft curves of the basket.

“Baskets, baskets, baskets! Was it the fears of being amidst a pandemic, the consequences of being locked down; or the project’s focus on all things woven, that added to the intensity? Whatever the cause, every waking moment and every dream-filled night became consumed with thoughts of baskets. How they were made, what form they took, what materials were used, what they represented… I was unsure of where they ended and I began. I was fast becoming a Basketcase”.

Neon blue electric luminescent wires woven to form a loose tangled-weave basket.

We are weaving new ways to stay connected, but it’s messy. There are gaps, so many gaps. Gaps in understanding, gaps in experiences, gaps in routines, gaps in communication. So many people falling through gaps: people in care homes dying in their thousands, slipping through the gaps of government protection; disabled people disproportionately affected, yet again; frontline workers unprotected because of big gaps in PPE provision, And here we are, all of us trying to navigate our way through it all.

Lockdown caused many people to reflect on notions of safety and freedom. What protections and defences were needed against the virus? Many wrestled with the dichotomy of being protected and kept safe, whilst also being restricted and trapped. Artist Kristina Veasey has been exploring weaving with electric fence wire; a material traditionally used to create a place of safety and provide a defence against encroaching threats. As she weaves, she considers how we can find freedom within restriction, laughter when there is loss, solidarity in isolation, and playfulness in a time of lockdown? Here, Kristina interacts playfully with the finished basket.

SHOW LESS

There was an initial overwhelming buzz of activity online: zoom calls, online meetings, social media posts, alternative ways of working, family quizzes, online shopping, forums to share info, accessible, creative, colourful ways to connect.

All these wires enabling us reach out and touch, to be touched, but in the virtual world something is missing. It changes the way we communicate and converse, it’s clunky and impersonal. Physical presence, a person’s energy, can’t be felt through a screen. Was anyone really listening to each other? Was there any real connection?

Red electric fence wire is woven between a forked branch charred with Shou Sugi Ban

Electric fence wire and Shou sugi ban

Exploring the new barriers we erect as a result of lockdown: self protection, hunkering down, staying safe, fences we create to keep danger out. And reflecting on the barriers already erected in society: externally imposed barriers, exclusion, discrimination, inevitable isolation. For many people, lockdown is an eye-opener into the difficulties of living with barriers, for others it is their daily lived experience.

Who erects the fences around us? Whose interests are being protected? Will this new insight and shared experience bring changes post-lockdown?

“Basketcase is a pejorative term for people with mental health issues. In exploring basket weaving materials as a metaphor for barriers, it is interesting that I’ve unintentionally wound my way towards using a wire that involves giving electric shocks; an intervention historically used on mental health patients.”

artist bound in tape reading Fragile but not weak — Images show artist restricted by tape woven around her. The tape is printed with the words FRAGILE but not weak.

Artist defiant with fragile tape — Images show artist restricted by tape woven around her. The tape is printed with the words FRAGILE but not weak.

“We are not vulnerable people. We are strong people put at risk by poor policies”
The existing inequalities in society have been amplified by the pandemic. The gaps are widening and yet as we remain locked down and hidden behind closed doors, so too does the fallout. So many more barriers to weave through…60% of people dying from covid are disabled. Those in lower socio economic groups are facing increased financial hardship and reduced support. Black, and Asian people, and those from minority ethnicities are inadvertently hit by covid. There is no surprise. Inequality and discrimination have very real consequences and even more so in covid times. There is weakness and fragility in the system.
Artist Kristina Veasey

Filed in: Basketcase Commission