Basket

The massive size of this basket belies its extremely fine materials and structure. Using thin, supple spruce roots, the artist meticulously twined pairs of horizontal weft strands over and under vertical warps splints. While building up the form, she wrapped grasses and ferns around the outward-facing horizontal wefts to create the abstract surface pattern. Tlingit women have always woven fine, flexible baskets for collecting food, cooking, and storing items. Following settler-colonial disruptions along coastal Southeast Alaska in the late 19th century, Indigenous artists capitalized on the tastes of a new tourist market to weave technically and visually exquisite works such as this.