This Saturday the Museum of Asian Art in Bath will be celebrating the Year of the Dragon, with a variety of family-friendly events.
“A traditional Lion Dance will lead you into the beautiful Bath Assembly Rooms for a day of creative workshops, chopstick challenges, and more. Look to the stars in our pop-up planetarium, where the team from The Herschel Museum of Astronomy will explore fascinating stories about the cosmos linked to the dragon and the moon (book here). Listen to a concert by Bath local Lydia Sun as she plays the guzheng, a traditional Chinese stringed instrument.” – Museum website
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Meanwhile in Seattle celebrations of a very different culture will be taking place. The Seattle Art Museum will be hosting Knowledge, Transmission, and Embodiment in East Javanese Performing Arts as part of their Saturday University sessions. Please note that this is an in-person event.
“This presentation will explore the spiritual knowledge, or ilmu, that performers imparted on UW professor Christina Sunardi while conducting fieldwork on gamelan music and dance in Malang, east Java from 2005–2007…….. Through their beliefs, practices, and verbal discourse about ilmu, musicians and dancers in Malang maintain and produce local systems of knowledge, transmission, and competence. The presentation will be accompanied by a musical performance by Ki Midiyanto.”
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Saturday 10th February is a very busy day, as the Textile Museum and New England Rug Society are co-hosting an online talk entitled Reconstructing the Chehel Sotun Carpet. Maggie Squires of the Courtauld Institute of Art will be the speaker, and will trace and reconstruct the history of this massive carpet. It was “woven in the late 17th century for the Chehel Sotun palace in Isfahan, Iran. In the late 19th century, the carpet was cut up and sold as fragments, which are now distributed across at least eleven different collections across the world.
Squires’ research engages with digital methods to virtually reconstruct the complete carpet based on archival evidence, historical descriptions and physical examination of the fragments. The reconstruction has implications for our understanding of Safavid palaces and their furnishings in the 17th century, as well as artistic exchanges between Iran and the Deccan during this time.” – Museum website
The talk begins at 1pm EST, which is 18:00 GMT and you can register for it here.
The collection of the late Dr Sommer, including felt textiles and carpets, reed screens, and most importantly his notes and photographs, was recently donated to the Nickle Galleries. On Tuesday 13th February at noon Michele will lead a tour of this exhibition. Click here for more details.
To learn more about reed screens in Central Asia read this post in my new blog.
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The OATG AGM takes place on Saturday 17th February, and members should have already received their invitations to this event. The formal proceedings begin at 14:00 and will be followed by a Show and Tell session, which is always good fun, provoking a stimulating discussion. This is also open to non-members for a small fee. Check out our Events page for more details.
A Palestinian dress shown at a previous Show and Tell by Helen Wolfe
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On Wednesday 21st February the Oriental Rug and Textile Society (London) will host a lecture by Martin Conlan of Slow Loris. His subject will be Tribal Wedding Blankets of South West China.
“Wedding blankets are often intricately woven, embroidered or resist-dyed decorative panels attached to the top of a quilt cover. They play a central role in the marriage customs and traditions of many communities in southwest China. For the scores of tribal groups inhabiting the remoter areas of the region, preserving their cultural identity has been a perennial challenge through historical transformations.” – ORTS
Martin will also be taking some examples to show attendees. This is free for ORTS members, but guests are also welcome for a small fee. For full details click here.
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Also taking place on 21st is a Zoom lecture by Patricia Bjaaland Welch, hosted by the Museum of East Asian Art. Her subject will be Here, There May Be Dragons: Symbolism In Chinese Art. This is a free Zoom talk that takes place at 12:30 GMT and you can register for it here.
“The dragon is undoubtedly the best-known symbol representing Chinese culture and folklore. But what is its origin? And what is the nature of the dragon? And when and where should we be looking for dragons? And why are there so many varieties?
With this illustrated talk by Chinese Art writer and researcher Patricia Bjaaland Welch, we will discover the many myths and truths that surround the dragon in Chinese history and art.” – Museum website
Wanli Era (4 September 1563 – 18 August 1620) Dragon Plate Courtesy of Patrick Kwok, Singapore
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A new exhibition opens on Saturday 24 February at the Textile Museum in Washington. It is entitled Irresistible: The Global Patterns of Ikat and runs until 1st June 2024.
“Prized worldwide for producing vivid patterns and colors, the ancient resist-dyeing technique of ikat developed independently in communities across Asia, Africa and the Americas, where it continues to inspire artists and designers today. This exhibition explores the global phenomenon of ikat textiles through more than 70 masterful examples from countries as diverse as Japan, Indonesia, India, Uzbekistan, Côte d’Ivoire and Guatemala.” – Museum website
Textile fragment (detail), Iran, 17th century. The Textile Museum Collection 3.103A. Acquired by George Hewitt Myers in 1931
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Finally, some personal news. This is my final Oxford Asian Textile Group blog as I’m standing down from my Social Media role at the AGM, but don’t worry – this blog will continue in the safe hands of our journal editor Gavin Strachan.
I’m not giving up on blogging though, so if you still want to follow my textile news and adventures, please check out my Asian Textile Studies blog. It’s quite a different style to this blog and I see them as complementary.
Thanks for your support over the past six years and farewell!
IMPORTANT – This blog contains several videos. If you subscribe via email you may need to click on the blog title to take you to our WordPress site to ensure you can view them.
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The 13th International Congress of Egyptologists is currently taking place in Leiden (Netherlands). To complement this the Textile Research Centre has organised a pop-up exhibition around the colourful textiles (known as khayamiya) from the Street of the Tentmakers in Cairo.
“It is based on the TRC’s collection of appliqués that include geometric, naturalistic, textual as well as modern story forms.
They are used as tent decorations, room dividers, as well as wall hangings and cushions covers. Background information and many other examples of appliqués from the Street can be seen in TRC’s online exhibition. [There are lots of excellent images and much more information at this link].
There is also a mini-exhibition of other Egyptian textiles from the TRC Collection. These historic textiles date from about the fourth to the tenth century. They include various types of woven textiles (mostly tapestries) in wool and linen.” – TRC website
This is a link to a talk he gave about this textile tradition a couple of years ago.
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A new exhibition called Textile Welten (Textile Worlds) opened recently at the Pinakothek der Moderne museum in Munich.
“Textiles shape human existence, they paved the way for industrial design, provided important inspiration for the development of Modernism in art, and today reflect the current topics of environment and sustainability and are sure to spur innovation in spatial design and architecture.
Die Neue Sammlung possesses important textiles and fabrics from the mid-19th century through to the present day. They not only embody the development of textile production as a craft and an industry but also demonstrate how the lines dividing art and design are gradually becoming blurred in this field. After all, textiles are especially suited to exploring the connection between material and aesthetics.” – Museum website
The exhibition runs until 3 October 2023 and you can find out more about it here.
Ingo Barlovic has written a review of the exhibition, and provided many more images (especially of the molas) here.
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Hopefully many of you attended the talk David and I recently gave on Sumbanese textiles for the George Washington University and the Textile Museum. For those that missed it, the recording of this talk is now available online.
