Bark Cloth Europe (www.barktex.de) is a German/Ugandan owned company who, for the past 10 years has been diligently getting bark cloth into the hands of artists and designers across the globe. Oliver Heintz and his wife Mary Balongo work both in Uganda and Germany to explore the potential for bark cloth in contemporary art and design.
It has been great to get to know their work and business over the past few years. I had the privilege of meeting and interviewing Mary in 2008 at their home in Masaka. A few days later, Mary joined us at a dinner hosted by the US Embassy, bringing all those involved in bark cloth into one place for great conversations. The dinner was a great forum to see how unique each person's approach to bark cloth is - from researchers to designers to educational organizations. Bark Cloth Europe is unique in its approach to getting the material into as many hands as possible, thus increasing awareness and demand for this material. Their manipulation of the surface with dye, bleach, stitch, rubber, etc is opening this material to new uses.
Oliver and Mary are working with me on organizing works for the exhibition in March at UNT.
You have to take notice of the jackets they are wearing, one guess as to what it is...
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