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W I R E DA fully updated and redesigned edition of Wired will be released by Radius Books in early 2025.
The new edition will feature updated photography and text, adding the story of developments in telephone wire baskets since the original, now out of print, book was released in 2005. Included in this edition are many new pieces made in the last twenty years and is being released in conjunction with a major exhibition of the David Arment Southern African Collection at the Museum of International Folk Art in Santa Fe. David Arment and Jim Rimelspach have donated the collection to the Museum, and this is the first exhibition of wirework outside of South Africa. The book is soon to be available from Radius Books, The Museum of International Folk Art, Amazon, or wherever you purchase art books. www.radiusbooks.org WIRED: CONTEMPORARY ZULU TELEPHONE WIRE BASKETS is the first book to document the development of wire weaving in South African art. With over 270 magnificent full colour images, Wired showcases the works of the most renowned contemporary weavers including Dudu Cele, Bheki Dlamini, Alice Gcaba, Zama Khanyile, Mboniseni Khanyile, Ntombifuthi Magwasa, Robert Majola, Zodwa Maphumulo, Simon Mavundla, Elliot Mkhize, Jaheni Mkhize, Alfred Ntuli, Bheki Sibiya, and Vincent Sithole. The foreword by Karel Nel, Associate Professor of Fine Art at Wits University, places the baskets in their historical and geographical contexts. Paul Mikula, founding trustee of the Bartel Arts Trust, architect, writer, and owner of the Phansi Museum, contributes a “Song of Praise” that celebrates the baskets and tells the story of their place in Nguni culture. The decorative use of wire has long been a feature of southern African art work and, with advancements in telecommunications, a new type of wire – multi-colored, plastic-coated copper wire, referred to as telephone wire – has become available. In the late 1960s Zulu night watchmen started weaving scraps of this wire around their traditional sticks. The practice became popular among Zulu communities and today there is great innovation and creativity in the use of this medium. Artists have produced goods ranging from soft wire bowls and plates to glass bottle covers, tea sets, isikhetho (beer strainers), and pots, all created in a wide variety of colors and complex patterns. David Arment, one of the authors of Wired, had travelled extensively in southern Africa when he bought his first telephone-wire basket in the early 90s. He developed a passion for collecting baskets and since then has established, in Santa Fe, New Mexico, the premier collection of baskets by contemporary wire weavers. Meanwhile, Marisa Fick-Jordaan, was developing her own passion for baskets while she worked with the weavers of Siyanda (a residential area outside Durban). Fick-Jordaan set up ZenZulu, which supplies telephone-wire baskets to art shops around the world. These pieces have found their way to Paris, London, New York, and Los Angeles. The book was published in 2005, and is currently out of print.
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