DepartmentAfrica

Corona basket

NameBasket (imbenge)

Artist Zodwa Sibiya

CultureZulu

Date2021

Place madeSOUTH AFRICA, Africa

Mediumrecycled telephone wire, steel wire

Dimensions18 3/4 × 18 3/4 × 2 in. (47.6251 × 47.6251 × 5.08 cm)

Credit LineMuseum of International Folk Art, Gift of David Arment and Jim Rimelspach, A.2022.46.1

Object numberA.2022.46.1

Collections

New Acquisitions: The Gift of Folk Art

ProvenancePurchased directly from the artist, via Marisa Fick-Jordaan

DescriptionBasket made of colored telephone wire. Design in center depicts figures of people with infected lungs, homes, people on gurneys, and helicopters. Outside reads "I have fear of being infected, wear mask, wash hands, corona 2021 kills."

Zulu basketry, traditionally of grass and palm, took a resourceful turn in the 1960s with the availability of telephone wire, which led basket artists to explore color, geometry, form and figuration in new ways. Today, woven telephone-wire baskets are a highly popular and visible art form in South Africa. Artist Zodwa Sibiya pictures a coronavirus at the center of this imbenge basket, surrounded by mask-wearing individuals, patients on gurneys, medical helicopters, and even abstract representations of the virus infecting airways. The woven words “I have fear of being infected” offer a personal appeal to viewers to mask up for community safety. This basket adds various subcollections within the MOIFA collection, including folk art from recycled materials, our vast collection of baskets across geographies, and a selection of works that show how international artists are responding to the COVID-19 pandemic.