Article: Alive with artisans – Cairo’s al-Darb al-Ahmar district – a photo essay

 

 

“Whatever manufactured items there are in the world,” wrote the Ottoman traveller Evliya Çelebi in 1671, “the poor of Cairo get hold of them, set them out and trade in them.” Nearly 350 years later, this tradition lives on in al-Darb al-Ahmar. This neighbourhood of 100,000 people, south-east of central Cairo, is said to be home to a thousand workshops. The place teems with artisans crafting everything from tents, books, boxes and brass lanterns to glass bowls and silk carpets.

The Street of the Tentmakers captures this commercial spirit. Built in 1650 as an arcade, this covered street is a succession of workrooms whose interiors are lined with decorative textiles. From his cubic cavity in the Ottoman-era wall, a weaver called Hasan says that al-khayyamiya, the craft of tentmaking, goes back to the time of the pharaohs. Some of today’s weavers are descended from the families who would produce the kiswa, the fabric that covered the great stone at Mecca, as well as tents, cloths and saddles for those setting out on pilgrimage to Islam’s holiest site.

This article gives an excellent overview of this district of Cairo with its weavers, dyers, bookbinders, carpet makers, glass blowers and lantern makers, explaining how many of the buildings have been restored with the help of the Aga Khan Development Network.

To read the full article visit the website of the Guardian

A free exhibition of photographs entitled The artisans of al-Darb al-Ahmar: life and work in historic Cairo is also taking place from 23 March – 24 April at the Royal Geographical Society in London.

For more information visit their website here

Exhibition: Piña-Seda – Pineapple and Silk Cloth from the Tropics

Exhibition dates: 24 October – 22 November 2017

Learn the history behind the famous cloth used for the Philippine national dress, and the art of its intricate and delicate designs.

The Philippine Embassy in London is currently showing a month-long textile exhibition, entitled PIŇA-SEDA (Pineapple and Silk Cloth from the Tropics), a Hibla ang Lahing Filipino Travelling Exhibition, featuring the Kalibo Aklan Piňa-Seda Weavers and the Lumban, Laguna Piňa-Seda Embroiderers.

This is the first international exhibition developed by the National Museum of the Philippines to promote traditional fabrics from the Philippines. It comprises 12 handmade pineapple and silk textiles, an Aklan foot loom, 8 embroidery samplers, 2 herbarium specimens and 50 associated weaving implements and materials brought from the Philippines. Complementing them are illustrations and texts to convey the uniqueness and intricacy of these revered heritage material used in formal wear.

The exhibition is being held in the exhibition halls of the Philippine Embassy, 10 Suffolk Street, London, SW1Y 4HG.

For more information, contact events@philemb.co.uk or write to Ms. Tess Albano at the Philippine Embassy, mtjalbano@philemb.co.uk

Event: Tribal Art London 2017

Event dates: 6 – 9 September 2017

Tribal Art London will mark its tenth year when it opens to the public on 6 September 2017 at the Mall Galleries, London.  Indigenous and tribal art and artefacts, no longer the preserve of museum curators and ethnographers, have emerged as an important element of today’s art market.  In 2007, London gallerist Bryan Reeves brought together several like-minded dealers from the international tribal art scene to create the UK’s first-ever specialist event in this field.  It has grown significantly to become a vibrant fair with 23 participants from the UK, Europe, Africa and the USA.

Tribal Art London is a focal point for art collectors, and has made its mark on the international fair circuit by offering an exciting diversity of works for sale, as well as hosting lectures and talks on many subjects relating to indigenous cultures. Tribal Art London 2017 will have a special focus on the art of tattooing and the organisers are pleased to announce that Martin Poole, a leading traditional tattooist and expert in hand-worked body art, will be present at the fair to give demonstrations of this ancient skill.