One of the textiles we talked about was the lau pahikung – a sarong decorated using the supplementary warp technique. This photo is of Rambu Ata Pau, a Sumbanese friend who was a skilful pahikung weaver and passionate about Sumbanese culture who sadly died this week. In the photo she is wearing a lau pahikung and has a hinggi draped over her shoulders. You can find out more about the pahikung technique here.
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I met Judy Frater in Kutch many years ago and admire her dedication to the crafts of that area.
“For decades, anthropologists have discussed the “great” and “little” traditions of India as a way to distinguish between established, mainstream cultural practices in urban areas (“the great”) and local customs and rituals found in rural spaces (“the little”). In fact, the dynamic cultural flow between the city and village, elite and folk has invigorated India from ancient times until the present. Drawing on 50 years of deep connection to India and its rich textile traditions, Judy Frater shows how folk embroidery traditions of Kutch in western India have absorbed and interpreted popular trends in urban culture to create distinctive, evolving languages of needle and thread from the 20th century to the present.” – Textile Center
Here is the link to Judy’s talk on the Folk Embroideries of Kutch.
IMPORTANT – If you subscribe to this blog via email you will need to click on the blog title to take you to our WordPress site to ensure you can view the video included here.
The OATG have recently had a couple of in person events, with a visit to the British Museum and a talk by Rachel Silberstein. Members who are unable to travel to Oxford will be delighted to hear our next event, which will take place in early September, will be an online lecture by Dr Dorothy Armstrong.
In the meantime the next edition of our Asian Textiles journal will be published shortly and members may also enjoy looking at the recordings of some of our previous talks. Simply go to our website and click on the Events section and then on the Members Resources page. You will need to enter the current password, which can be found on the inside back page of the current Journal. I was travelling in April and missed the talk on Frontiersmen of the Crossroad: The Fusion Style of Chinese Shan Dressing by Ake Rittinaphakorn, so am looking forward to watching the recording of it.
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The current exhibition at the Design Museum in London is The Offbeat Sari, curated by Priya Khanchandani. This major exhibition celebrates the contemporary Indian sari, bringing together dozens of the finest and most innovative saris.
“Worn as an everyday garment by some and considered by others to be formal or uncomfortable, the sari has multiple definitions. Conventionally an unstitched drape wrapped around the body, which can be draped in a variety of ways, its unfixed form has enabled it to morph and absorb changing cultural influences.
In recent years, the sari has been reinvented. Designers are experimenting with hybrid forms such as sari gowns and dresses, pre-draped saris and innovative materials such as steel. Young people in cities who used to associate the sari with dressing up can now be found wearing saris and sneakers on their commutes to work. Individuals are wearing the sari as an expression of resistance to social norms and activists are embodying it as an object of protest.” – Design Museum website
The short video below gives an insight into the exhibition, and more information on some of the highlights can be found here.
There is also a book, edited by Priya Khanchandani, to go with the exhibition.
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David Richardson and I will be giving a free online talk on Saturday 29 July 2023 as part of the Textile Museum’s Rug and Textile Appreciation sessions. Our subject will be Changing Women’s Fashions on the Indonesian Island of Sumba. Most textile lovers are aware of the Sumbanese men’s hip wrappers known as hinggi, but many know little about the women’s tubeskirts, known as lau. These are made using a wide variety of techniques, which we will discuss in this talk.
Woman from East Sumba holding a lau hiamba – a tubeskirt made using the ikat technique
The talk is free, and begins at 11:00 EDT/08:00 PDT, which is 16:00 BST, and you can register for it here.
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The New TRIBAL ANTIQUE & DECORATIVE TEXTILES FAIR will take place on Sunday July 30th at St Mary Abbots Centre, Vicarage Gate, W8 4HN, near Kensington Church Street, London. This is an upcoming new antique textile fair, following the demise of the Hilton Olympia Tribal Art Fair. All of the best dealers, from that event and more, will be exhibiting on July 30th. The organisers hope that this will become a destination event and will happen in June and November in subsequent years.
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On Thursday 3 August Assistant Curator Eliza Spindel will be conducting a free tour of the current exhibition on Palestinian embroidery at Kettles Yard in Cambridge, UK. The tour is timed to begin at noon and there is no need to book ahead.
Material Power: Palestinian Embroidery
Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge
You can learn more about some of the dresses in the exhibition in this blog. Did you know that the vine leaf motif indicates a dress is from the Hebron area, due to the large number of grapes grown on the Hebron hills?
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I wrote in my previous blog about the new exhibition at the Brunei Gallery in London on the Japanese Aesthetics of Recycling – The Karun Thakar Collection. On Thursday 10 August at 18:00 Karun will be giving a talk and guided tour of the exhibition. Admission is free, and attendance highly recommended!
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Quite a few members of the OATG are also members of the Textile Museum Associates of Southern California. The TMA/SC are celebrating 38 years of presenting textile programmes next month, and will hold a special event on Saturday 19 August. This will be a symposium and banquet lunch, and they have two great speakers lined up. The first is OATG member and Textile Museum curator Lee Talbot, who will speak about Indian Textiles: 1,000 Years of Art and Design. The second speaker is Professor Walter Denny and his subject will be How We Look at Turkish Carpets: James F. Ballard and a New Way of Collecting. For further details of this event click here.
A new exhibition has opened at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, showcasing kanthas from Bengal. Entitled A Century of Kanthas: Women’s Quilts in Bengal, 1870s-1970s it runs until 01 January 2024.
“Like quilts around the world, kanthas embody thrift, labor, and imagination. Women in Bengal (modern-day Bangladesh and the state of West Bengal, India) created kanthas for a host of reasons—as ritual seating, bedcovers, baby swaddling, and much more. Most disintegrated with household use, but many that survived are now heirlooms that carry women’s individuality and love for their families across generations.
This exhibition brings into conversation two types of kanthas: nakshi (ornamented) kanthas and galicha (carpet) kanthas. The nakshi kanthas on view, from between about 1870 and 1930, are made on layers of soft, white, repurposed fabric embroidered with meaningful motifs in a delicate palette and often covered with rows of parallel white running stitches. Galicha kanthas, produced especially in the 1950s and 1960s, are thick, uniformly rectangular quilts with vivid cross-stitch embroidery in intricate geometric forms on a surface of new cloth backed by upcycled fabrics.” – Museum website.
Galicha (carpet kantha), c. 1940-1950, by Artist/maker unknown, Bengali, 1998-102-8
I’m familiar with the nakshi kanthas, but have never come across the galicha type, so this has really opened my eyes.
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We have a small collection of sazigyo – Burmese tablet-woven bands used to wrap around palm-leaf manuscripts – so I was very interested to read this British Library blog on the use of manuscript textiles in Thailand and Laos. It’s written and illustrated by Methaporn (Noon) Singhanan, who is a Chevening Fellow at the Library.
