Don’t forget that the next OATG event takes place on Thursday 27 April 2023 and registration for this event closes soon! This will be an online presentation by independent scholar Thweep Rittinaphakorn, better known to his friends as Ake. His subject will be Frontiersmen of the Crossroad: The Fusion Style of Shan Chinese Dressing.
“Chinese Shan costumes, particularly those of females, are a crossbred fusion between the tradition of Tai apparel and Chinese style adornment and adaptation. The most outstanding items among the repertoire are the female festive skirts. They provide a stunning sight to those who have seen them. They have profuse, eclectic, and gaudy decoration, incorporating different material and embellishment techniques, unlike any other kind.
Relying on photographic evidence taken at the turn of the century, old books & early traveling memoirs, plus current dressing practice and physical material evidence drawn from private collections, this talk will first provide an initial backdrop of Chinese Shan culture, then dive deep to discuss their dressing style, accoutrements, plus embellishing technique and the materials used.”
Ake is an independent scholar whose work focuses mainly on textiles and arts history of mainland Southeast Asia. He curates The Siam Society’s textile collection and is a regular speaker to the Siam Society, Thai Textiles Society, and The Bangkok National Museum Volunteer group.
Please note that this programme begins at the earlier than usual time of 1630 BST, as our speaker is in a different time zone. Full details and registration for this event can be found here. It is of course free for OATG members, but there is a small charge for non-members.
Example of a festive tube skirt used by Chinese Shan ladies from Dehong area, Yunnan with sumptuous decorations of silk satin panels, miniature applique trimming, and embroidery panels.
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Andean Textile Arts will be hosting another online talk on Tuesday 16 May 2023. The speaker will be Lois Martin and her subject is Ancient Andean Animated Attire:Lively Dress on a Paracas/Nasca Textile.
The hyper-arid environment of Peru’s South Coast has almost perfectly preserved exquisite 2,000-year-old textiles from the Paracas and Nasca periods. One world-famous example, 38.121 in the Brooklyn Museum collection, has a colorful, cross-looped border of 92 parading figures, each about four inches tall. In this presentation, Lois Martin will present insights from her longstanding study of the piece, focusing especially on the garments worn by marchers. She will show that dress not only signaled a wearer’s gender, status, and social identity, but also sometimes bore markers of active vitality — as if echoing contemporary notions of traditional garments as “living textiles.”
Lois worked at the Brooklyn Museum for several years and is very familiar with this piece, having also written about it for The Textile Museum Journal. The talk begins at 1900 EDT, which sadly is midnight BST so this is one for the night owls. More information and registration can be found here.
Detail of the Brooklyn Museum Paracas textile, showing three-dimensional cross-looped border figures numbers 47, 48, and 49. Photography by Justin Kerr.
Please note that the best way to view this blog is by clicking on the title, which takes you to our WordPress site. The video links do not always open if you read this as an email.
A new exhibition dedicated to Mediterranean Embroideries opened this week at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge.
“This display showcases a range of textiles from across the Mediterranean world and explores the embroidery practices that connect them. Mostly created by women, these lively and decorative textiles provided a means of self-expression for women and girls of all ages. Generation after generation of makers handed down their needle skills, creating pieces that reflected personal tastes, social standing and community affiliation.
In the main, the embroideries were made for use in the home, as cushions, towel ends, bed tents, or as clothing.
Common features included ships, vases, fantastical beings, humans, birds and even words, while other motifs denoted regional differences. Some patterns travelled, appearing on other objects, such as ceramics, from opposite ends of the Mediterranean.” – museum website
Next Wednesday lunchtime, 26 April at 12:30 BST, there will be a hybrid event when historian Elizabeth Key Fowden will talk about collectors of Mediterranean textiles in the new Fitzwilliam display Mediterranean Embroideries and discuss the short film made for the display Running threads, dancing bodies, featuring the life of a contemporary Greek collector and maker, Andreas Peris Papageorgiou.
This six-minute film tells the story of his collection. Peris is unusual in that he is both a maker and a collector, an artist who has spent his life collecting the last remnants of a once vibrant tradition and at the same time keeping them in use, outside the museum, by having his own dance troupe wear his collection for performances.
There is a small charge of £5, and booking is essential. Please ensure you book through the correct link – in person attendance or online attendance.
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The next OATG event takes place on Thursday 27 April 2023. This will be an online presentation by independent scholar Thweep Rittinaphakorn, better known to his friends as Ake. His subject will be Frontiersmen of the Crossroad: The Fusion Style of Shan Chinese Dressing.
“Chinese Shan costumes, particularly those of females, are a crossbred fusion between the tradition of Tai apparel and Chinese style adornment and adaptation. The most outstanding items among the repertoire are the female festive skirts. They provide a stunning sight to those who have seen them. They have profuse, eclectic, and gaudy decoration, incorporating different material and embellishment techniques, unlike any other kind.
Relying on photographic evidence taken at the turn of the century, old books & early traveling memoirs, plus current dressing practice and physical material evidence drawn from private collections, this talk will first provide an initial backdrop of Chinese Shan culture, then dive deep to discuss their dressing style, accoutrements, plus embellishing technique and the materials used.”