New exhibitors in 2017 include Frans Faber (Netherlands) with fine tribal arts from Indonesia, Oceania and Africa; Mark Eglington (New York); John-Paul Raad (London) with art of the Niger River region; and Emmanuel Amelot of Belgium.  They join regulars such as OATG member Joss Graham (London) with traditional textiles, costume, sculpture, ceramics, baskets and jewellery; Sam Handbury-Madin (UK) a young dealer with a fascination for tribal works from every culture; Louis Nierijnck (Netherlands) with tribal art, textiles and adornment from Africa, the Himalayas and Southeast Asia; Marcuson & Hall (Brussels), with a particular interest in fibre works and textiles from Asia and Africa; Raccanello Tribal Art (UK) with Polynesian art, and Charles Vernon-Hunt (UK), specialist in tribal art books.

The UK organisers of Tribal Art London are Adam Prout of Adam Ethnographic Art, with tribal art and artefacts from all regions of the globe, and Bryan Reeves of Tribal Gathering, expert in African tribal art and adornment.

Admission is free.

For more information, visit the Tribal Art London website.

Event: Block Printing Study Day at the Joss Graham Gallery

By Bsfs – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=53286376

Event date: Saturday 15 July 2017

John Gillow, well known author and authority on world textiles and Sevanti Roy, textile designer and practitioner, will share their expertise with discussion, demonstrations and practical workshops.

Try your hand at block printing!
10am – 1pm morning session (demonstration and practical workshop with Sevanti Roy)
2pm – 3pm talk by John Gillow
3pm – 6pm afternoon session (demonstration and practical workshop with Sevanti Roy)

Cost £45 per session. All materials supplied.
Places are limited, so booking is essential. Call or email the gallery to book a place (see details below).

JOSS GRAHAM GALLERY
10 Eccleston Street, London, SW1W 9LT
tel: 020 7730 4370
info@jossgraham.com

Event: A Pop-Up Exhibition of Antique Textiles & Jewellery from Asia & Africa

Event dates: 17–21 May 2017, 11am – 6pm

BARBIE CAMPBELL COLE, JOHN GILLOW and MARTIN CONLAN of SLOW LORIS invite you to

A POP-UP EXHIBITION of ANTIQUE TEXTILES & JEWELLERY FROM ASIA & AFRICA

at 34 Churton Street, Pimlico, London SW1V 2LP (outside the Congestion Zone).

Necklace restringing and jewellery repair service available at the fair.

Payments: We don’t take credit cards so your cheque book may be useful.

Parking: Local parking restrictions: Monday – Friday 8.30am – 6.30pm

Directions: Churton Street is off Belgrave Road, SW1, outside the Congestion Zone.

By tube: Churton Street is five minute’s walk from Victoria and Pimlico tube stations.

From Victoria mainline station, exit at the top of Platform 1 and turn right into Wilton Road. Pass Sainsbury’s and cross lights into Denbigh Street. At next lights and junction with Belgrave Road, turn sharp left into Churton Street..      

From Pimlico tube, head north up Tachbrook Street. After five minutes, just before Tachbrook Street Market, turn left into Churton Street.

By car:  Churton Street is best approached from Belgrave Road. Local parking restrictions: Monday – Friday 8.30am – 6.30pm

By bus:  Five minutes’ walk from bus stops at Victoria station as above, or take No. 24 bus from Victoria which passes the end of Churton Street on Belgrave Road

*JOHN GILLOW’s seven books on antique textiles from Africa and Asia have been published by Thames & Hudson and The British Museum Press. He has travelled the world studying and buying antique textiles for over 25 years. Each year he makes at least eight buying trips and stocks a wider range of ethnic textiles than anyone else in the country.

*BARBIE CAMPBELL COLE trained as an architect at the Architectural Association, London, then worked for many years as a documentary maker in Africa and Asia for the BBC and C4. For the last fifteen years she has been dealing in antique jewellery and textiles from Asia and Africa, selling to museums, collectors, interior, set and costume designers worldwide. Her published research into the heirloom jewellery of northern Burma and northeast India has been funded by The Indian National Trust for Art & Cultural Heritage UK, and The Bead Study Trust.

