Video: Ursula Graham Bower – Fieldwork in Nagaland (1939-1944)

Last month several OATG members attended special walk-throughs of the Intrepid Women exhibition at the Pitt Rivers Museum, led by two of the curators of that exhibition Julia Nicholson and Zena McGreevy.

One of the highlights for me was the display of textiles from Nagaland, collected by Ursula Graham Bower. When she was only 23 years old she went to Manipur and the Naga Hills. She was fascinated by the Naga culture – as was I on my first visit several decades later. She returned a couple of years later with the idea of doing some medical work and taking photographs. She succeeded in doing both. As well as dispensing medicines she took several thousand photographs and shot some of the earliest colour film taken by an anthropologist.

The time she was there was certainly a dangerous one. According to the Pitt Rivers website “During the Second World War, when the Japanese threatened to launch an invasion of India through the north-eastern hills, the British asked Bower to form a band of Naga scouts as part of the ‘V Force’ guerrilla unit. Her forces became so effective that the Japanese put a price on her head.”

The Pitt Rivers Museum has an excellent collection of Naga textiles, several of which are on permanent display. Several years ago while attending a festival in Nagaland I was approached by a woman who explained she was a researcher from the Pitt Rivers and was taking images of textiles held in their collection to show the local people so she could gain more information about them. This turned out to be a two-way process as some of the patterns and techniques used on the textiles now in the UK had not been in use locally for some years.

 

This nine-minute video clip was originally shown as part of the ‘Intrepid Women: Fieldwork in Action” exhibition. It shows highlights of film footage, in both black and white and in colour, which was recorded by Ursula Graham Bower during fieldwork in Nagaland between 1939 and 1944.

Although the opening sequence is not so relevant to textile lovers, patience is rewarded. From 02.02 to 06.40 we see the fabulous beaded headcovers worn at the Tangkhul Spring Festival and this then leads on to footage of the weaving and spinning by various different groups – the Kabui, Kuki and Chiru. It was very interesting to see the angle at which the backtension loom was placed. Stick with this right to the end and you will see some great blankets and jewellery too.

Copyright Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford. Video editing by OATG member Katherine Clough.

 

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Exhibition: Collecting and Recollecting

Exhibition dates: 22 February – 14 July 2019

This exhibition has just opened at the International Quilt Study Center & Museum (IQSCM), which has the largest publicly held collection of quilts in the world.

According to the curator Marin Hanson

“Throughout western India, people make quilts for practical reasons: to have something to sleep under, to hang in doorways, to augment dowries, to sell. They make quilts for personal reasons, as well: to document daily life, to offer as gifts, to signal group affiliation or individuality. The quilts in this exhibition were made by women and men from towns and villages across the states of Gujarat, Maharashtra, and Karnataka. These craftspeople come from varied geographic, economic, and social backgrounds, but all value quiltmaking for the creative outlet it provides. The textiles often share visual and material similarities, but they also reflect their makers’ own communities, personalities, and life stories.”

Hanson goes on to explain how the IQSCM worked with researchers from various backgrounds to examine the quilting traditions of three regions: Gujarat, Maharashtra and Karnataka. Research on the quilts of Gujarat was carried out by Martha Wallace and Patricia Stoddard – the author of Ralli Quilts. They were assisted by Alok Tiwari and Salim Wazir, who is well-known to all who have had the good fortune to visit Bhuj.

Bhopa Rabari quilt. © IQSCM

Geeta Khandelwal from Mumbai has made and studied quilts since the 1970s. Recently she spent three years examining the quilts of Maharashtra. The quilt depicted below uses not only pieces srom saris and blouses but also seed bags that have the logo of the distributor printed on them.

Joshi quilt. © IQSCM

Karnataka quilts were studied by two different researchers – Henry Drewal and Shubhapriya Bennur. Henry Drewal was fascinated by the quilts of the Siddi people of northern Karnataka which are known as kawandi. These are usually made by older ladies, who are not able to work on the land. Drewal became involved in establishing a Quilt Cooperative to help these women to sell their textiles.

Siddi kawandi. © IQSCM

The quilts studied by Shubhapriya Bennur are known as kaudi. Most of these are formed from scraps of recycled clothing and they come in several different types for a variety of uses – baby quilts, ceremonial quilts, sitting quilts and bedcovers. 

 

Bedcover from northern Karnataka. © IQSCM

There are many more images of quilts featured on the museum’s website under the Featured Works section, with detailed information on the history and use of each example.

 

Location: International Quilt Study Center & Museum, University of Nebraska, Lincoln.

 

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Exhibition: Traded Treasures – Indian Textiles for Global Markets

Exhibition dates: 26 January – 9 June 2019

13th or 14th century cloth from Gujarat, made for the eastern Indonesian market

This recently opened exhibition at the Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, showcase the collection of Banoo and Jeevak Parpia.

