Text is the inspiration for internationally renowned artist Anna King who creates constructed textiles, paper, tapestries and coiled forms.

These words, which she has written in journals throughout her life, may be written in the texture of a tapestry, or enclosed within a basket. 

“The coiled basket forms give the words an enclosed environment to live in, or rest, waiting for the observant enquirer to investigate.  The conTEXT of the basket invites curiosity.  Decorative additions on the surface or interior are there for symbolic as well as aesthetic reasons.  They are not arbitrary, their purpose is to imbue a sense of place, evoke a memory, serve as a token” she explains.

Anna, who trained at Edinburgh College of Art, has been invited to exhibit in Australia, Norway, Barcelona, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Tenerife, Los Angeles, Chicago, India, Botswana and Japan as well as across the UK.

She was chosen to represent Scotland in the exhibition ‘Contained Spaces’ along with makers from Botswana, India and Japan.   The exhibition opened in Glasgow before visiting the other three countries alongside a programme of workshops run by the exhibitors.  As a result of this, Anna was invited to hold a solo exhibition at the Silver Shell Gallery in Tokyo in April 2006. 

Another significant commission was the opportunity to produce work using the last ‘Bale of Jute’ from Verdant Works in Dundee.  Based in the Royal Museum Anna created a woven installation, tapestries and coiled forms which were then exhibited in Dundee and Edinburgh.

A retrospective of her work will be held in the Royal Museum in Edinburgh in 2007. 

Anna has also been selected to take part in Pushing the Boundaries, an exhibition of contemporary basketmaking by the Scottish Basketmakers Circle opening in Inverness in May 2006 as part of the Big Willow and the celebrations for the Highland Year of Culture in 2007.

In 2007 she will be participating in East Weaves West : Contemporary Basketmaking from Japan and Britain at the Collins Gallery in Glasgow.

Contact Anna

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