Did the basket precede the spear amongst our very first tools? This is what American writer Ursula K. Le Guin suggests in her “Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction”, emphasizing how different our stories could have been if we had focused on the container that helped us gather things because they were edible or simply deemed beautiful.

Our vision of prehistoric times is maybe at fault; it lacks the tremendous inventory of objects woven from plant fibres that left almost no traces compared to flint, axes and arrowheads. Just as we braid hair, we have plaited vines and supple branches; we have invested them with time, and they have gifted us with reed mats and baskets in willow bark, fish traps and mesh bags.

Building upon a craft that exceeds the very name of “craftsmanship”, Atelier Sagarminaga ventures into the fields of art and design to present its modern three-dimensional artefacts.

Sagarminaga’s work does not lie in nostalgia for a bygone trade or the pastoral appeal of the handmade, but in the technique itself, reduced to its simplest and most powerful expression.

When our gaze lingers on her creations, we are exposed to a feat that is both simple and primordial: that of bending the material while retaining this delicate tension. Once below, once above: a principle that can be endlessly repeated to produce resilient and surprisingly complex surfaces.

This latticework reveals in a somewhat raw manner how textiles would feel if we viewed them under a magnifying glass: an architecture of stacked and interweaving fibres following our every gesture. WithNew Nature, Atelier Sagarminaga also showcases a technical philosophy that fully takes advantage of the potential offered by 3D software and modern production means to make a natural material, with its inherent constraints, embrace the artist’s vision.

“Esparto”, the natural material used in these artworks mirrors the scale of our fingers; they conjure up the work of hands braiding tall grasses from the wild, bending a stem without breaking it, transforming that twist into connected lines and planes. Like a coiled spring, like a tensed muscle, the woven object is made up of countless immobilized twists and tensions, counterbalanced by the overall structure. Immobilized without nullifying their power, these woven, knotted, and tightly bound forms evoke and question the notion of harmony, suspended in space. By exploring these principles through four elemental shapes, Gabriella Sagarminaga presents us with her vocabulary of creation. To study their design invites the viewer to become an apprentice again.

Engranaje “The gear”. With its concentric shapes, reminiscent of an eye, a wheel, or circles in the water, “Engranaje” almost invites touch as it presents a knotted texture, braced with all its natural roughness. By introducing the technique of basketry into the realm of the artwork, the eye conveys something akin to the tangible to the brain.

The Bubbles. Moving away from the realm of practical objects, Las burbujas captures the fragility and strength of a cloud of soap bubbles. As time feels suspended, it presents the viewer with a labyrinth of lines of force and centres of gravity, a frozen frame has become a landscape in its own right.

Columna Erosionada. Taking the form of a pillar, this artwork embodies the very principle of torsion that esparto weavers apply on a miniature scale to each fibre. It twists and yet it holds, reminding us of the dialogue every curve secretly maintains with gravity.

Stool. By straddling the boundary between art object and design furniture, the fringes of this stool recall the groves of tall grass from which “esparto” is collected—that natural and resilient fibre used by weavers to make espadrilles and baskets. Overflowing with potential from every angle, captured in the midst of its creation, it holds a space between an animal mane and the work in progress.