Ake is an independent scholar whose work focuses mainly on textiles and arts history of mainland Southeast Asia. He curates The Siam Society’s textile collection and is a regular speaker to the Siam Society, Thai Textiles Society, and The Bangkok National Museum Volunteer group.
Please note that this programme begins at the earlier than usual time of 1630 BST, as our speaker is in a different time zone. Full details and registration for this event can be found here. It is of course free for OATG members, but there is a small charge for non-members.
Example of a festive tube skirt used by Chinese Shan ladies from Dehong area, Yunnan with sumptuous decorations of silk satin panels, miniature applique trimming, and embroidery panels.
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The annual May Beattie lecture will take place on Friday 5 May 2024 at 17:00 BST at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford and will be followed by a reception. Dr Jessica Hallett from the Gulbenkian Museum in Lisbon will be the speaker and her subject is Knotting Threads Across the Warps of Time: Safavid Carpets in Europe 1600-1900. This annual lecture is free to attend, but you do need to confirm your attendance. For more details click here.
An exciting new exhibition at the Seattle Art Museum. Ikat: A Compelling World of Cloth runs until 29 May 2023 and showcases over one hundred examples of textiles from across the globe using the ikat technique. These include hangings and coats from Uzbekistan, kimono from Japan, ponchos from Bolivia and several textiles from across Indonesia. In this interview curator Pam McCluskey gives a glimpse into this exhibition.
On Saturday 6 May 2023 the Textile Museum Associates of Southern California will host an online programme by collector David Paly, whose textiles form the basis of this exhibition.
“Deceptively simple or fantastically intricate, ikat technique has been used for many centuries to create extravagant costumes and cloths of deep cultural meaning. The distinctively blurred, feathered or jagged patterns of ikat tie-dyed textiles are found across much of the world—from Japan in the east to Central and South America in the west, with vast areas of Southeast Asia, India, Central Asia and the Middle East in between. The traditional patterns still hold cultural relevance today in significant parts of the long-established ikat-weaving areas. Textile artists and fashion designers in many and varied countries have taken ikat in new directions, respecting traditional forms and palettes while creatively diverging from them.
Dr. David Paly has assembled a comprehensive group of textiles representing all of the cultural traditions that used the ikat technique, and which has morphed into a collection of over 500 pieces. More than 140 of them are currently on display at the Seattle Art Museum in “IKAT: A World of Compelling Cloth.” In this talk, he will walk us through highlights of his collection from the many places they were made.
This free online talk, entitled Global Ikat: Roots and Routes of a Textile Technique, begins at 10:00 PT, 13:00 ET, and 18:00 BST and you can register for it here.
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Also taking place on 6 May is the next World Textile Day event, this time at Kings Sutton in Oxfordshire. These are always lively events, which include a textile market and talk. The speaker this time is Susan Briscoe, whose topic will be Sashiko Patterns: The Imperial Connection. Dealers include Martin Conlan of Slow Loris, the African Fabric Shop, Textile Traders, Khayamiya and Fabazaar. Click here for more details.
Examples of the sort of textiles available there
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Finally, London Craft Week runs from 8-14 May 2023. There is an extensive programme of events and exhibitions to gladden the heart of anyone who appreciates craftsmanship. There are 213 events listed in the programme and, to be honest, I think the only way to approach this is to scroll through the whole list – you never know what might intrigue you! Highlights for me included Sarawak Basketry, Iban pua’ kumbu, Crafts of Qatar,Malaysia’s Heritage Crafts and Textiles and Baskets of Taiwan (which includes reproductions of Taiwanese textiles woven by OATG member Tsai Yushan). Settle down with a cup of tea and decide which events appeal to you – but don’t leave it too late as some of these are booking up fast!
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I’m heading off to Indonesia soon to co-lead another textile tour so might not have time to write lengthy blogs. However I will still be sharing information about forthcoming events on the OATG Facebook page, so why not follow us there or on our new Instagram page?
Apologies for the short notice for some of these events. I’m heading off to Indonesia soon and rushing to complete everything before I leave!
The Fashion and Textiles Gallery at the ACM (Asian Civilisations Museum) in Singapore has now reopened. Textiles Masters to the World: The Global Desire for Indian Cloth features a display of stunning textiles and garments that were produced in India and traded to regions in the Middle East, Southeast Asia, Europe, and Japan from the fourteenth to the nineteenth century. Find out more about this exhibition here.
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The Textile Society (UK) is offering awards of up to £5,000 for a textile related project within the museum, archive and conservation sector.
“The Museum, Archive and Conservation Award is designed to support textile related projects within a museum, archive, or conservation studio for an exhibition, publication or conservation project that will help achieve greater awareness and access for the public.
The Textile Society invites applications from all museums, archives and conservation studios with accredited or provisionally accredited status.
Priority will be given to applications from small to medium sized institutions with an annual turnover of less than £750,000 per year.” Please note that the closing date for applications is 1 May 2023. More information of how to apply, and details of the projects undertaken by past winners can be found here.
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I haven’t come across the tradition of barkcloth in Uganda previously, so was interested to hear of this online talk hosted by WARP (Weave A Real Peace). It takes place online this Saturday 15 April at 1100 ET, which is 1600 BST.