“Known for many centuries as the source of fine cotton and silk textiles, India has produced some of the world’s most innovative textile traditions. Spanning five hundred years of the history of India’s thriving commerce to Southeast Asia, Europe, and Japan, this exhibition reveals why Indian textiles were in demand the world over.

Some of the earliest surviving Indian textiles are printed and painted cotton fragments found in Indonesia. Along with silk double-ikat patola, these were used for ceremonial purposes and treasured in Indonesia as heirlooms. The maritime trade that relied on supplying Indian textiles to Southeast Asian markets in exchange for spices was first conducted by Arab, Persian, and Indian merchants but later dominated by Portuguese, Dutch, and British traders, which expanded the demand for Indian chintz and embroideries in Asia and Europe.

The textiles presented in this exhibition…….. tell a fascinating story of global commerce and the ingenious ways that Indian artisans designed and produced goods of astonishing beauty and technical sophistication, while also revealing how cross-cultural interchange contributed to global aesthetic developments.”

A fully illustrated catalogue on the history of the Indian textile trade, is due out in March 2019 and will have contributions by many leading experts, including our founder Ruth Barnes, Kaja McGowan, and Sylvia Houghteling.

Location: Bartels Gallery, Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, 114 Central Avenue, Ithaca, NY.

 

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Article: Bagru Textiles – Woodblock Printing near Jaipur, India

This article, written for the KINDCRAFT by Justin Lancy, looks at the tradition of woodblock printing in one particular community in Rajasthan.

The Chhipa clan have lived in Bagru for 400 years and Viju Chhipa, the founder of Bagru Textiles, is a fifth-generation dyer and printer. Lancy explains how the designs on each cloth might use 4 or 5 different woodblocks, which are carved from a variety of local trees including teak and rosewood. In this community the designs are traditionally printed onto a cream background, or sometimes the cloth is dyed blue or red. Another type of printing is done using mud-resist. The blocks are dipped into the dye and the colour applied very carefully onto the cloth by hand – a laborious task requiring a good eye for detail.

This tradition is now threatened as it requires a lot of water and the water table in the region has dropped in recent years.

The full article can be read on the KINDCRAFT website here. The majority of the beautiful images, taken by Justin and Lauren K Lancy, can be enlarged by clicking on them.

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Event: Indian Tents – Matters of Silk and Velvet

Event date: Wednesday 5 December 2018 19:00

This Oriental Rug and Textile Society (ORTS) talk is by Dr Peter Andrews, the acknowledged expert on tents.

From the time of the Delhi Sultanate, if not earlier, the tents used by Indian rulers were a matter of great prestige, as representing their presence before the public. They were used at court to shelter not only the sovereign, but those attending him in huge numbers, and palace buildings were planned ab initio for extension with tentage over the courtyards. The increasing size of royal domains, too, made it essential, in an age of poor communications, for the ruler to tour them extensively, and the camp acquired an additional purpose, besides the obvious military one, of a temporary palace from which justice could be administered.

Peter Andrews, M.A. (Cantab), Ph.D. (Lond) wrote his Ph.D thesis for SOAS (London) on the history of tents in the Middle East, Hindustan and Central Asia. He first studied architecture in India in 1960. From 1966 he conducted extensive fieldwork on nomad tents in Morocco, Turkey, Iran, Qatar, Mongolia and Qirgizstan, and on urban tents in museums throughout Europe and India, besides surveying a village in Northern Areas, Pakistan. In 2006 he was made an honorary research fellow at the University of Bristol (Anthropology).

For more information visit the ORTS website

Location: St James Piccadilly Conference Room, 197 Piccadilly, London W1J 9LL

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Exhibition: Peacock in the Desert – The Royal Arts of Jodhpur, India

Exhibition dates: 18 October 2018 – 21 January 2019

This exhibition, previously shown in Houston, has now moved to Seattle.

Five centuries of magnificent art celebrate the rich artistic traditions of the kingdom of Marwar-Jodhpur. Many of the 250 extraordinary objects are on display outside their palace setting for the very first time. Vibrant paintings, intricate furnishings, fine jewellery, and decorated arms and armour, presented beside videos and large-scale photomurals, evoke the stunning atmosphere of the Mehrangarh Fort and the city of Jodhpur—the permanent home of the works on view.

Established in the 15th century, the kingdom of Marwar-Jodhpur in the northwestern state of Rajasthan continues to innovate support for the arts into the 21st century. Highlights of the lavish exhibition include a re-creation of a royal wedding procession featuring majestically adorned life-size elephant and horse mannequins; a rare and elaborate 17th-century tent; dozens of intricate Rajput and Mughal era paintings; and a splendid 18th-century carved-wood and glass palanquin, known as the Mahadol, used to transport the maharaja and queens.

