Daniel Baker & Contemporary Romani Art. Post 54*

I have been researching my heritage recently, and was aware my great grandmother was a Romani. I started researching the history on the trian back to London, and found out so many interesting parts of Romani history.

Due to their constant travelling there seems to be lots of different theories on the origins of these people. Egypt, India and Persia all recorded Romani people travelling through to europe. I like the way Romani people would still widely be passed off as common gypsies, but in fact their culture, art and design has become engrained and internalised as somehthing English.

one example of Romani design being appropriated by English artisans is evident in narrow boating culture.

The comparison of a traditional vardo, and a narrow boat shows how much this decoration has been used by english artisans.

I am really looking forward to making some new work in response to this traditional art form, and taking influence from this to create a more contemporary twist on the artform. (see above another artist Daniel Baker who is a Romani artist working alongside traditional folk art in a contemporary context)