B.A.D.: Vibrant Weaving Techniques from KwaZulu-Natal

10 Sep 2007 Category: Arts & Crafts, Events & Exhibitions, Worldwide

B.A.D.: Vibrant Weaving Techniques from KwaZulu-Natal

More colours, please! South African baskets made from recycled telephone wires, seen at the B.A.D.: Best of African Design - 100% Zulu exhibition in London this August.

You know we do love South African design a lot! Now we just saw beaded flamingos, telephone wire bracelets, even embroidered umbrellas (adjusted to the British weather) making their way from the KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) province of South Africa to rainy London - for the B.A.D.: Best of African Design - 100% Zulu exhibition this August. In the OXO Tower, PingMag went through a walk with curator Amy Saunderson-Meyer of the African Millennium Foundation to learn more about the situation of Southern African artists and their weaving specialities.

Written by Polly Barton


Amy Saunderson-Meyer of the African Millennium Foundation amidst the B.A.D. exhibits in London.

Please, tell me a little bit about what you do?

Well, the African Millennium Foundation started five years ago, and originally it was to promote particularly female Zimbabwean sculptors. We ran the In Praise of Women series of international exhibitions for three years, and with that came a national exhibition every year to encourage young women sculptors under the age of 45. When we started, there were only five self-sustaining women sculptors and thousands and thousands of male artists in Zimbabwe - but after three years of promotion we counted over 55 female artists!


More of the wire baskets, with beautiful black and white traditional patterns. Nice!

Telephone wire bracelets. Let’s say - colourful!

Incredible! You made such a difference… But how can you deal with the increasingly awful economic and political problems in Zimbabwe?

Sadly this year, the situation has deteriorated so much that we couldn’t run the competition. The artists are still working, we hear, but nobody can get access to their work; not us, not the collectors. They’re desperately in need of funding, so we’re running a Remember Zimbabwe fund raising campaign. We hope to be back there by the end of the year. In the mean time, we have decided to extend our repertoire and started promoting artists in Southern Africa.

So, these exhibits we see here are all from South Africa?

More specifically, it’s all work from the KwaZulu-Natal region of South Africa, so it’s “100% Zulu,” hence the title. I was born in Durban, in KwaZulu-Natal, so collecting all these pieces has been a great experience.

So sweet you want to take them home right away: polka-dot army of papier-mache animals.

Interesting, because with the Indaba Expo and Conference and Cape Town’s newly gained exciting reputation, South African design itself is really on the up - but Zulu art is much less publicised. Am I right?

Absolutely. Although artists come from the African Art Centre, which is the most established resource if you’re looking into Zulu artists, most of these haven’t exhibited internationally.


Handmade vessels - striking structures, and those colours!

When we look around us at the crowded gallery…and it’s only Monday, this exhibition seems to get a lot of attention. I’m sure that the colours help to draw people in. So, this obviously colourful energy is a particular feature of Zulu art?

Definitely. I think generally, the use of colour is very prevalent in this area, what with all the beads, and the telephone wire weaving. Broadly speaking, it’s quite a joyous, eye-candy approach to art and design!

A lot of the vibrancy, like with the telephone wire products or the place mats made of bubble gum wrapper, seems to come from the recycled material itself. Did you focus on sustainable design and recycled products when compiling the exhibition?

That pretty much came naturally. At the moment, we don’t have the resources or the infrastructure to have organised recycling in Durban, but it’s really developing into an art form. Because people don’t have the resources to buy new materials, they are using any materials they can find - which means that very little ends up actually going to waste. In fact, what’s started happening is that people drop off their waste products at these art centres so that others can make them into beautiful works of art. I think it’s really positive that this way of recycling is happening naturally, without government intervention.

To brighten up the rainy London sky! Embroidered umbrellas, made especially for the exhibition.

… all done with traditional art forms, like the wicker baskets I was fascinated by. I knew that the patterns used have different symbols: Diamonds symbolise femininity and triangles represent masculinity, whilst zigzags represent the regiments of war because they resemble battle shield silhouettes. But, oh my, the baskets are actually used to store beer!


Good idea! Recycled bubble gum wrapper mats.

Yes! The grass baskets woven from lalla palms are called kamba. The large ones are used for beer; when the grass becomes soaked in beer, the baskets become watertight. Then there are medium sized baskets used for rice or maize, and small ones for keeping medicinal herbs. The bowls woven from telephone wire were originally created to act as lids for your kamba. What started off very practically has now taken on a design element.

Yes, telephone wire weaving has become quite a trend now…

It’s funny. The whole art form started with the Zulu night watchmen who used to weave scraps of telephone wire they found on the floor around their knobkerries, traditional Zulu walking sticks, for decorative purposes.


Burnt wooden sculpture by Widas Mtshali…

… and err, what proportions! Big-bottomed beauty by Artwell Chipiri, sculpted from Fruit Serpentine stone.

…and that gave birth to all of these bowls, bracelets, plates, necklaces…

Actually Marisa Fick-Jordaan from collaborative The BAT Centre, author of the book Wired: Contemporary Zulu Telephone Wire Baskets, has started a range called ZenZulu, where they employ over 300 weavers, paying really good salaries. It looks like Zulu design is finally taking off… [And even Oprah Winfrey is supporting the baskets!]

Yes! We want those colourful wire objects to cheer us up, as autumn is approaching… Amy Saunderson-Meyer of the African Millennium Foundation, thank you ever so much for talking to us, and all the best for the future!

32 Comments

  1. I like the baskets, vessels, bracelets, umbrellas and Amy Saunderson ;)

    Posted by: Akai on September 10th, 2007 at 9:28 pm

  2. AMAZIN AMAZING. I adore the handmade vessels, recycled bubblegum mat, and the bracelets ..
    A M A Z I N G ..
    moves you to another portion of admiration!!

    Posted by: unkowness on September 11th, 2007 at 12:27 am

  3. Great to see you guys constantly showcasing South African Design.

    I’m a website designer from SA living and working in London at the moment and I can attest to the great talent of some of the guys in SA.

    Thanks for making people aware of this.

    Posted by: Sergei Muller on September 11th, 2007 at 1:46 am

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