“For more than 700 years, the legacy cloth, lubugo (barkcloth), made from the mutuba tree (ficus natalensis) has been used to clothe Ugandans, bury the dead and mark sacred ceremonies in Uganda. In 2005, it was designated as an intangible cultural heritage by UNESCO to be preserved and protected. Today, it is inspiring contemporary artists, designers, scientists, scholars and researchers locally, regionally, continentally and globally. It has an exciting future but faces several challenges, such as deforestation and the passing away of the elderly skilled masters without their children continuing the tradition. The Bukomansimbi Organic Tree Farmers Association (BOFTA) and a global group of collaborators are working together to strengthen Uganda’s barkcloth industry and preserve this tradition for future generations.” – WARP
Click here for more details and to register for this free talk.
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Another event taking place the same day, but this time in-person, is the latest programme from the TMA/SC (Textile Museum Associates of Southern California). Janet Seward will talk on the subject of Guatamala Dress: Diversity and Evolution, followed by a Show and Tell of textiles from her collection.
“Isolated villages in the rugged mountains of Guatemala have each developed their own wildly different, yet still traditional clothing. Woven on backstrap looms for over 2,500 years, the costume of each town continues to evolve, and at one time instantly signaled a person’s origin, and their economic and marital status. There are preferred colors in each village and sometimes a complete change of design between an everyday huipil (blouse) or a ceremonial one from the same place. The huipil, the most recognized piece outside of Guatemala, is a tribute to womankind’s capacity for innovation, her joy in individual creativity, her pride in her traditions and her display of admired skills as well as her wealth.”
This event begins at 1000 PT, but registration closes at 1700 PT TODAY, so don’t delay!
Next Wednesday 19 April ORTS (Oriental Rug and Textile Society) will hold an in-person event in London. Dr Benjamin Hinson of the V&A will talk on Collecting Late Antique textiles at the Victoria and Albert Museum: Greville Chester, Gayet, Thomas and friends.
“The Victoria and Albert Museum holds one of the world’s largest collections of Late Antique and early Islamic textiles from Egypt. Parts of the collection’s history, and the figures responsible for helping to form it, are well known – others much less so. This talk will outline some of the key individuals, but also several of the lesser-known, who donated or sold Egyptian textiles to the V&A in the 19th and 20th centuries.”
This talk is free for members, with a charge of £7 for non-members, and takes place at the University Women’s Club in Mayfair. Click here for more details.
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Sunday 23 April is the date for the annual Textile Society’s Antique and Vintage Textile Fair in Manchester – not to be missed!
“The Textile Society celebrates Manchester’s heritage as the powerhouse of British textile design and manufacture. The Manchester Antique & Vintage Textile Fair is the hub for all passionate collectors of textiles. It was the first antique fair to specialise entirely in historic textiles, and it has remained a key event in the textiles calendar since 1992. From world textiles to mid-century modern, from Art Deco to vintage fashion, the fair is an exciting and abundant source for objects and ideas, wall art or wearables, the beautiful or the kitsch.”
I’ve found some wonderful things there in the past and highly recommend it. Full details can be found here.
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Also taking place on Sunday 23 April is an online presentation hosted by the International Hajji Baba Society. The speaker is Austin Doyle and his subject is Shahsevan Pile Rugs and Bags.
“The Shahsevan are well recognized for the brilliant colors and fine weaving of their sumak production, but their pile weaving has been difficult to identify, much less to attribute to particular Shahsevan tribes. The Shahsevan originally had a nomadic life-style and it was surmised that they had little need or ability to weave heavier pile carpets. The pile weavings attributed to them were often small and crudely designed pieces.
The Shahsevan were not a monolithic tribal grouping and included members of Afshar and Turkicized Kurdish groups, both known to be prolific pile weavers. It also appears that some Shahsevan groups were only semi-nomadic through much of the 18th and early 19th century, and interacted closely with village groups in the Caucasus, Karadagh, and other parts of northwest Persia. Austin Doyle will review the structural characteristics, colors, and design features that may indicate Shahsevan production or influence, and will discuss pieces which might tentatively be assigned to particular areas or subgroups of the Shahsevan.”
This free online programme begins at 1300 ET, which is 1800 BST. More details and registration can be found here.
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Finally the next OATG event takes place on Thursday 27 April 2023. This will be an online presentation by independent scholar Thweep Rittinaphakorn, better known to his friends as Ake. His subject will be Frontiersmen of the Crossroad: The Fusion Style of Shan Chinese Dressing.
“Chinese Shan costumes, particularly those of females, are a crossbred fusion between the tradition of Tai apparel and Chinese style adornment and adaptation. The most outstanding items among the repertoire are the female festive skirts. They provide a stunning sight to those who have seen them. They have profuse, eclectic, and gaudy decoration, incorporating different material and embellishment techniques, unlike any other kind.
Relying on photographic evidence taken at the turn of the century, old books & early traveling memoirs, plus current dressing practice and physical material evidence drawn from private collections, this talk will first provide an initial backdrop of Chinese Shan culture, then dive deep to discuss their dressing style, accoutrements, plus embellishing technique and the materials used.”
Ake is an independent scholar whose work focuses mainly on textiles and arts history of mainland Southeast Asia. He curates The Siam Society’s textile collection and is a regular speaker to the Siam Society, Thai Textiles Society, and The Bangkok National Museum Volunteer group.
