So much more than a basket

The Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts at UEA (University of East Anglia) is always a delight. The subtle juxtaposition of Norman Foster's architecture with the collections of ethnographic and modern art is both aesthetically and intellectually exciting. It is a serene yet stimulating space.

Their latest show is a further triumph on all of these fronts. Basketry: Making Human Nature explores the making and use of baskets across different human cultures, drawing contemporary artwork together with more traditionally 'functional' pieces to create a powerful thematic argument about the importance of basketry to human ways of thinking. The pieces are beautifully displayed and lit, and the interpretation is simple but sophisticated.

I loved the discussion of the way forms and patterns in basketry have crossed into other forms, with the most spectacular example being a Hellenistic glass bowl, on loan from the British Museum, that resembles a woven basket in the patterns applied to the glass rods. And, for me, this particularly struck a chord with the 'Nests and Webs' section which looked at basket patterns in nature, from the scale of nests to moulds.

The long case of materials and tools put together by artist Mary Butcher gave a powerful sense of the material practice behind the artwork and served to introduce her specially commissioned 'Wall Drawing' which encapsulates everything that this show weaves together so successfully.