Basketcase
£950.00- Date 2015
- Size 26 × 52 × 26 cm
- Materials Machine knitted wool, crocheted lurex, re-purposed wicker basket
Basketcase is a serendipitous meeting between a knitted head filled with expanding foam and an object that I had lying around. I had been given a basket of flowers as a gift but when the flowers died I was left with the basket. I could have just chucked it in the skip, I don’t like it and have no use for it, but I was very aware that somewhere in the world someone had made that basket using their hands and great skill. I couldn’t make one. I devised a way to suspend the head using a very simple crochet technique and lurex yarn that I had inherited from my godmother many, many years earlier. I also crocheted a lace edge onto the base of the basket in honour of all those lace doilies that had been crocheted over the years that sit underneath ornaments, bowls and baskets around the world. All that work, and all that skill put into objects that predominantly provoke derision and accusations of poor taste. Basketcase is a derogatory name for a person or thing regarded as useless, or unable to cope.
