Ned Ludd (Sabots)
Francesca Telling
Ned Ludd (Sabots)
Francesca Telling
Reference
SAS0145_001
Year
2021
Dimensions (cm)
Height: 16
Length: 34
Depth: 26
Length: 34
Depth: 26
Materials
Willow, rattan cane
Current Location
London
Suitable Locations for the Work
- Indoors
- Floor-based
- On a plinth
- In a case
Background, history, commissioner of the work
This work was an element of a larger scale installation, Repository #2: A Container to Hold and Store, shown as part of the 2021 Goldsmiths BA Fine Art degree show. Taking as its starting point the anthropological proposition of the basket as the first human invention, this work investigated the basket through its mythologised, iconographic and sociopolitical relations to craft, community, technology and labour; before remarking on the lingering resonance of basket forms in contemporary culture.
Thematic/contextual information
Wicker woven shoes which imitate the form of sabots, a clog-like type of worker’s shoe. Folklore alleges the word sabotage is etymologically derived from the sabot shoe, after textile workers who threw their shoes into workplace machinery as an act of protest against the Industrial Revolution. Through historical references to machine-destroying movements, this work draws attention to the intrinsic connections between weaving practices, technological progress and the legacy of the Craftsman.
