Secrets of Japan
What you see is what you want to see.
Japan became a source of inspiration to Anna when she visited the country in 2004 to run workshops during the exhibition Contained Spaces. As a result of the show she was invited to hold a solo exhibition in Tokyo in 2006 and she created a new collection of work for this inspired by the country.
By definition she would not call her coiled forms baskets preferring to describe them as containers for ideas and secrets, as she says “We all have secrets and need somewhere to keep them”. In her new work she took this further. “I just wanted them to be completely covered and almost completely closed as if trying to protect something very precious” she explains. She then imposes a choice, if you want to find out what is in it you have to destroy it. You have to make up your own story about it as the whole mystery is never revealed.
Anna made her first coiled basket in 1997 when she was shown the technique by willow weaver Lizzie Farey. Instead of using willow, which Anna never felt she could “draw with”, she could use pine needles and other materials to create coiled forms. She was then selected to take part in the Making Weaves exhibition at the Crafts Gallery which opened doors for many basketmakers including Anna.
In 2007 her links with Japan will continue when she participates in East Weaves West : Contemporary Basketmaking from Japan and Britain at the Collins Gallery in Glasgow.
