100 hand-made coconut fiber (sennit) ropes made in collaboration during spontaneous rope-making sessions. Created specifically for Ready at Berkeley Art Center, “a collection of artists’ interventions, tools and strategies that can be used by audiences to interrupt systems of marginalization,” curated by Related Tactics.

Coconut rope has been an essential survival tool for thousands of years: from ties in canoe-building, knotted fishing nets, in tools, or as lashing for building houses. At first glance, these handmade sennit lengths might seem too absurdly short to be functional, but their compact size still suggests potential uses and carries a social history. Many hands put in work to make these ropes: from Alex, who climbed the tree and cut and husked the coconuts, to Jess, Audrey, Juvana, and others who helped prepare the fibers in weekly gatherings. These acts of talking story and connecting to the embodied knowledge of generations of rope-makers- plus the story you will add to them- extend the life of these short lengths. No matter how small the action and difficult the obstacles, we still have ways to connect with each other and consider what useful technology might look like in our futures together. Please take a rope and find a use for it. Feel free to use the hashtags #CoconutRopeInAction and #ReadyBAC to share images of your rope out in the world!