“Thai and Lao manuscript textiles have a rich history that dates back to at least the 18th century. Buddhist teachings and scriptures, written on palm leaves or paper, were highly valued, and often adorned with intricate designs, illustrations, and calligraphy. Manuscript textiles were created to protect and preserve these texts from dust, humidity and insects and, as a result, many were transformed into beautiful pieces.” – Methaporn Singhanan
Luxury manuscript textile from northern Laos, made from a re-used tube skirt of exquisite quality, combining a silk and silver-thread tapestry (border) with a large piece of Ikat fabric (main body) and a cotton waistband. Ca. mid-20th century. British Library, Or 16886
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Material Power: Palestinian Embroidery opened at Kettle’s Yard in Cambridge, UK, this week and explores the historical life and contemporary significance of Palestinian embroidery. It runs until 29 October 2023, and will also be shown in Manchester in 2024.
“Curated by Rachel Dedman, the exhibition looks at the ways in which embroidery, primarily undertaken by women, has evolved through a century of turbulent history for the Palestinian people.
This is the first major exhibition of Palestinian embroidery in the UK for over 30 years, with more than 40 dresses and embroidered objects on display lent from important private collections in Jordan and Palestine. Every dress tells a story: whether about the lives of women with their astonishing skills and creativity in the early decades of the last century, or the trauma of displacement as a result of the war of 1948. And reflecting the decades since: in which the vibrant colours and patterns of Palestinian embroidery, now often created for a global market by groups of women, have become symbolic of nationhood, memory, and resistance. Alongside historic dresses are artworks by five contemporary artists, films of embroiderers speaking about their work and rarely seen archive material.” – Kettle’s Yard website
Kettle’s Yard Director Andrew Nairne will give a free informal introduction to the exhibition on 20 July 2023 from 12:00-13:00.
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OATG member Lee Talbot – curator at the George Washington Textile Museum – is giving a free online talk tomorrow Wednesday 12 July at 7pm CT. His subject is Korean Fashion from Royal Court to Runway. I’ve seen a couple of video walkthroughs of exhibitions by Lee and he is a very knowledgable and engaging speaker. Click here for more details and to register.
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The next OATG event is an in-person talk in Oxford by Dr Rachel Silberstein this Thursday, 13 July. This was initially scheduled for 2020, so we are delighted we are finally able to hear her speak. Her subject is A Fashionable Century: Textile Artistry and Commerce in the Late Qing.
“This talk examines the expansion of commercialized dress and embroidery production during the late Qing period. With a focus on Suzhou, the center of fashionable dress production and embroidery, it shows how this city benefitted from the Gu embroidery trend, and how the expansion of commercial embroidery created networks of urban guilds, commercial workshops and subcontracted female workers. Though little attention was paid to these workers, objects of fashion reveal much about women’s participation—as both producers and consumers—in the commercialization of textile handicrafts. By reading objects of clothing and accessories from museum collections alongside pattern-books and advertisements, we will see how embroidery shops and accessory producers sought to brand and market their wares, and in turn, what these efforts tell us about the conflict of gender values inherent to the commercial production of dress and embroidery.” – Rachel Silberstein
An anonymous family portrait of four generations of a Manchu family in late Qing Beijing, ca. 1853. Ink and mineral pigments on paper, 185.5 × 384 cm. Mactaggart Art Collection (2007.23.1), University of Alberta Museums. Gift of Sandy and Cécile Mactaggart. (detail)
As usual, this talk is free for OATG members (who should have already received their invitation), with a small charge for non-members. Click here for full details.
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The Brunei Gallery at SOAS, London, will host a new exhibition from the Karun Thakar collection from 13 July to 23 September 2023. The subject of this exhibition is Japanese Aesthetics of Recycling, and it features over one hundred objects, including Boro and sakiori textiles, washi and kin-tsugi or gin-tsugi pottery.
“Boro (Japanese: ぼろ) is a class of Japanese textiles that have been mended or patched together. The term is derived from Japanese boroboro, meaning something tattered or repaired. Fashioned from worn clothing and ‘waste’ fabric to create ‘Boro’, the textile pieces have become very popular with collectors in Japan & throughout the world over the last 20 years. These pieces are often marketed as ‘abstract art’ in the Western context. They are in fact an important aspect of Japanese history and culture, showing the resilience and creativity shown by working people living in very harsh environment with very few resources.
Boro coat from the Karun Thakar collection
Washi (handmade paper) was widely used in the Meiji & Showa period to make wrappings for valuable kimonos, tea storage bags, wrappers for documents as well as floor coverings and room dividers. Often old ledgers were recycled and layered to make these objects, persimmon paste was used to make them waterproof. Shifu garments will also be exhibited, these were woven using twisted and plaited paper yarn, farmers originally cut the pages of ancient account books in order to turn them into woven paper. The ink writing on the paper also remained visible in the finished fabric leaving an interesting speckled pattern.
Various examples of kin-tsugi or gin-tsugi “golden joinery” pottery will also be exhibited form The Heian period (平安時代, Heian jidai) 794 to 1185 to Edo period (江戸時代, Edo jidai) 1603 and 1867. Breakage and repairs were not disguised in these pots and were seen as rich part of the history of these objects. Yobi-tsugi pieces, which were constructed from different broken pots will also be exhibited.” – SOAS website
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On 13 and 14 July a Textile Bazaar will be held at Hellens Manor near Ledbury in Herefordshire – a great chance to find a textile treasure to add to your collection. A list of exhibitors can be found here.
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Another great opportunity to buy wonderful textiles comes next week on Wednesday 19th July at this pop-up sale. A great range of textiles to see for interiors, film, costume, and collectors. Sallie Ead will be there with her selection of antique European and other ethnographic textiles, John Gillow and Martin Conlan (Slow Loris) will have a fabulous selection of textiles from around the world. It runs from 1100-1800 and entry is free.
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Many of you will be aware of the Textile Research Centre in Leiden, which I was lucky enough to visit a few years ago.
“The TRC is an international research hub for textiles and dress. It is a centre open to anyone who is interested and working in the field of textiles and dress, literally from students, academics, professional textile makers and designers, to the public. As a knowledge centre, the TRC is involved in both collecting a wide range of textiles, dress and accessories and in passing on knowledge about techniques and uses to the current and future generations. ” – Museum website
The TRC’s Dr Gillian Vogelsang-Eastwood is giving a talk about the work of the centre, at the Fashion and Textile Museum in London on 20 July 2023 at 14:00. Tickets cost £17.50, but do include entry to the current exhibition Andy Warhol: The Textiles. Click here for more details.
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David Richardson and I will be giving a free online talk on Saturday 29 July 2023 as part of the Textile Museum’s Rug and Textile Appreciation sessions. Our subject will be Changing Women’s Fashions on the Indonesian Island of Sumba. Most textile lovers are aware of the Sumbanese men’s hip wrappers known as hinggi, but many know little about the women’s tubeskirts, known as lau. These are made using a wide variety of techniques, which we will discuss in this talk.
A selection of Sumbanese lau decorated using a variety of techniques
The talk is free, and begins at 11:00 EDT/08:00 PDT, which is 16:00 BST, and you can register for it here.
