bird skull buttons: Baskets and Belonging and Out of Australia at the British Museum

Sunday, 21 August 2011

Baskets and Belonging and Out of Australia at the British Museum

Entry: Free

The British Museum is currently showing three Australian exhibitions: "Baskets and Belonging - Indigenous Australian histories"; "Out of Australia - prints and drawings from Sidney Nolan to Rover Thomas"; and "Australia Landscape - Kew at the British Museum". I went along yesterday to planning to just see “Baskets and Belonging”, but as it happens that exhibition can only be reached by going through the “Out of Australia” show. It seemed silly not to take the time to look around both exhibitions, so this has ended up being a double review.

"Baskets and Belonging" is a straightforward exhibition of the museum's collection of containers made by indigenous Australians. The containers come from many different communities and so show a variety of basket-making techniques, while the objects themselves were used for both practical and ceremonial functions, which the display elaborates on. Most interesting are the modern examples – bags, baskets and sculptures that have been made by applying traditional techniques in new ways or with new materials, such as synthetics recovered from ghost nets. Overall, it's a solid little anthropological exhibition focusing specifically on baskets and similar containers, which was exactly what I was expecting.

"Out of Australia" was more of a surprise. The description and image on the British Museum's website hadn't grabbed me and as I didn't realise that it was next to "Baskets and Belonging" I hadn't planned on seeing it. I'm now glad I did; with 125 works by 60 artists covering a period of roughly 70 years it's a diverse and exciting show. With such a variety of work it's difficult to talk about it as a whole, obviously a lot of the artists are interested in the Australian landscape and in Australian identity, (although they're all interested in different facets of these things). There's also a great deal on show about Australia's relationship with Britain and Europe, both socially/politically and artistically.

I wanted to post images of half a dozen pieces from the show that I particularly liked, but as I couldn't find them all online I've had to content myself with three, all of which have a sense of unease about them. The exhibition runs until 11th September, so if you like these then you've still got time to see them in person.