Examples of festive tube skirts used by Chinese Shan ladies from Dehong area, Yunnan with sumptuous decorations of silk satin panels, miniature applique trimming, and embroidery panels.
Please note that this programme begins at the earlier than usual time of 1630 BST, as our speaker is in a different time zone. Full details and registration for this event can be found here. It is of course free for OATG members, but there is a small charge for non-members.
Ake is also the author of Unseen Burma: Early Photography 1862-1962, published by River Books. This is a record of photographs from his amazing personal collection.
“When the British colonised Burma, they brought with them the latest technology in cameras and photographic reproduction, and since these were introduced to Burma as early as the middle of the 19th century, the country is richly catalogued and photographed. The new technology was first popularised by western practitioners (Germans, Italians, and, of course, the British) and upper-class patrons, but then spread to the mass market. “
It is already available in Thailand, and you can see some of the pages here. It will be available internationally in late May/early June.
There are several new exhibitions opening soon. The first of these is Gathering at the Textile Museum of Canada in Ontario. This exhibition features community stories and “explores themes related to migration and diaspora, the search for comfort in the domestic and familial, reclamation of ancestral traditions through contemporary artistic responses, and the relationship between textiles and the environment. The Museum is pleased to showcase new acquisitions in this initial installation, including a 19th century Ainu attush robe from Hokkaido, Japan, and eight beaded works by Vancouver-based, Anishnabekwe artist Bev Koski.”
An opening celebration will take place on 2 April from 1400 to 1700 and you can book for it here.
Next Friday, 31 March, sees the opening of a new exhibition at the Museum of the Palestinian People in Washington DC. The exhibition is entitled Tatreez Inheritance: Preserving Palestinian Cultural Heritage in 75 Years of Exile. This exhibition, which marks the curatorial debut of Wafa Ghnaim, “examines the presence of Palestinian embroidery in the United States through a diasporic lens, asserting and affirming the power of material culture and art history in preserving a nation’s identity. Over the past 75 years, the dispossession, displacement and dispersion of the Palestinian people across the globe has circulated precious textiles and dresses throughout Europe and North America.”
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The exhibition currently showing at the St Louis Art Museum is Fabricating Empire: Folk Textiles and the Making of Early 20th century Austrian Design, which runs until 28 May. It “examines the relationship between the development of Central European folk costume and Austrian modern design, especially the textile department of the Wiener Werkstätte, or Vienna Workshops……. The exhibition considers new scholarship that suggests the imperial government was at the center of promoting and appropriating folk art across the empire as it attempted to create an all-embracing identity for its diverse subjects and fragmented territories.” – Museum website
Czech; Girl’s Ensemble (Kroj Severokyjovsky), c.1945; embroidered cotton and miscellaneous fabric with beads, sequins, and lace trim, Saint Louis Art Museum, Collection of Marvin E. Moehle 2022.189a-h
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The Hajji Baba Club are once again inviting applications for their annual Research Fellowship, which this year is worth $7500. Candidates should be involved in primary research in the field of carpet studies. This is an exciting opportunity and the deadline for submissions is 28 April 2023. Click here for full details of how to apply and what the criteria are.
Niched PrayerRug,Western China, 19th century,Wool pile, 681 x 117 cm (268 x 46 in.), Private Collection
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Next Saturday, 1 April 2023, is a very busy day for textile events. In the UK the first World Textile Day event of the year takes place at East Horsley in Surrey and as usual features some excellent dealers and speakers. The OATG’s very own Gavin Strachan (editor of Asian Textiles) will be giving a talk on Textiles of the Balkans, and showing examples from his own collection. Some of you will be aware of Gavin’s passion for the textiles of this area from our Show and Tell sessions. Dealers at this event include the inimitable John Gillow, Martin Conlan of Slow Loris and Diane and Jim Gaffney of Textile Traders.
For full details of this event please check out the WTD website – be sure to get there early for the choice of the best textiles!
Women near Prizren. Autochrome Auguste Léon, May 1913. Musée Albert-Kahn. The background kilim is probably Pirot, Serbia 19th century, from the collection of Gavin Strachan.
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Next to some online events – two of which take place on Saturday 1 April. The first of these is a talk by Deniz Coşkun as part of the Rug and Textile Appreciation mornings at the Textile Museum in DC. His subject will be The Legacy of Anatolian Wool.
“Sheep have been raised in Anatolia since 9000 BCE, and the nomadic people caring for them became masters of wool. Until the 1970s, pastoral nomadism was the preferred lifestyle of a significant number of the Anatolian population, and wool remains one of the primary products of the area……. In this virtual talk, Deniz Coşkun will examine properties and qualities of wool through different techniques such as shearing, bowing, combing, spinning and weaving. Coşkun will focus on pile carpets from throughout Anatolia, woven by nomadic groups who mastered the properties of wool in a clever and aesthetic way.” – Museum website.
Click here for more details, and to register for this talk which begins at 11am EDT (8am PDT, 1600 BST).
The next online event that day is a virtual visit to the weavers of Cusco, organised by Andean Textile Arts and Centro de Textiles Tradicionales del Cusco (CTTC). They are “teaming up to bring the weavers and their work to you through a special online presentation by Nilda Callañaupa Alvarez, founder and director of the CTTC. Nilda will introduce us to each of the communities through their distinct textile techniques and designs. She’ll also talk about recent revitalization projects and show us some amazing pieces produced through community collaboration.”