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Finally, news of another textile fair. The New TRIBAL ANTIQUE & DECORATIVE TEXTILES FAIR will take place on Sunday July 30th at St Mary Abbots Centre, Vicarage Gate, W8 4HN, near Kensington Church Street, London. This is an upcoming new antique textile fair, following the demise of the Hilton Olympia Tribal Art Fair. All of the best dealers, from that event and more, will be exhibiting on July 30th. The organisers hope that this will become a destination event and will happen in June and November in subsequent years.
Apologies that there has been such a long gap between blogs! I’ve been in Indonesia, leading our annual textile tour. This blog is rather long, so grab a cuppa and settle down…..
Young girls from the island of Savu, who had just performed some traditonal dances for us.
I thought subscribers would be interested to read of the work that OATG members Chris Buckley and Sandra Sarjono (in collaboration with Enrico Kondologit and Yudha Yapsenang) have been doing on the weaving traditions of the Sobei people in Papua. Yarn is made from palm leaves and woven into a cloth called terfo on a backstrap loom.
The “yarn-making technique [of the Sobei] has importance for understanding how leaf fibers were processed before the arrival of cotton in the region. The foot-braced loom used by Sobei weavers is unique in the region and raises interesting questions concerning its origins.” – Fiber, Loom and Technique article.
Their article has excellent photographs, showing the various stages of yarn production, and diagrams showing how the loom is operated. The authors have kindly made this paper freely available in Fiber, Loom and Technique – The Journal of the Tracing Patterns Foundation here.
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A new exhibition opened a couple of weeks ago at the Wereldmuseum in Rotterdam. Entitled Talking Threads, this exhibition showcases around two hundred embroideries, the majority of which come from the museum’s own collection, and runs until 22 October 2023.
It “focuses on the comprehensive significance of embroidery as decoration, as a cultural expression, as a language through which stories are told and as an expression of group and individual identity.” – Wereldmuseum website
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Another new exhibition of textiles that has just opened is at the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston. Entitled Woven Wonders: Indian textiles from the Parpia collection, this exhibition was co-curated by OATG member Rosemary Crilland runs until 4 September 2023.
“Assembled to reflect India’s myriad range of regional traditions, the Parpia Collection includes singular pieces that showcase the extraordinary aesthetic and technical diversity of Indian textiles. Ranging from folk textiles to sophisticated court textiles, the objects date from the 14th century to the early 20th century. The collection illustrates the preeminence of textile arts produced in India throughout history with examples of hand-painted and hand-block-printed cotton, embroidery, ikat, tie-dye, brocade, and tapestry.” – MFAH website
A multimedia guide is available here, with more information about several of the textiles, including detailed images, plus short videos on some of the techniques used in their creation.
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A major new exhibition opened at the British Museum in London while I was away. China’s Hidden Century gives us new insights into late Imperial China between 1796 and 1912.
“Exquisite objects are brought together for the first time – from cloisonné vases, given by the Last Emperor’s court to King George and Queen Mary for their coronation in 1911, to a silk robe commissioned by the Empress Dowager Cixi. The show illuminates the lives of individuals – an empress, a dancer, a soldier, an artist, a housewife, a merchant and a diplomat.” – British Museum website.
Our Chair, Helen Wolfe, has already seen the exhibition and noted that it includes several very high-quality textiles.
The British Museum website always has great additional background material, and I particularly enjoyed reading the blog by the Organic materials conservators Misa Tamura and Monique Pullan on the challenges posed by specific items, including a straw rain cape.
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Contemporary Indian textiles are showcased in an exhibition currently showing at Melbourne Museum in Australia. Sutr Santati: Then. Now. Next. has been conceived and curated by Lavina Baldota of the Abheraj Baldota Foundation. Sutr Santati is a Hindi term which translates as ‘continuity of thread’. The exhibition has been scheduled to coincide with the 75th anniversary on Indian Independence, and features 75 specially commissioned textiles using a wide variety of techniques.
“Highlighting local varieties of cotton, muga and eri silk and yarn using camel, goat and yak hair – Sutr Santati is a must-see experience for anyone with an appreciation of textiles, art, culture and history. The deep and profound reverence that Indians have for handwoven textiles is evident through this creative/vibrant and contemporary interpretation of techniques with traditional yarns.” – Museum website
Sita Bhumi Pravesh by Gaurang Shah
A symposium was held for the opening weekend in May, and three videos covering some of the talks are available here. The exhibition runs until 3 September 2023.
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Two events related to Palestinian textiles are coincidentally taking place on 8 July, but on different continents. Material Power: Palestinian Embroidery opens at Kettle’s Yard in Cambridge, UK, and will explore the historical life and contemporary significance of Palestinian embroidery. It runs until 29 October 2023, and will also be shown in Manchester in 2024.
“Curated by Rachel Dedman, the exhibition looks at the ways in which embroidery, primarily undertaken by women, has evolved through a century of turbulent history for the Palestinian people.
This is the first major exhibition of Palestinian embroidery in the UK for over 30 years, with more than 40 dresses and embroidered objects on display lent from important private collections in Jordan and Palestine. Every dress tells a story: whether about the lives of women with their astonishing skills and creativity in the early decades of the last century, or the trauma of displacement as a result of the war of 1948. And reflecting the decades since: in which the vibrant colours and patterns of Palestinian embroidery, now often created for a global market by groups of women, have become symbolic of nationhood, memory, and resistance. Alongside historic dresses are artworks by five contemporary artists, films of embroiderers speaking about their work and rarely seen archive material.” – Kettle’s Yard website
An afternoon of talks and discussions about Palestinian embroidery, its history and importance today, has been organised for 8 July with the exhibition curator and collectors and experts from the region. Click here for more details and to book.
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On the same day over in Washington DC there will be a launch at the Museum of the Palestinian People of the new book Thobna by curator Wafa Ghnaim, accompanied by a moderated discussion.
“THOBNA (Arabic for ‘our dress’) acknowledges the scholarship of Palestinian Elders that guided Ghnaim’s growth in the field. Representing a major turning point in her career that inspired her study of Palestinian dress history within an academic context, this book focuses on the path a Palestinian dress, or thobe, takes before arriving in a museum collection. Ghnaim details the ethics involved with Palestinian dress reclamation in the United States and the tremendous role museums can play in providing long-term viability for meaningful access to Palestinian dress collections.” – MPP website.
Click here for more information and to book your place.
Thobe al Malak (Bethlehem)
The final curator-guided tour of the current exhibition of thoba, Tatreez Inheritance, takes place the previous evening, 7 July 2023, and you can book for it here.
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The Early Textiles Study Group run 2-part courses on identifying textile structures, each part taking two weeks. Part 1 is on simple weaves, and Part 2 on complex weaves. The dates for the next Part 1 sessions are 10-14 and 17-21 July in Slaithwaite, West Yorkshire, with the Part 2 sessions taking place in late August. Click here for more details.
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On 13 and 14 July a Textile Bazaar will be held at Hellens Manor near Ledbury in Herefordshire – a great chance to find a textile treasure to add to your collection. A list of exhibitors can be found here.
