LAIR Virtual: Weaving Past & Present – a ceremonial basket in mosaic tile
EastSide Arts Alliance & NAKA Dance Theater present Linda Yamane & Susanne Takehara in conversation.
Join us on Facebook Live as the artists speak about the history of the ceremonial baskets and the creation of the mosaic.
STATEMENT FROM LINDA YAMANE, Ohlone Artist and Basketweaver
“In 2012, when I completed this Ohlone ceremonial basket — and another for the Oakland Museum of California — they were the first of their kind to be made in about 250 years. It was my joy and honor to bring their beauty back into the world again.
This basket speaks to the creativity and skill of Ohlone artisans of the past, who transformed sticks and roots, feathers and shells, into remarkable works of art. May this stunning mosaic by Susanne Takehara remind us of Oakland’s first peoples, their resourcefulness, and their thoughtful relationship with the land.”
Statement from Corrina Gould, Traditional Spokesperson Confederated Villages of Lisjan
"Oakland has always been the place of the Ohlone and for thousands of years it was called Huchiun, part of a larger territory that is inclusive of six Bay Area cities. Lisjan/Ohlone continue to live, work, pray and have relationships with our lands and waterways here in one of the many traditional territories where we have an unbroken tie since the beginning of time."
Title: Weaving Past & Present
Medium: Mosaic: ceramic and porcelain tile, glass, abalone shell
Size: 13’ X 12’
Completed: January 2021
Location: Camino 23 Apartments, International Blvd. at 23rd Avenue, Oakland, CA
Artists:
Original woven basket – Linda Yamane
Mosaic design, tile setting, project management – Susanne Takehara
Custom tiles: Glass pendants – Mariposa Glass & Tile Works/Jesse Medina
Stamped tiles: Carol Bevilacqua
Installation: Breandain Langlois, Chris Langlois, Jesse Medina, Susanne Takehara
Commissioned by Satellite Affordable Housing Associates
Bios:
Linda Yamane:
Linda Yamane is an Ohlone traditional basketmaker, artist and tribal scholar from the Monterey area. She has spent the past thirty-five years researching and bringing back many of the forgotten arts and technologies of her Rumsen Ohlone ancestors, including basketry.
The basket traditions of the Ohlone—the indigenous peoples of the San Francisco and Monterey Bay regions, extending from the coast to the edges of the Central Valley—had essentially vanished, the result of missionization and the other cultural impacts that followed. There were no remaining Ohlone basketweavers, and the baskets themselves are rare, with only about two dozen of the old baskets known to exist worldwide.
Studying ethnographic field notes and tapping into the knowledge of contemporary basketweavers who use the same plant materials as the Ohlone, Linda completed her first traditional basket in 1994. It was the first Ohlone basket to be made in over 150 years. Since then, she has completed a total of 24 baskets—roughly doubling the number of Ohlone baskets in the world.
Susanne Takehara:
A community-based artist and founding member of the EastSide Arts Alliance collective, Takehara serves as Facility Operations Director, Live Arts in Resistance co-producer, and theater manager at the EastSide Cultural Center. Takehara, collaborating with Oakland performing artists, initiated an informal EastSide Dance/Theater residency program which offered artists free or low-cost rehearsal and performance space, basic technical and production support. In 2013 when NAKA Dance Theater began working directly with EastSide artists at the Cultural Center, NAKA co-director Jose Navarrete joined the collective and formalized the residency program into an ongoing dance/theater series, Live Arts in Resistance.
As a visual artist, Takehara focuses on mosaic and stencil arts and has project managed several public and community art projects in Oakland. She has a BFA from the Art Institute of Chicago and has studied mosaics under Laurel True of True Mosaics.
EastSide Mosaics, a project of EastSide Arts Alliance, formed in the summer of 2010 during the completion phase of their first project, the façade of the EastSide Cultural Center. Lead artists and tile setters were: Takehara and Xochitl Guerrero.