BAKUL

While the homely basket may be a household staple in many regions, collector and author Jennifer P Linggi as well as curator and architect Ling Hao say that this seemingly simple item is more than meets the eye

- Koyyi Chin 

More than 60 variations of baskets were suspended in mid-air at The Godown KL; swaying gently in the  wind and lit only with natural light, the Bakul: Everyday Baskets from Sabah exhibition didn’t have the usual trappings of your standard exhibit. No glass cases, podiums nor barricades, just the baskets hanging in varying heights—which collector Jennifer P Linggi explains was one of the many visual cues as to what these baskets were used for. She attributes the concept of allowing visitors to get up-close and personal with her baskets to architects Ling Hao and Tey Khang Siang.

I joined a guided tour in the afternoon at The Godown, hosted by Linggi herself. As we wound through the field of floating baskets, careful not to touch them, our guide cheerfully waved away our worries with a little laugh. “Feel free to touch and feel the baskets. And don’t worry about scuffing it up a little. It gives the baskets character!”

But it was difficult to act so brazenly, of course, when one remembers that 50 per cent of these basket designs were now extinct. As dramatic as it may sound, Linggi’s collection may very well contain the last surviving few of these rare baskets. Running my fingers along the smooth sago frond of a tadang initom, this basket was predominantly used by the Kadazan Penampang and Papar for harvesting padi and firewood. It disappeared in the ’80s when manual padi planting and harvesting came to an end—it occurred to me then that I was woefully ignorant about this ubiquitous everyday item.