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The next OATG event is an in-person talk in Oxford by Dr Rachel Silberstein. This was initially scheduled for 2020, so we are delighted we are finally able to hear her speak. Her subject is A Fashionable Century: Textile Artistry and Commerce in the Late Qing.
“This talk examines the expansion of commercialized dress and embroidery production during the late Qing period. With a focus on Suzhou, the center of fashionable dress production and embroidery, it shows how this city benefitted from the Gu embroidery trend, and how the expansion of commercial embroidery created networks of urban guilds, commercial workshops and subcontracted female workers. Though little attention was paid to these workers, objects of fashion reveal much about women’s participation—as both producers and consumers—in the commercialization of textile handicrafts. By reading objects of clothing and accessories from museum collections alongside pattern-books and advertisements, we will see how embroidery shops and accessory producers sought to brand and market their wares, and in turn, what these efforts tell us about the conflict of gender values inherent to the commercial production of dress and embroidery.” – Rachel Silberstein
An anonymous family portrait of four generations of a Manchu family in late Qing Beijing, ca. 1853. Ink and mineral pigments on paper, 185.5 × 384 cm. Mactaggart Art Collection (2007.23.1), University of Alberta Museums. Gift of Sandy and Cécile Mactaggart. (detail)
As usual, this talk is free for OATG members (who should have already received their invitation), with a small charge for non-members. Click here for full details.
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The Brunei Gallery at SOAS, London, will host a new exhibition from the Karun Thakar collection from 13 July to 23 September 2023. The subject of this exhibition is Japanese Aesthetics of Recycling, and it features over one hundred objects, including Boro and sakiori textiles, washi and kin-tsugi or gin-tsugi pottery.
“Boro (Japanese: ぼろ) is a class of Japanese textiles that have been mended or patched together. The term is derived from Japanese boroboro, meaning something tattered or repaired. Fashioned from worn clothing and ‘waste’ fabric to create ‘Boro’, the textile pieces have become very popular with collectors in Japan & throughout the world over the last 20 years. These pieces are often marketed as ‘abstract art’ in the Western context. They are in fact an important aspect of Japanese history and culture, showing the resilience and creativity shown by working people living in very harsh environment with very few resources.
Boro coat from the Karun Thakar collection
Washi (handmade paper) was widely used in the Meiji & Showa period to make wrappings for valuable kimonos, tea storage bags, wrappers for documents as well as floor coverings and room dividers. Often old ledgers were recycled and layered to make these objects, persimmon paste was used to make them waterproof. Shifu garments will also be exhibited, these were woven using twisted and plaited paper yarn, farmers originally cut the pages of ancient account books in order to turn them into woven paper. The ink writing on the paper also remained visible in the finished fabric leaving an interesting speckled pattern.
Various examples of kin-tsugi or gin-tsugi “golden joinery” pottery will also be exhibited form The Heian period (平安時代, Heian jidai) 794 to 1185 to Edo period (江戸時代, Edo jidai) 1603 and 1867. Breakage and repairs were not disguised in these pots and were seen as rich part of the history of these objects. Yobi-tsugi pieces, which were constructed from different broken pots will also be exhibited.” – SOAS website
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Advance notice of an online talk I will be giving with my husband David Richardson on 29 July, as part of the Textile Museum’s Rug and Textile Appreciation sessions. Our subject will be Changing Women’s Fashions on the Indonesian Island of Sumba. Those who know us are well aware of our love for this area, and that we can talk about Indonesian textiles for hours……
A groom and his family and clan members on their way from Kanatang to the village of his future bride to transfer the bridewealth to her family and clan.
The talk is free, and begins at 11:00 EDT/08:00 PDT, which is 16:00 BST, and you can register for it here.
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I recently blogged about a lovely book for children, Mea and the Palm Flowers, produced by OATG member Sandra Sardjono of Tracing Patterns Foundation, with the help of Geneviève Duggan and Ice Tede Dara.
Half of all sale proceeds will be donated to the weavers of the Tewuni Rai group, many of whom lost their homes during the devastating Cyclone Seroja last year. If you are a keen weaver, dyer or collector this would make a great gift for the children in your life.
I loved the enthusiasm of this young boy in his short video review of the book, which can be ordered here!
Video of book review
Sonja Mohr of the Rautenstrauch-Joest Museum in Köln has just informed me of this very interesting article on Philippine piña textiles.
Scarf length, Philippines, mid 1800s, Rhode Island School of Design Museum.
Interrogating Translucence: Biological and Cultural Definitions of Piña is by Abi Lua, whose current thesis project explores Philippine piña textile connoisseurship and mentality. Here she discusses some of the difficulties in identifying piña, from both a biological and cultural point of view.
This article by Keith Recker for Selvedge also caught my attention. In it Keith looks at the colour purple and how it is produced by milking sea snails. The illustrations are excellent, and it was interesting to learn how the “community’s way of life was shaped around the making of purple, and the journey to the coast to dye yarns was a major event. A group of dyers would walk eight days to the coast. It was a real journey……. ‘involving several river crossings. The men would carry their own food, and when their tortillas, beans and coffee ran out, they would work in local farms to be reprovisioned. Once they reached their campsite on the coast, they’d stay for about three months before heading back to Pinotepa”. – Selvedge
This reminded me of the marine dyes, which I have seen produced on the small island of Ternate in the Alor archipelago of Eastern Indonesia. There, two different colours – purple and green – are produced from the same creature. The purple comes from the ink sac and the green from the innards, with what remains going into the pot for supper.
A quick reminder that this is your last chance to sign up for a couple of talks taking place online tomorrow, Saturday 12 February. The first is on molas by Tom Hannaher, whose online presentation is entitled Painting With Scissors: Mola Art of the Kuna (Guna) Indians and takes place at 13:00 EST, which is 18:00 GMT. he second is on Uyghur feltmaking with Christine Martens. It begins at 11:00 EST, which is 16:00 GMT and you can register for it here.
The first of the 2022 series of Textile Talks, hosted by Andean Textile Arts, takes place next Tuesday 15 February, when the subject will be Textile Traditions of the Peruvian Highlands. Participants will learn “how Andean weavers use corn husks in their weaving, which natural dye was part of the Incan taxation system, why Andean brides often receive handwoven jakimas as wedding gifts, and so much more.” – ATA website
The talk also features a video, narrated by one of the presenters Jennifer Moore. The other presenter is Ercil Howard-Wroth. Click here for more information and to register. Please note this talk begins at 19:00 EST, which is midnight in the UK.
An akotifahana from the collection of the Royal Ontario Museum.
On Wednesday 16 February ORTS will host a Zoom presentation by Dr Sarah Fee of the Royal Ontario Museum entitled Born of the Indian Ocean:The Textile Arts of Madagascar. The ROM hold 54 Madagascan textiles in their collection, some of which date to the nineteenth century. It was interesting to read about the connection with Omani traders and Indian trade cloths, almost reminiscent of the Silk Road connections.
There is a lot of excellent information, with very good images and some videos on the ROM website, which I strongly recommend to those interested in Malagasy textiles and culture.
The talk takes place at 18:00 GMT. Non-members wishing to attend should contact Dimity Spiller.
