Abstract
In this article, we examine a collection of 47 American Indian baskets collected in the early 20th century, at the height of the ‘basket craze’. Currently stored in a Danish museum without much archival information, the baskets encapsulate art historical developments taking place at the turn of the century, a time fuelled by the Euro-American preoccupation with collecting and displaying Native American artefacts. Academic debates developed around the derived ‘tourist art’ and the colonial framework still haunt Euro-American notions of authenticity. We investigate the baskets, their role, cultural affiliation and significance in a bottom-up approach, with a persistent view to this historical context as well as their material testimony to the agency of the weavers navigating in a transformed economy and legislative restrictions. We show how the baskets materialize the entangled identities of makers, collectors and museums and how interdisciplinary research can provide a spatio-temporal context to overlooked collections.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Journal | Journal of Material Culture |
| Volume | 28 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages (from-to) | 479-498 |
| Number of pages | 20 |
| ISSN | 1359-1835 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Sept 2023 |
Keywords
- authenticity
- basketry
- colonialism
- identity
- Native American