Flat Trap Basket

Ursula A. Johnson
Dartmouth, NS

Size

6.69" x 10.63" x 9.84"

Medium

Black Ash, White Ash, Sweetgrass, commercial dye

The flat trap basket is believed to have been used as a trap for moles. The moles caught in the flap trap were then used as guides for finding wild turnip.

Flat Trap Basket

Ursula A. Johnson
Dartmouth, NS

About the artist
About the artist

Ursula A. Johnson
Dartmouth, NS

Ursula is an interdisciplinary artist who works primarily in performance, installation and sculpture, often utilizing natural fiber based materials while employing techniques and methods of customary Mi’kmaw Ash splint basketry.

The Flat Trap Basket is from the O’pltek Series (2010 to present). The O’pltek Series employs processes of customary Mi’kmaw basketry fusing them with contemporary fine art. Each form deconstructs and manipulates the function and image of the basket, inviting the viewer to question the authorship presented with indigenous made objects. Often they are presented outside the context from which they were initially intended in museological institutions. Several pieces from the O’pltek series are currently featured in The Archive Room (2014), a craft and media-based interactive installation and in the nationally touring solo exhibition Mi’kwite’tmn (Do You Remember) curated by Robin Metcalfe from Saint Mary’s University Art Gallery.

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