Chief or nobleman’s headdress (detail), Congo, 20th century. The Textile Museum Collection 1962.1.15. Textile Museum acquisition.
Sarah is going to be very busy as she also features in the next in the series of talks from the Textile Museum, centred on the latest edition of the Textile Journal, which she guest-edited.
Cécile Fromont of Yale University will be in discussion with Sarah about Kongo textiles, “which are celebrated as masterpieces of exquisite workmanship but garner limited attention in scholarship.”
This talk takes place on Wednesday 16 February at 12:00 EST, which is 17:00 GMT, and you can register for it here.
On Thursday 17 February the Korea Society will host a live webcast by Dr Minjee Kim entitled Hanbok: A new lexicon of women’s fashion.
“In 2021, hanbok – the generic term referring to traditional style Korean clothing – was registered in the Oxford English Dictionary. In this comprehensive series of lectures, Dr. Minjee Kim, the preeminent scholar of Korean textile and fashion in the U.S., illustrates and elucidates hanbok in sartorial, socio-cultural, and historical contexts.
In the first lecture of the series, Dr. Kim discusses some distinctive qualities of women’s hanbok in comparison with other dress traditions; terminologies of the components and their structural parts; colors, materials, and embellishments; and symbols and ideas behind design principles and ways of dress.” – Korea Society
The webcast begins at 18:00 EST, which is 23:00 GMT and you can register for it here.
On Saturday 19 February the Textile Museum associates of Southern California (TMA/SC) will host a presentation by Susan Schaefer Davis. Her subject will be Women Artisans of Morocco: Their Textiles, Their Stories, Their Lives.
Most textile talks focus, naturally, on the textiles themselves, looking at which materials and techniques were used to create them, in which area they were made etc.
“In this talk, anthropologist, and author of Women Artisans of Morocco, Dr. Susan Schaefer Davis, whose work focuses on Moroccan women, their textiles, changing gender roles, and adolescence, will include all of those aspects of textiles, but will also introduce you to the actual Moroccan women who make them. You will meet several of these women virtually, and to see and learn about the unique textiles they produce, the lives in which they produce them, and their thoughts about their work and goals.”
The talk begins at 10:00 PST, which is 18:00 GMT and you can register for it here.
Our next OATG online event will take place on Thursday 24 February at 18:30 GMT, and the subject will be Peru: A Journey in Time, based on the exhibition at the British Museum. Cecilia Pardo’s talk will introduce you to some of the extraordinary artefacts produced with incredible skill by the different peoples of the Andes displayed in the exhibition. She will focus on the magnificent textiles drawn from both the British Museum, and collections in Peru and beyond.
Helen Wolfe will end with a brief overview of the British Museum collection of Early Andean textiles, numbering over 1,000 pieces. This event is free for OATG members and a very reasonable £3 for non-members, payable via our PayPal account. For more details and registration please click here.
Don’t forget to let me know of any textile-related events or articles you think I should include here!
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A new exhibition has just opened at the Brunei Gallery, SOAS, London and will run until 26 June 2021. Opium, Silk and the Missionaries in China retells one of the largely forgotten histories between Britain and China in the nineteenth century.
Chinese headdress, comb and slippers from the Gladys Aylward collection. Courtesy of SOAS Special Collections.
“Drawing on several collections using artefacts to explore the history of the Opium Wars through botanical arts and tools; historical artefacts about silk; missionary work and intercultural shared experiences in China recorded by British Missionaries throughout this period. ” – Gallery website.
On Tuesday 25 May 2021 the London-based Oriental Rug and Textile Society will host an online talk by OATG member Maria Wronska-Friend of James Cook University, Queensland. Her subject will be From Sarong to Sari: Rabindranath Tagore’s fascination with the batik of Java. In 1927 Tagore developed an interest in Javanese batik, collecting several dozen examples. On his return to West Bengal “he supported the introduction of the batik technique into the curriculum of the local art school. The new technique has been embraced in Santiniketan with great enthusiasm and resulted in the production of thousands of stunning saris, stoles, fitted garments and decorative fabrics.” – ORTS website. For more details of this talk which begins at 18:00 BST click here.
On Tuesday 2 June 2021 Richard Wilding will give a talk to the Royal Society for Asian Affairs on the Traditional Costumes and Culture of Saudi Arabia. He, along with Hamida Alireza, is co-editor of a recently published book with the same title. “The Mansoojat Foundation is a UK-registered charity founded by Saudi women. The charity is dedicated to the preservation of ethnic Arabian costumes. They conduct research that is vital to our knowledge of the region’s history and culture, and make Arabian heritage accessible to the public. Their workshop in Jeddah offers employment to women with hearing and speech impediments.” – Publisher’s website. Click here to see a sample of several pages from the book.
The webinar will look at how the “costumes and jewellery of Saudi Arabia reveal a great diversity of regional and tribal identities, reflecting the Kingdom’s contrasting urban and rural, settled and nomadic, desert and mountain environments. The Arabian Peninsula sits at the centre of ancient pilgrimage and trade routes, and this has resulted in centuries of influence from textiles, beads and jewellery passing through the region.” It takes place at 14:00 BST and is free, but you do need to register for it.
Child’s Coat with Ducks in Pearl Medallions (detail), 700s. Sogdia (present-day Uzbekistan). Silk; w. 84.5 cm. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund, 1996.2.1
Another event taking place on 2 June 2021 is the annual Pauline and Joseph Degenfelder Distinguished Lecture in Chinese Art. This is held by the Cleveland Museum of Art and the speaker this year will be Zhao Feng. His subject will be Chinese Textiles from the Silk Road.
“For centuries, the Silk Road has been an important network of trade routes that has allowed for the exchange of silk and other goods, as well as of ideas and technologies between cultures across Asia and Europe.
Zhao Feng, director of the China National Silk Museum in Hangzhou, presents recently excavated and conserved silk textiles from sites along the Silk Road. He shares new insight on fibers, dyes, weave structures, tailoring, and pattern designs featured in these textiles and discusses international collaborative initiatives, such as the Interactive Silk Map of the World and the Silk Road Online Museum.” – Cleveland Museum of Art website. The lecture is at 19:00 EDT, which sadly is midnight in the UK, so this is one for the night owls. Register here for this free event.
Another annual lecture will take place on Saturday 5 June 2021 – this time hosted by the Textile Arts Council. The speaker for this year’s Sinton Lecture will be Kana Taira and her subject is Ryukyu Bashofu: Banana Fiber Textiles of Okinawa.
“Bashofu cloth is made from the bast fibers of the Okinawan ito-basho, a variety of banana tree. For centuries this weaving tradition thrived among people of all walks of life on the Okinawan islands. But after World War II, with changes in lifestyle, Bashofu nearly died out. However, in the village of Kijoka, Ogimi, noted for its Bashofu production from before the war, local women led by weaver Toshiko Taira put their passion and dedication into reviving this unique Okinawan weaving tradition. Working together, they established the Kijoka Bashofu Kumiai.(Kijoka Bashofu Association), whose goals were to both revitalize the traditional techniques and to train new generations of weavers. Today the Association produces the renown bashofu kimono and other textile products and trains weavers who come from all over Japan to study there.” – TAC website. Kana Taira is a granddaughter of Toshiko Taira. This online event takes place at 15:00 PDT, which is 22:00 BST. There is s small charge for non-members and you can register via this link.