Click here to register and to find out more. Please note that the first sixty people who register will also receive an invitation to a special online shopping event featuring Cusco textiles, immediately after the talk.
The University of Pennsylvania is hosting this talk on Tuesday 4 April, which intrigued me. It is entitled Cultural Heritage and War: What Can Be Done? and the speaker is Dr Brian I Daniels, Director of the Penn Cultural Heritage Center.
“Intentional destruction of cultural heritage is designed to erase people from history and has become an all too familiar feature of contemporary violence. Recent cases appear frequently in the news: the 2001 demolition of the Bamiyan Buddhas in Afghanistan; the 2012 destruction of Sufi shrines in Timbuktu, Mali; the obliteration of historic sites across Syria and Iraq; and cultural targeting by Russia in Ukraine. It often seems like nothing can be done. But there are ways that cultural workers and the international community can step in to help. Join us as we explore how.” – University website.
This event takes place at noon ET, which is 1700 BST, and you can register for it here.
One of the badly damaged Buddha statues at Bamiyan
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The final talk I want to highlight in today’s blog is hosted by the World Shibori Network Foundation and features Jorie Johnson as the speaker. It is part of their Conversations with Cloth series looking at Treasured Felts and takes place on Thursday 6 April 2023. In this particular episode Jorie will discuss Red Felts and Shibori-dyed Felt rugs in Japan: Tea Ceremony and Festive Occasions.
“Primarily a Japanese import, red “Himosen” can be dated by standing screen (byobu) and hanging-scroll (kakijiku) images of cherry blossom viewing and outdoor Kabuki and dance performances, as found in collections in Japan and abroad. Could these be the origin of the term “red carpet treatment”? Brightly dyed shibori felts, referred to as mokosen also punctuate the autumn and winter seasons. Jorie will discuss the interesting 1804 Nagasaki felt workshop, once on the premises of the Mizu Shrine, documenting Chinese artisan felt rug making and dyeing techniques described in a lovely hand-written diary re-published by Kansai University.” – WSNF website
This online talk takes place at 1500 PST , 1800 EDT and 2300 BST. Participants will also receive a code to access a complimentary recording of the event, which will be available to them for three days. Click here for full details and registration.
Firstly a reminder that our next OATG online talk takes place this Thursday 23 March at the earlier than usual time of 16:30 GMT. Our speaker is OATG member Monisha Ahmed and her subject is The Fabric of Life – Textiles from the Ladakh Himalayas.
This presentation will explore weaving traditions in Ladakh, discussing the history of fibres and textiles, their use and transformation over time. It will examine changes to the tradition first by the Moravian Missionaries and government Handicraft Centres, and more recently by Ladakhi fashion designers. Dr Ahmed has been involved with textiles in Ladakh for decades. Her doctoral degree from Oxford University developed into the book Living fabric – Weaving among the Nomads of Ladakh Himalaya (2002), and received the Textile Society of America’s R L Shep award in 2003 for best book in the field of ethnic textile studies.
As usual this event is free for OATG members, with a small donation required from non-members. Click here for more details and to register.
The Denver Art Museum are hosting a one-day symposium this Saturday 25 March, both online and in person. The subject is From Workshop to Nomad: New Thinking about Rug Weaving Categories and Design Influences. Its inspiration is the rugs and carpets in the museum’s current exhibitionRugged Beauty: Antique Carpets from Western Asia. The symposium has a highly impressive list of speakers, who have authored important works on the subject. A recording of the symposium will be emailed to all participants after the event, so if the timing doesn’t work for your part of the world you can still enjoy this event. For more details and registration click here.
Iran, Ferahan rug, about 1875. Courtesy of the Denver Art Museum
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I highly recommend the following event for those living near Sydney. The Asian Arts Society of Australia (TAASA) are hosting an event from 18:00-20:00 next Monday 27 March celebrating Türkiye’s Rich Heritage. This will include three talks by textile experts Ross Langlands, Frances Ergen and Christina Sumner, as well as delicious Türkish food, with profits going to disaster relief in Türkiye and Syria. Full details and booking information can be found here.
I’m sure many of you will have come across the work of Faig Ahmed, a contemporary artist fromAzerbaijan who produces rugs that have been deliberately distorted and have a very fluid quality. The BBC World Service programme In the Studio have an episode featuring him tomorrow 14 March and again on Sunday 19 March. In it he talks about his creative process and how he “bases his work on the country’s ancient carpet-weaving tradition working with the traditionally all-female weaving team and using centuries old techniques to create his intricate, psychedelic designs.”
Oiling, 2012. Seattle Art Museum collection, image courtesy of Faig Ahmed Studio.
Click here to see the time of this programme in your locality and to download the podcast after it has been broadcast. You can find out more about his work on his website and this article in The Guardian.
This weekend (10-12 March) a three-day conference “dedicated to women’s roles in textile/garment production in Asia from the late 19th century to present” takes place at the University of Victoria in British Columbia, Canada. This will be a hybrid event, which you can join via Zoom. It is open to the public for those lucky enough to be able to attend in person.
This conference has a wide range of international speakers covering subjects such as Japanese sericulture, phulkari and kantha, batik, textiles from Borneo, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Bhutan and much much more. The keynote speaker will be Judy Frater, who is well-known for her work in Kutch.
