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America’s oldest African-inspired art is the subject of
this exciting new film, Grass Roots: The Enduring Art of the Lowcountry Basket.
"Grass Roots" is a visual feast that captures the skill, artistry,
and history embodied in the tradition of coiled grass basketry. We
follow basket makers from Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina, as they harvest
materials, create their baskets, and talk about the meaning of their work. From field to market, this half-hour documentary explores the current
state of the art
and its prospects for the future.
Also included on the DVD are two bonus tracks:
• African Rice & Baskets takes us to Sierra Leone & Senegal, rice growing regions where villagers today make colorful coiled baskets.
• A Different Day provides an eyewitness account of basket making at Penn School on St. Helena Island, South Carolina, in the early 20th century. Illustrated with period photographs by Leigh Richmond Miner.
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The African-inspired art of basket making takes on
new forms in the Lowcountry.
This wave basket by Linda Graddick
Huger is made from sweetgrass and bulrush
sewn with palmetto.
Collection of Timothy and Pearl V.
Ascue
Photo: Karin Willis |
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Lowcountry basket makers use a filed-down spoon
handle, called a “nailbone,”
to pierce the sweetgrass coil,
making way for the palmetto binder.
Photo: Karin
Willis |
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Detail of Leola Wright’s “cowboy hat” basket, made
of sweetgrass and pine needles, sewn with palmetto leaf -- a
spectacular example of the evolution of a traditional art.
Collection of the McKissick
Museum
Photo: Karin
Willis |
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Joseph Foreman, Jr. displays his baskets at the
Charleston Market.
Photo: Dana Sardet
All photos courtesy of
the Museum for African Art |
"Grass Roots" accompanies a major exhibition currently on display at the
Fowler Museum at UCLA, Los Angeles, CA through January 10, 2010.
"Grass Roots" will be on display at McKissick Museum at the University of
South Carolina, Columbia, SC from February 13 through May 8, 2009.
Produced in 2008 by Center for the Documentary at the
College of Charleston, in association with:
• Avery Research Center for African American History and Culture, Charleston, SC
• Sweetgrass Cultural Arts Festival Association in Mt. Pleasant, SC
• Museum for
African Art in New York.
director / videographer / editor: Dana Sardet
executive producer: Virginia T.
Friedman
original music composed by: Quentin E.
Baxter
with gospel songs by: We Be Brethren,
Gullah Kinfolk, The Staple Singers
community
advisors: Henrietta Snype, Thomasena Stokes-Marshall and Nakia
Wigfall
consulting historian: Dale
Rosengarten
We are grateful for generous funding
provided by:
Henry and Sylvia Yaschik
Foundation
Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation
The
Humanities Council of South Carolina
South Carolina Arts
Commission
South Carolina National Heritage Corridor
Sincere thanks to the Sweetgrass Cultural Arts Festival Association, Mt. Pleasant, SC
and to the Avery Institute for Afro-American History and Culture for their help and encouragement. |
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Back to Avery Research Center website Grass Roots website |