As is often the case when compiling information for this blog I got sidetracked and started to look for more information on this fascinating subject. I found this article by Noriko Nii on the Visit Okinawa site a useful starting point. I was amazed to learn that it takes the fibres from around two hundred trees to weave the cloth for one kimono! On the website of the Bashofu Hall I discovered some of the other ways the plant is utilised. “The surface fiber has long been used in the production of banana paper, which has recently enjoyed a surge of use for bouquets, bookmarks, papercraft, and more. The outer husk of the fiber, which is unsuitable for yarn, is called shīsāū and is an essential part of the lion masks used in the traditional lion dance performed throughout Okinawa. The fiber is used to create strands of hair to adorn the lion heads, so it is ordered in large quantities each year. The plant is also burned to create a charcoal that is used as a glaze for earthenware, among other uses. “
I would also highly recommend taking a look at this online exhibition on these textiles and the way they are produced. It was created by Ikeda Yuuka and Ueyama Emiko of the Kyoto Women’s University and has some stunning images to complement the text.
Next to a textile event which is taking place in real life – not on a screen! Many of you will be familiar with the World Textile Days which take place at various UK locations throughout the year. The pandemic put a stop to those for some time, but they are restarting next month. The first will be on Saturday 5 June 2021 from 10:00 – 16:00 in Frodsham, Cheshire. Due to Covid restrictions there will not be a talk at this event, nor any catering. However visitors are welcome to take their own food and drink and there will be space provided to consume it. These are always really fun events, with textiles available from a range of traders, including The African Fabric Shop, Textile Traders, Susan Briscoe, The Running Stitches, Fabazaar and Experience Ukraine. Full details here.
OATG members David and Sue Richardson have just added a new section to their Asian Textile Studies website, this time looking at Cambodian kiet textiles. The article looks at historical examples of Cham clothing and various resist-dyeing techniques before examining different types of Cham kiet – from the very simple to the complex.
Carpet with poetry verses, 1550-1600, Iran. Silk warp and weft, knotted wool pile, areas brocaded with metal thread. 231 x 165 cm. V&A: T.402-1910. Bequeathed by George Salting
In my most recent blog I wrote about the Epic Iran exhibition which opens at the V&A in London on 29 May 2021. I explained that Sarah Piram, Curator of the Iranian collections at the V & A, will give an online talk to the OATG next month. This talk will give an overview of some major works, from early silk fragments showing roundels of animals, to Safavid carpets and contemporary craft tradition. Textiles and carpets will be showcased in different parts of the exhibition, and I’m sure one of the highlights will be the ‘Sanguszko’ carpet belonging to the Duke of Buccleuch and Queensberry – one of the greatest seventeenth century Persian carpets in private hands. This talk will take place on 10 June at 18:30 BST. OATG members should already have received their invitations, and registration is now also open non-members through this link.
Some of the ryijys on show
Unfortunately I have only just found out about this exhibition which opened at the Kunsthalle, Helsinki in February and ends this Sunday 23 May 2021. “The exhibition Woven Beauty – Four centuries of Finnish ryijy textiles presents a wide and diverse selection of ryijys that shows their richness as well as their many shapes, textures and patterns that have changed over time. The ryijy has seen many colourful phases in its history and recent times, always returning in new forms to carry on its lively tradition for new generations. Kunsthalle Helsinki will exhibit ryijys from over 300 years. The selection of around 130 ryijys includes traditional types from the 18th and 19th centuries such as bridal and tree of life motifs, modern artistic ryijys from the 1960s, as well as new ryijys from recent years that exemplify a diversity of materials.” – museum website.
Thankfully there is a short video which enables us to see some of the ryijys on show and learn a little more about them. The presentation is in English.
There are so many great textile events coming up that I have had to split them across two blogs – part two coming soon…….
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In her recent OATG talk Geneviève Duggan spoke of the need for a Weavers’ House for the community she works with on the island of Savu. Here is the background to this story, and a link to how you can help.
An indigo dyers hands
In 2006 several women on the small and isolated island of Savu got together to form a weaving group called Tewuni rai (placenta of the earth). The forty current members still produce their fabulous textiles on back tension looms, and use only vegetable dyes.
Ice Tede Dara, Secretary of the Tawuni rai weaving group and Desi Lodo, a young weaver from the village
In the past few years they have been hit hard, not only by Covid – which has meant no visitors coming to the island to buy their textiles – but also by African swine flu and a prolonged drought. These challenges have only increased their determination to plan for a better future.
Their aim is to build a Weavers’ House, in the shape of a traditional Savunese house with an extended roof ridge. Having such a building would give them somewhere to weave together, exchanging their knowledge of traditional patterns and techniques, and passing this on to the next generation. It would also provide them with a comfortable place to demonstrate their skills to visitors, instead of sitting out in the burning sun.
Plan of the proposed Weavers’ House
A traditional community building on Savu
The community already has a track record of working together on large projects such as this. From 2016-2018 they worked with Geneviève and André Graff to install a phyto-sanitation system, bringing clean water to their village, and so making a massive difference to their lives. They now have showers, toilets, a laundry area and another area for dyeing the threads for their textiles.
Water flows from the tap at the new block
A plot of land close to this block has been donated for the Weavers’ House. The project will be overseen by Geneviève, in conjunction with Ice Tede Dara (Secretary of Tewuni rai), and the head of the village. The anticipated cost is $10,000, and every donation – no matter how small – will be appreciated.
If you would like to help make their dream a reality please go to the Tracing Patterns Foundation website here . Under ‘designation’ please tick Meet the Makers – Tewuni rai. Those donating $250 or more will receive a naturally dyed ikat or striped shawl as an expression of the weavers’ appreciation.
An embroidered portrait of Molotov, dated 1934-35 from the collection of the Azerbaijani Carpet Museum in Baku
It’s difficult to be certain, but this portrait of Molotov appears to be chain stitch embroidery on broadcloth. The basic structure and outer motifs in the carpet below appear to be quite classical, but just look at the subject of the central lozenge.
Carpet from 1969 showing a laboratory. State Museum of Oriental Art, Moscow.
The subject of Soviet propaganda was also examined by Irina Bogoslovskaya at the Textile Society of America Symposium in 2012 in her paper The Soviet “Invasion” of Central Asian Applied Arts: How Artisans Incorporated Communist Political Messages and Symbols. I remember being really struck by the some of the motifs Irina showed during her talk, the full text of which can be downloaded here. In it she states that “a powerful way to show the difference between Czarist and Soviet power was through mass-propaganda art” and explains how this applied not just to Socialist Realism in paintings, but also to textiles, carpets and even china.
Cotton print from the early 1930s featuring the Turkestan-Siberia Railroad. Cotton print. Collection of I. Yasinskaya.