The second event takes place in Edinburgh on Saturday 11 and Sunday 12 March 2023 and is hosted by OATG member Andrew Haughton of The Nomads Tent. This in-person symposium is entitled Iconic Iran, and again has speakers on a wide variety of topics, including Dorothy Armstrong and Jennifer Scarce.
Carpets in the Great Exhibition, London, 1851, lithograph from a watercolour made for Prince Albert (British Library)
Click here for more information about this event, and here to book – there is a discount for booking both days, plus student discounts.
First a reminder of a couple of events covered in the last blog, which take place this week.
The Museum of East Asian Art in Bath is celebrating International Womens’ Day on Wednesday 8 March with a free online talk by Mary Ginsberg, who has curated their current exhibition Revolution, Propaganda, Art: Printmaking in Modern China. The title of her talk is Women in Modern Chinese Prints: Stylish Beauties and Revolutionary Warriors.
“Before the establishment of the PRC, women were much more commonly presented as glamourous, urban beauties. In the 1950s, artists transformed these women into model socialist workers. Until the end of the 1970s, almost all art had political content, and images of women conformed to propaganda requirements. Since the Cultural Revolution, women are shown as individuals, rather than types. This talk will survey Chinese women in 20th century graphics, including advertisements, popular prints and posters.” Museum website
Thursday 9 March sees the opening of an exciting new exhibition at the Seattle Art Museum. Ikat: A Compelling World of Cloth runs until 29 May 2023 and showcases over one hundred examples of textiles from across the globe using the ikat technique. These include hangings and coats from Uzbekistan, kimono from Japan, ponchos from Bolivia and several textiles from across Indonesia.
Pardah hanging (detail), late 19th century, Silk Road (Uzbekistan)
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Also taking place on Thursday 9 March are two online talks hosted by the Craft History Workshop – thanks to Sandra Sardjono for sharing this information. The first of these is A Workshop of Women: Byzantine-style Gold-figure Embroidery in 18th Century Istanbul by Catherine Volmensky
This talk “focuses on a workshop active in Istanbul in the eighteenth century, which produced religious textiles with Christian imagery and Ottoman-style ornamental borders. The Greek woman who ran this workshop, Despoineta, was a very skilled artist and embroiderer; her pupils additionally found success creating Byzantine-style gold-figure embroideries, demonstrating the active processes of knowledge transfer. ” – Craft History website.
The second talk is Textiles of Silver and Gold: Exploring the Development and Meanings of Burmese Shwe Chi Doe
These textiles are usually heavily decorated using gold and silver thread, sequins and beads and are also known as kalaga. In this talk Rebecca Hall “explores the connections shwe chi doe textiles have with the multifaceted and multicultural landscape of Burma in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, followed by a glimpse at the continued production of these textiles in the late twentieth and twenty-first centuries. In so doing, we can see the influences of immigrating Chinese populations, the connections Burma has had with neighboring India, and the central role of Buddhist stories and practices for a more complete understanding of the connections between craft and national histories.” – Craft History website.
These talks begin at 1400 EST, which is 2200 GMT and are free on Zoom, but you do need to register.
Kalaga from Burma 2023, Museum of Applied Arts & Sciences, accessed 6 March 2023
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Although the OATG is based in Oxford we are an international group, with a growing membership from outside of the UK. Our Australian members may therefore be interested in this in-person event, which takes place at the Art Gallery of South Australia in Adelaide this Saturday 11 March from 10am.
The event starts with the launch of the book Interwoven Journeys: The Michael Abbott Collections of Asian Art, celebrating the generous gifts of textiles, ceramics, sculptures, photographs and paintings from South and Southeast Asia Mr Abbott has donated to cultural institutions in Australia. Some of these textiles form the basis of an exhibition of the same name on show at AGSA until 2 July 2023. On show are textiles from Bali, Sumatra and Java, including the oldest know complete Indonesian batik textile.
Later that day there will be a symposium led by experts in this field, including OATG member Maria Wronska-Friend. Subjects include Javanese batik and Sasak textiles from Lombok.
Indonesia, Ceremonial cloth and sacred heirloom, with two figures in a garden or forest, 1362 – 1422, possibly east Java, reportedly found in Lampung region, Indonesia, cotton with indigo dye, hand-drawn tulis batik, Gift of Michael Abbott AO QC through the Art Gallery of South Australia Foundation 2008, Adelaide.
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A new exhibition opens on 16 March at the American Folk Art Museum in New York. It is entitled What That Quilt Knows About Meand features around forty quilts.
“Spanning from the nineteenth through the twenty-first centuries, the works on view will reveal a range of poignant and sometimes unexpected biographies. From a pair of enslaved sisters in antebellum Kentucky to a convalescent British soldier during the Crimean War, the exhibition explores stories associated with both the makers and recipients of the works. ” – Museum website
Possibly West Chester, Pennsylvania, 1875–1895. Cotton, silk, wool, and ink, with cotton embroidery. Collection American Folk Art Museum, New York.
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On 18 March the New England Rug Society will host an online talk by Gerard Paquin on the subject of Silk and Wool: Crosscurrent Influences in Turkish Rugs and Textiles. This talk is co-sponsored by the Hajji Baba Club.
