Joe Hogan press release, May 2014

Joe Hogan Basketmaker

Joe Hogan is one of the last of his kind. First and foremost a traditional craftsman, he is devoted to

ensuring that Irish basketmaking endures in a time when traditional skills are being lost across the world.

In 1978, he planted his first bed of willow, which has now expanded to over an acre of fifteen varieties of organically-grown willow, which include salix purpurea, salix alba chermesina, salix daphnoides, salix rubra continental, salix rubra continental, salix rubra Harrison, Salix triandra dark French and Salix decipiens.

The varieties of willow provide him with green, black, blue, yellow, red, brown and white willow reeds, which he harvests from November-March, and then sorts by size and dries outside his studio. When he is ready to use the willow, he must then soak it, occasionally even steaming it, to render it pliable enough to weave into his baskets.

Joe did not grow up making baskets, but was drawn to the craft because of his love of nature, natural materials and desire to live in the country.

While willow is the material that Joe uses most frequently and in the largest quantities, he regularly incorporates other naturally-occurring materials such as wood, bark, larch, birch, bog myrtle twigs, willow twigs and catkins. . In the past ten years, he has begun harvesting bog pine from local bogs. When peat is harvested from the bogs, Joe is able to select the wood which has

been hidden from sight. If he decides to use a piece of this harvested wood in a basket, he then steams the wood and shapes it, drilling small holes for the reeds to fit through.

production are being lost. Instead, production is being shifted to China, where baskets can be produced in record time and sold for very low prices. Joe spends on average 5-6 hours making a basket, and is one of around ten basketmakers left in Ireland who make baskets full-time.

The Scottish Gallery is delighted to host Joe’s second solo show showcasing his functional and sculptural baskets.

For futher information and high resolution images please contact Bryony Windsor bryony@scottish-gallery.co.uk 0131 558 1200

While initially producing purely functional baskets, Joe is now also making sculptural baskets.

Joe is passionate about the continuation of basket production in Ireland.

While it was once a popular traditional craft, baskets are used less and

less for their traditional purposes, decreasing the demand. Baskets of up to 12,000 years old have been discovered in archaeological digs, and yet despite being such an old craft, the skills needed to continue

Sources: Bare Branches, Youtube video Images: The Scottish Gallery