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John Garrett
John Garrett began Seven Baskets (Reading
Between the Lines) in 2020, during the pan-
demic. Constructed of scraps of hardware
cloth (a welded wire mesh), the forms related
to baskets and vessels but were made of an
open weave - some lacy; others more solid.
He visited them regularly but came to no
conclusion as to how to finish them until he
received an invitation to join Beauty is Resis-
tance: art as antidote. “In recent years,” he
says, “I had seen many pictures of the destruc-
tion of wars in Sudan, Ukraine, Israel, and
Gaza. Manmade and natural environments
were being destroyed. Piles of debris littered
landscapes. My painted paper baskets looked
to me like structures distressed and damaged
and covered in dust.”
Forms were painted and repainted and became
new again while speaking of horrors between
the layers. Shiny metal leaf covered the interi-
ors and exteriors of others. Two pieces were
wrapped with rings of plied wire and tied down with more
wire or fabric as if waiting for more layers of concrete or plas-
ter. One basket holds small bundles of twigs which suggest
repairs to buildings or people.
42jg Horizontal Holding, hardware cloth scraps, paper pulp, acrylic paint, yucca sticks in small bundles wrapped in white fabric strips sitting in
the interior, 7.5” x 8.5” x 10.5”, 2025
41jg Cream-Colored Vessel, hardware cloth scrap, paper pulp, acrylic paint, buttons plied into brass wire, rebar tie circles, electrical insulating
sleeving, black plastic-covered electrical wire, 8” x 9” x 9”, 2025
38jg Charred Black 2, hardware cloth scrap, paper pulp, acrylic paint, rebar tie circles, aluminum rings, black rubber lacing, plastic-covered
electrical wire, 6.5” x 8” x 8”, 2025
37jg Charred Black, hardware cloth scrap, paper pulp, acrylic paint, metal leaf interior surface, 5.5” x 5” x 5”, 2025
36jg Drenched Crimson, hardware cloth scrap, paper pulp, acrylic paint, 6” x 6” x 6”, 2025
40jg White Vessel with Decoration, hardware cloth scrap, paper pulp, acrylic paint, metal leaf exterior surface, 7” x 7” x 8”, 2025
39jg Bleached Vessel with Decoration, hardware cloth scraps, paper pulp, acrylic paint, metal leaf exterior surface, 6” x 6” x 6”, 2025
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