University of North Texas

A new exhibition features international artists and designers who create artistic works and everyday functional items from bark cloth, focusing on creating sustainable and environmentally friendly design solutions from a centuries-old process.

The exhibition - Material Evolution: Ugandan Bark Cloth - shows how bark cloth made from the Ugandan mutuba (fig) trees can be used to create commonplace items such as men’s shoes, a jacket and a bark cloth-wrapped steering wheel. Other featured items include artistic works such as wall coverings made of bark cloth and a bark cloth dress used in contemporary Ugandan wedding ceremonies.

The items will be on display from Tuesday, March 1 through Saturday, March 26 at the Art Building, Art Gallery. An opening reception will be from 4:30 to 6 p.m. Tuesday, March 1.

“For hundreds of years, bark cloth has been a part of the Buganda Kingdom of Uganda, and now this unique material is finding a place in contemporary art and design, both in Uganda and abroad,” said Lesli Robertson, curator of the exhibition and a lecturer in the fibers program at the College of Visual Arts and Design. Above, Robertson in Uganda, surrounded by traditional bark cloth.

Robertson, who is a faculty fellow in UNT’s Institute for the Advancement of the Arts, has traveled to Uganda to study the process of making bark cloth. Robertson also has organized various community projects to engage schoolchildren in Uganda and the United States in an exchange of artistic ideas. A mural created by those schoolchildren will be on display in the March exhibition.

Other related events are:

Saturday, Feb. 26 - 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., Open Studio at UNT on the Square, 109 N. Elm St.; free

Designer Emily Brewer of Decode Designs in the United Kingdom will create two pieces from bark cloth in an open studio. Viewers can watch a video of the process of making Ugandan bark cloth and a video documenting a traveling exhibition and community art workshops that were offered by Robertson. Brewer’s final creations will be included in the UNT exhibition.

Wednesday, March 2 – 1 p.m., Design Core Visiting Artist Program lecture, Eagle Student Services Center, Room 255; free

Oliver Heintz of Bark Cloth Europe will discuss his work with bark cloth. Heintz, along with his wife and business partner, Mary Barongo-Heintz has been exploring the potential of Ugandan bark cloth as a new material for artists and designers. He formed BARK CLOTH® Europe with offices and workshops in Uganda and Germany, where the cloth is dyed, rubberized and bleached. They have won design awards throughout Europe, including the Innovation Award BioMaterial of the Year and the Materialica Design + Technology Award; they are nominated for the 2011 Design Award of The Federal Republic of Germany.  

Wednesday, March 2 – from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., workshop with Oliver Heintz and Mary Barongo-Heintz of BARK CLOTH® Europe, Scoular Hall; $10 for students; $30 for professionals

• Find FAQs about bark cloth, below at a Ugandan co-op.

Heintz and Barongo will use a variety of 3D and surface design techniques with bark cloth, including: dyeing, bleaching, felting, machine manipulations and mixed media applications. Open to DFW-area designers and artists, and to UNT upper-level studio art majors with an interest in material manipulation.