The cotton print above celebrates the Turkestan-Siberia Railroad, juxtaposing the images of the traditional method of transport – camels – with the modern railroad. Another very popular motif was agricultural machinery, as featured on this design by Sergei Burylin in 1925.
Printed cotton textile from the Ivanovo-Voznesensk Textile Factory
It seems that in the late 19th century the Russian manufacturers were printing textiles designed to appeal to the Central Asian market – generally with floral motifs on a vivid red background. We often see these textiles used as the lining on ikat chapans. The textile below is quite different in that it is clearly imitating an ikat design. This example was exhibited at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893 and was produced by the factory of Anton Gandurin and Brothers.
Textile from the factory of Anton Gandurin and Brothers, exhibited at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893
The D. G. Burylin Ivanovo State Museum of Local History has a really wonderful collection of printed textiles which you can access online. Entitled From hand block printing to printing machines: The fabrics collection of the Ivanovo Calico Museum, this showcases textiles from 1710-1931. The textile samples are shown in date order, giving us a great opportunity to see how the designs changed over time. Compare the two images below from 1900 and 1920 to see the sudden change in style.
Textile samples from 1900
Textile samples from 1920
The earliest textiles in the collection were hand-blocked and the design was achieved using soot and drying oil. We then move on to examples using madder and mordant dyeing, and later to roller printing. There are lots of ways of searching within the collection. I found the section on agitprop textiles in the 1920s fascinating. Many feel very modern and daring in their designs, but some feel like more of a halfway house, incorporating new motifs such as aeroplanes and stars with the familiar floral elements and colour palette.
Textile designed in 1930 by Olga Fedoseeva for the Ivanovo-Voznesensk State Textile Trust.
It’s also interesting to see how some Central Asian people adopted Soviet motifs. In Turkmenistan short neckties were embroidered by women for their husbands to wear to political meetings. Its clear that these were not traditional apparel as the Turkmen use the word galstuk – borrowed from the Russian – to describe them as there was no word for necktie in Turkmen. The embroidery style and the stitches used were typically Turkmen, but the motifs most definitely were not. Many incorporate important dates, the hammer and sickle, red star, or Kremlin clock tower.
A galstuck with traditional motifs in the lower half and a star, the date 1925 and SSSR embroidered in the top section. Richardson Collection
A galstuk showing the clock tower of the Kremlin. Richardson Collection
A tush kiyiz is a wall-hanging intended for the interior of a Kyrgyz yurt. This particular example from the collection of the British Museum is far too large for that purpose and may well have been commissioned for a public building.
OATG members David and Sue Richardson have a very similar example in their collection. It was acquired 20 years ago in Bishkek and was said to have been made by an old lady from Novopavlovka. The date 1959 is embroidered on the central triangle. This textile illustrates the bizarre marriage of Soviet thinking and Soviet design with traditional Kyrgyz nomadic folk art. The border has been embroidered using quite thick cotton threads in chain stitch throughout.
Tush kiyiz made in 1959. Richardson Collection
The design is a celebration of the Soviet Union, being dominated by circular medallions representing the Soviet Socialist Republics. Most of the medallions conform to a set format, with a rising sun, a hammer and sickle, and some feature of the Republic concerned in the centre, and a frame of the local produce, mainly agricultural, such as wheat, maize, cotton, or trees.
A hoopoe embroidered on the central section
The spaces between these medallions are filled with a variety of wild and domestic animals and birds: a butterfly, a goat, parrot, swan, geese, and cow; a horse, woodpecker and white doves of peace. On the tumar some of the birds, such as the hoopoe and cuckoo, are named and even a Soviet warplane gets in on the act!
A Soviet plane, also embroidered on the central section.
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Savu is an island in eastern Indonesia which OATG members David and Sue Richardson have returned to many times since their first visit in 1991. It’s not hard to understand why, when you see the beautiful scenery and of course the wonderful textiles created by the skilled weavers there.
But this isn’t the only OATG link to Savu. In 2004/5 the Horniman Museum held an exhibition about the culture of Savu entitled Woven Blossoms, organised by OATG member Fiona Kerlogue (who was at that time their curator of Asian Collections) in conjunction with French anthropologist Geneviève Duggan. Several members of the Savunese community accompanied Geneviève to London to take part in a series of events and workshops built around this exhibition. Ten years later David and Sue were able to take some of Fiona’s photos back to Savu, where the exhibition participants were delighted to show them to their friends and family.
Sue Richardson and Geneviève Duggan giving photos from the Horniman exhibition to the local community. Looking over Geneviève’s shoulder is Ina Koro, a very experienced weaver who demonstrated her skills in London.
Being welcomed by members of the community
The community that Geneviève works most closely with is in the Mesara district and has 28 active weavers. In Savu society women belong to one of two origin groups (moieties) – the Greater Blossom and the Lesser Blossom. Each of these groups has particular textile motifs associated with it.
The diamond-shaped wo kelaku motif is typical of the hubi ae moiety
The serpent-shaped èi ledo motif is typical of the hubi iki moiety
This is a piring (plate) motif on an ei worapi sarong. This type of sarong can be worn by members of either moiety
As is common in this area of Indonesia the two dyes most frequently used are indigo and morinda.
A locally produced dyepot. For more background on these see My favourite: dye pot in Asian Textiles no. 70, 2018.
After binding the threads to form the pattern, then dyeing them (often several times) the threads need to be untied before they can be put on the loom.
Removing the bindings
Here, as in much of southeast Asia, the textiles are woven on a backstrap loom. Sometimes handspun cotton is used, and sometimes machine spun.
One of the most positive developments in this village is that young girls are also learning to produce textiles. In so many communities weaving seems to be the preserve of the older generation and it is so heartening to see these traditions carried on. The young weaver pictured below was 12 years old at the time the photo was taken. She did the binding and weaving for the indigo sash that she is wearing.
A young Savunese weaver
The island is extremely dry and the local people have to rely on the juice of the lontar palm for sustenance. The fresh juice is very thirst-quenching, but they can also distill this into a very powerful drink! The lontar palm is also the source of the delicious palm sugar and of course the leaves are used in making the roofs for the traditional houses, making baskets, and so much more.
Climbing a lontar palm tree to collect the juice. The basket hanging from the man’s belt is also made from lontar palm.
However lontar palm is not enough, especially as over the last few years Savu has sadly undergone several periods of serious drought. This year has been especially difficult with the added problems of Covid 19 and Asian Swine Flu. To raise funds for the weavers Geneviève will be speaking about the ikats of Savu on a webinar this Thursday. Joining her will be Ice Tede Dara, a teacher and the secretary of the local weaving group.
Ice Tede Dara, photographed in her village with a beautiful sarong
Just to whet your appetite here is a short video of just some of the gorgeous textiles woven on Savu! The textiles with the fringes are men’s blankets known locally as hi’i.
Geneviève has spent several decades studying Savu and has published a great deal on this subject. She spends months there each year, staying in the village and is fluent in Savunese. I highly recommend setting some time aside on Thursday to watch this webinar by a real expert in this area!
Oxford Asian Textile Group blog 