By Joanne Bailey-Boorsma
joanne@wktv.org
The centuries old tradition of black ash basketry will be the focus of the Grand Rapids Art Museum’s next installment of its Michigan Artist Series.
Set to open Aug. 28, “The Black Ash Basketry of Kelly Church and Cherish Parrish,” features the work of the mother-and-daughter team who are members of the Gun Lake Tribe, Match-E-Be-Nash-She-Wish Band.
“The black ash tree is an integral part of who we are, from creation stories to blood memories, to the baskets that we make today,” Artist Kelly Church said. “We start with the black ash tree, and we do all of the processing—we harvest it, we process it, we cut it, and then we make a basket that tells a story of our life today. We’re combining the traditions of our past that have been carried on for thousands of years.”
The artists and their family come from an unbroken line of black ash basket makers. The Anishinabe originally made baskets purely for utility, weaving them in various sizes for carrying, collecting, and storing. As a broader appreciation for Native baskets developed, their ancestors began creating decorative baskets to sell and bolster the tribal economy. Church and Parrish draw on these traditions to create more topical and experimental works. An Interwoven Legacy powerfully demonstrates both their astonishing artistry and their urgent advocacy on behalf of Native traditions.
The exhibition emphasizes two of the artists’ primary motivations: the importance of maintaining the basketmaking tradition within their culture, and their advocacy for the black ash tree’s survival, which is being decimated by an invasive insect, the emerald ash borer. These issues are critically important for people whose cultural survival depends on passing traditions on to the next generations, whether through language, ceremonies, or practices like basketry.
Church added, “Cherish and I take our old traditional teachings and we combine it with the contemporary stories of who we are as Natives in 2021. We are the largest basket weaving family in Michigan, and the fact that we can carry it on this long, to me shows strength and resilience of who we are.”
On exhibit through February 26, the artists will debut more than 20 new works in An Interwoven Legacy that focus on the centuries-old tradition of black ash basketry. The exhibit will be a mix of traditional baskets and the contemporary ones that draw on Native history and storytelling.
“The Grand Rapids Art Museum’s exhibition presents the work of two Michigan basket makers who are nationally-recognized for their remarkable level of skill and craft,” said GRAM Chief Curator Ron Platt. “In Kelly Church and Cherish Parrish’s family, basket weaving has been handed down from one generation to the next, extending back centuries. Their work is especially powerful for the way it balances tradition with their concerns about the environment, both here in West Michigan, and nationally.”
Accompanying the exhibition will be documentary elements illustrating the strenuous process of harvesting black ash trees and preparing the splints for basketmaking, as well as stories and background information from Church and Parrish about the works on view.
Complementing the exhibition will be several related programming and events, including Drop-in Tours, virtual basketmaking workshops led by Kelly Church, and Drop-in Studio. Guests are encouraged to view the Museum’s updated visitor guidelines in advance of their visit, which includes face mask requirements for all visitors while indoors.
For those who prefer to experience the exhibition virtually, there will be digital resources on GRAM’s website including installation images, a video interview with the artists, archival photographs, and texts.