A short video of the wedding procession section of the exhibition can be viewed here

Full information on the exhibition can be found on the website of the Seattle Art Museum

Exhibition: From Kabul to Kolkata – Of Belonging, Memories and Identity

 

 

Exhibition dates: 11 October – 15 December 2018 (Closed Sundays and Mondays)

Afghans have travelled to India for centuries but it was in 1892 that they were given a romantic, and lasting identity. This link was set into history when India’s most famous modern poet and one of its greatest cultural icons, Rabindranath Tagore, penned his short story about the Kabuliwala or man from Kabul.

This exhibition of photographs by Moska Najib and Nazes Afroz concerns a specific intra-Asian connection between Afghans and Indians that highlights larger historical patterns of trans-Asian migration, cultural resilience and transformation, and shifting senses of self, community and home.

While until a few decades ago, real Kabuliwalas were a common sight on the streets of Kolkata, as in most cities of north and central India, today stereotypes and standard attributes have formed an ambiguous image of these people. Moska Najib, an Afghan by origin but living in India for most of her life, says, ‘Being away from my homeland, I’ve been always drawn to the themes of identity and new belonging. This inspired me to photograph one of the oldest settled Afghan communities in India in modern times.”

More information about the project, including a short video, can be found on the From Kabul to Kolkata website. If you click on the “More” link at the top, you can access further background information. Moska describes how during their first encounter with the community, they realised that they kept a dual existence – one inside their home and one outside. In their abode, they’d wear their traditional attire and follow the typical customs observed in Afghanistan – the habit of sitting on the carpet and not on sofas or chairs, sharing a communal meal from the same platter, using the spittoons and drinking endless cups of green tea.

For more information about the exhibition visit the website of the Brunei Gallery

Location: Brunei Gallery Exhibition Rooms at SOAS, 10 Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square, London WC1H  0XG

Event: Workshop on the R. G. Woodthorpe Collection – Illustrating the Nagas

 

 

Event date: Saturday 3 November 2018, 14:00 – 15:30

Organised to accompany the forthcoming Archive Case display Surveying the Nagas, this special workshop provides an opportunity to learn more about the Pitt Rivers Museum’s R. G. Woodthorpe collection of visual material from Nagaland in north-east India. Among items shown and discussed will be several albums of watercolour paintings and photographs conserved in 2010 with the support of the Friends of the Museum. The workshop will be lead by academic specialist Thomas Simpson with curators Philip Grover and Nicholas Crowe. Places are free but limited, so booking is essential.

Location: Pitt Rivers Museum, South Parks Road, Oxford, OX1 3PP

To book click here

Event: Unpicking Woven Heritage – Cultural narratives of handwoven eri silk textiles from Meghalaya, Northeast India

 

 

Event date: Tuesday 4 September 2018 18:00 – 20:00

Anna-Louise Meynell (Centre for Sustainable Fashion, University of the Arts London) has been conducting doctoral research in the remote state of Meghalaya, Northeast India. The research aims to explore and define the cultural heritage of eri silk weaving in the Ri Bhoi District, considering the socio-cultural history, the craft process and the materiality of the product.

Eri silk holds many social narratives of North East India. It is cultivated domestically and known locally as “the poor man’s silk” or “peace silk”, as it does not harm the silkworm in the extraction of the silk. Unlike the continuous filament of the mulberry silk cocoon, the eri cocoon is made up of short staple fibres which require it to be hand spun, resulting in a slubby texture with a dull sheen of silk. It is still almost exclusively dyed with natural dyes and traditionally woven on a simple bamboo floor loom.

The eri silk communities of Meghalaya have been exposed to significant social change and external interventions since pre-colonial times, much of which can be ‘read’ through a study of the textiles and techniques. Anna-Louise will show photos and samples from the archive of eri silk textiles that has been collected during fieldwork – samples that are indicators of tribal migration and assimilation, of colonial influence and widespread conversion from the indigenous Khasi religion to Christianity.  

For further details and booking click here

This Oxford Asian Textile Group event will take place at the Pauling Centre, Oxford.

Article: Lotha Weaving in Nagaland India

 

The Lotha Naga in Longsa village, Wokha District, Nagaland, weave lotha – vividly coloured, geometrically patterned shawls that when worn, denote a man or woman’s social status in the community. The weaving of shawls, scarves and sarongs is done exclusively by women on loin or body tension looms, which are commonly used throughout northeast India. The Naga loom consists of a simple back-strap with a continuous horizontal warp. Basic tools such as warp beams, lease rods, healed sticks and beating swords are fashioned from debris, making the loom inexpensive and highly portable.

Cotton, wool and increasingly, rayon are all used for weaving the long, narrow shawls. Stripes, squares and bands of black, red and white colour are typically used; some designs are woven over with patterns depicting animals or human figures, symbolised by a circular shape. The finished lotha is warp-dominant and has a ribbed texture.

To read the full article and watch a short video on Lotha weaving visit the website of The Textile Atlas here