“This presentation will document the influence of Ottoman textile designs on Turkish rugs, and the impetus for those artistic borrowings. It will also examine the impact of rug design on textiles, and the use of both as architectonic elements, in tent as well as town.” – NERS website.
Click here for more details and to register for this free talk which begins at 1300 ET (1800 GMT).
Knotted pile wool rug, Turkey, 14th century. Turkish Islamic Arts Museum, Istanbul
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Last but DEFINITELY not least is the next OATG event, which takes place online on Thursday 23 March at the earlier than usual time of 1630 GMT. Our speaker is OATG member Monisha Ahmed and her subject is The Fabric of Life – Textiles from the Ladakh Himalayas.
This presentation will explore weaving traditions in Ladakh, discussing the history of fibres and textiles, their use and transformation over time. It will examine changes to the tradition first by the Moravian Missionaries and government Handicraft Centres, and more recently by Ladakhi fashion designers. Dr Ahmed has been involved with textiles in Ladakh for decades. Her doctoral degree from Oxford University developed into the book Living fabric – Weaving among the Nomads of Ladakh Himalaya (2002), and received the Textile Society of America’s R L Shep award in 2003 for best book in the field of ethnic textile studies.
As usual this event is free for OATG members, with a small donation required from non-members. Click here for more details and to register.
A new exhibition opened this week at the Textile Museum in Washington. The subject is Prayer and Transcendenceand it runs until 1 July 2023.
“In the Muslim faith, carpets create physically and spiritually “clean” spaces during the daily ritual of prayer. Drawn from five collections, this exhibition introduces the purpose and iconography of classical prayer rugs from across the Islamic world, as well as design comparisons from the Jewish tradition.” Museum website
The examples on show come from several different collections and date from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries. A gallery guide can be accessed here, and a two-day colloquium will be held in late March – more details to follow.
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A wonderful selection of Ukrainian textiles is on show virtually on the ICOM website. They have brought together pieces from museums in France, Poland, Serbia, Canada and Hungary. The link to the Ukrainian Folklore Society page isn’t working, but you can access it by clicking on the Royal Ontario Museum section, then clicking Next Collection.
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The next OATG event takes place this Thursday 23 February 2023, when Dr Alex Green of the British Museum will give a presentation on Honouring the Buddha: Trade textiles and Burmese wall paintings.
The production of art in Burma is primarily related to the generation of merit, and objects made in homage of the Buddha were necessarily objects of beauty. For example, upon entering a temple the viewer is enveloped in a richly textured environment, comprising architectural spaces, sculptures, and mural paintings. The Burmese murals were explicitly produced in order to create a sacred space as beautiful as the heavens that was worthy to commemorate the Buddha and house Buddha images. To do so, artists and donors incorporated the imagery and patterning of luxury textiles into the wall paintings, demonstrating a strong conceptual overlap between these two art forms. This presentation considers the ways in which luxury trade textiles impacted the production of wall paintings in Burma, focussing upon the 17th to 19th centuries.
This event begins at 18:30 GMT and as usual is free for OATG members, with a small fee for non-members. More details and how to register can be found here.
Ceiling, Yokson temple, Myitche, central Myanmar, c. late 18th century
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The de Young Museum in San Francisco will host a free online lecture on the subject of Persian Carpets and Women’s Creative Work next Wednesday 1 March at 1700 PT, which is 1am in the UK, so sadly just for the nightowls. In this talk Minoo Moallem will link the history of technology, women’s creative labour, and textile art. This is the link to the talk.
This conversation will address how museum curators and educators have worked closely with local communities to understand the practice of religion in everyday life. This Zoom event begins at 11:00 PT, 14:00 ET, 19:00 GMT. For more details and registration for this free event click here.
The Museum of East Asian Art in Bath is celebrating International Womens’ Day on Wednesday 8 March with a free online talk by Mary Ginsberg, who has curated their current exhibition Revolution, Propaganda, Art: Printmaking in Modern China. The title of her talk is Women in Modern Chinese Prints: Stylish Beauties and Revolutionary Warriors.
“Before the establishment of the PRC, women were much more commonly presented as glamourous, urban beauties. In the 1950s, artists transformed these women into model socialist workers. Until the end of the 1970s, almost all art had political content, and images of women conformed to propaganda requirements. Since the Cultural Revolution, women are shown as individuals, rather than types. This talk will survey Chinese women in 20th century graphics, including advertisements, popular prints and posters.” Museum website
Thursday 9 March sees the opening of an exciting new exhibition at the Seattle Art Museum. Ikat: A Compelling World of Cloth runs until 29 May 2023 and showcases over one hundred examples of textiles from across the globe using the ikat technique. These include hangings and coats from Uzbekistan, kimono from Japan, ponchos from Bolivia and several textiles from across Indonesia.
Pardah hanging (detail), late 19th century, Silk Road (Uzbekistan)
A new exhibition has just opened at the Royal Geographical Society in London celebrating Early British women explorers in Arabia. It will run until 5 March 2023.
The exhibition features photographs, paintings and maps of Arabia illustrating the journeys of five extraordinary British Women: Lady Anne Blunt (equestrian), Gertrude Bell (diplomat and archaeologist), Freya Stark (writer and explorer), Lady Evelyn Cobbold, and Princess Alice Countess of Athlone.
Freya Stark S0000661/RGS-IBG
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On Thursday 9 February 2023 Frances Wood will be giving an online talk on Chinese Illustration and Printmaking in China. She will discuss the “fascinating history of Chinese illustration—from the invention of printing in the 7th century through to the development of the complex sets of woodblock printing we see today.
Early illustrations were mainly of Buddhist subjects but by the 10th century books of all types, from literature to technological manuals, were widely available: expensive editions were beautifully illustrated whilst cheap chapbooks flooded the other end of the market. Colour illustrations and prints appeared from the 12th century, made from complex sets of woodblocks, most notably the ‘New Year’ prints that decorated houses at that auspicious festival.” – Museum website.
Frances has worked for more than 30 years as Curator of the Chinese collections in the British Library. I think that many of these woodcuts may show people in the dress of that time. This talk is one of a series linked to the current exhibition at the Museum of East Asian Art in Bath entitled Revolution, Propaganda, Art: Printmaking in Modern China, which runs until 3 June 2023.
For more details and registration for this free online talk, which begins at 18:30 GMT, please click here.
The video below, created several years ago by Francis Gerard and Haiyao Zheng, should hopefully whet your appetite.
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On Saturday 11 February 2023 the New England Rug Society will be hosting an online talk on Swedish textiles. This event is co-sponsored by the TMA/SC and the Textile Museum. This speaker is Gunnar Nilssen and his subject is Northern Delights: Swedish Textiles from 1680 to 1850.
“Certain textile techniques unique to rural communities in Sweden have a long history, and the best pieces stand comparison with the most celebrated traditional textile art elsewhere in Europe, including the best Flemish-weave and röllakan examples. Yet they remain little known outside their locality. In times past, the peasantry in Skåne, southern Sweden, devised and utilised five different textile techniques about which little has been written in English. In this program, Collector Gunnar Nilsson lets us into the secrets of munkabälte, dukagång, krabbasnår, upphämta and trensaflossa.” – Press release
This talk takes place at 18:00 GMT (10:00 PT, 13:00 ET), and you can register for it here.
Carriage cushion, röllakan (interlock tapestry), 48 x 121cm, Skytts härad (county) southwestern Skåne, inscribed and dated (in mirror reverse) END-IHS 1780
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On Tuesday 21 February 2023 the Hajji Baba Club will host an online talk by independent researcher Gebhart Blazek entitled Maghreb Mastery.
“The Moroccan carpet weaving culture is commonly described as a female domain, which has always been passed on from mother to daughter, from generation to generation. Production served only the family’s own needs, and commercialization did not take place until the 20th century. This picture certainly has a strong justification, but on closer examination it is inaccurate and appears more multifaceted and differentiated in detail.
In the Middle Atlas, as well as in eastern Morocco and beyond in the more easterly regions of the Maghreb, professional male master weavers who carried out orders for wealthy families as itinerant craftsmen played an important role. In addition, in the local context, the works of semi-professional female master weavers also had a major impact on local production for everyday family needs.” – HBC website.
Non-members are welcome to attend this Zoom event, which takes place at 17:00 ET, 22:00 GMT. Click here for more details and registration.
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The next OATG event takes place on Thursday 23 February 2023, when Dr Alex Green of the British Museum will give a presentation on Honouring the Buddha: Trade textiles and Burmese wall paintings.
The production of art in Burma is primarily related to the generation of merit, and objects made in homage of the Buddha were necessarily objects of beauty. For example, upon entering a temple the viewer is enveloped in a richly textured environment, comprising architectural spaces, sculptures, and mural paintings. The Burmese murals were explicitly produced in order to create a sacred space as beautiful as the heavens that was worthy to commemorate the Buddha and house Buddha images. To do so, artists and donors incorporated the imagery and patterning of luxury textiles into the wall paintings, demonstrating a strong conceptual overlap between these two art forms. This presentation considers the ways in which luxury trade textiles impacted the production of wall paintings in Burma, focussing upon the 17th to 19th centuries.
This event begins at 18:30 GMT and as usual is free for OATG members, with a small fee for non-members. More details and how to register can be found here.
A reminder to all members that recordings of past events can be found in the Members Resource area of our website, using the current password – which can be found at the back of each Asian Textiles journal. The recent talk by Rachel Peat on Japanese textiles in the British Royal Collection has now been uploaded. The password will shortly be changing, so look for it in the next edition of our journal.
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A new exhibition opens this month at Japan House in London, and runs until 11 June 2023. Kumihimo translates as ‘joining threads together’ – something that the exhibition organisers have been doing since 1652.
“Kumihimo: Japanese Silk Braiding by Domyo brings the story of Japanese braiding to life with floor-to-ceiling installations, absorbing video, creative displays of equipment and tools and more than 50 different examples of the braids themselves, imaginatively presented throughout the gallery. The exhibition is divided into three sections; The History of Kumihimo, which explores its 1300-year past; The Structure of Kumihimo, which allows guests to get up close to the processes; and The Future of Kumihimo, which encourages guests to join in the discussions on future possibilities and potential.” – Japan House website
Tickets are free and can be booked through this link.
This video shows two different tools used to make the braids. I found the process quite mesmerising.
Oxford Asian Textile Group blog 