*MARTIN CONLAN of SLOW LORIS TEXTILES is an acknowledged expert in the textile arts and crafts of the Chinese tribal minorities. For over twenty years he has travelled extensively in southwest China, collecting and trading in indigo and vegetable-dyed antique textiles, regularly sourcing specific items for interior and costume designers. He also sells beautifully cut modern oriental clothing in natural vegetable-dyed materials.

Event: London Antique Rug and Textile Art fair (LARTA) 2017

Event dates 24–29 January 2017

The London Antique Rug & Textile Art fair (LARTA) was launched in 2011 and is the only specialist fair dedicated to the appreciation of antique rug and textile art. Our event brings together quality decorative pieces and interesting collectors’ items presented by some of the UK and Europe’s most dynamic and knowledgeable dealers.

Our aim is to promote this vibrant art form to a wide audience. The scope of our interest is broad, and includes weavings from the Far East, Central Asia, Persia, India, Turkey, the Caucasus as well as from Europe and Africa, and from all periods up to the early twentieth century in Europe. Clients include collectors, interior decorators and designers, private buyers and international dealers.

The quality of the exhibitors at LARTA guarantees an event of high artistic significance and cultural merit. Many of our dealers exhibit regularly at important international antiques fairs and specialist symposiums. Several have written expert articles and books, travelled extensively to learn about the material culture and traditions of the weaving regions, and celebrated this extensive subject through exhibitions in their galleries.

When you visit LARTA, you will be able to choose from thousands of pieces at all price levels in a range of materials, techniques, colours and styles. There will be eye-catching showstoppers as well as affordable furnishing pieces and collectible rarities. In 2017, LARTA has broadened its offering to include exceptional twentieth-century carpets by modernist and art deco designers, and a very select choice of contemporary designer rugs. In addition, there will be a select presentation of Islamic art and objects. Your visit to LARTA will be a seductive feast of colour, form and texture, a truly memorable experience!

For more information, visit the LARTA website.

Exhibition: Lockwood Kipling – Arts and Crafts in the Punjab and London

Exhibition dates: 14 January – 2 April 2017

Explore the life, work and lasting impact of John Lockwood Kipling (1837–1911), an artist, teacher, curator and influential figure in the Arts and Crafts movement. Lockwood Kipling was a social campaigner for the preservation of the Indian crafts, a craftsman whose terracotta panels can still be seen on the exterior of the V&A and an illustrator of books by his son, the renowned writer Rudyard Kipling.  This exhibition uncovers the history of the V&A’s collections through the life of Lockwood Kipling who played a significant role in shaping the foundation collection.  Highlights include paintings of the Indian section of the Great Exhibition, designs and illustrations for books, and furniture designed for royal residences Bagshot Park and Osborne.

For more information, visit the website of the V&A Museum, London.

Exhibition: Embroidered Tales and Woven Dreams

Exhibition dates: 19 January – 25 March 2017

The exhibition Embroidered Tales and Woven Dreams is a colour-coded social history of the vast and geographically varied landscape known as the Silk Road (or originally the ‘Seidenstrasse’, a name given to this road by the German explorer Richthofen), which stretches from Central Asia to Western Europe. Its regional history will be explored through the embroidered tales and woven textiles of the communities who lived north and south of this ancient trade corridor across Asia.

The textiles on display have recorded a wonderful vernacular art, as embroidered tales, told by women storytellers, who were guardians of their customs and traditions for their individual tribes, castes and communities.

This exhibition, with a series of related lectures by internationally renowned lecturers, will examine the immensely rich, culturally fascinating identity of the Central Asian, Middle Eastern and South Asian landscapes, through the heritage of their embroidered textiles and costumes. It is a rich seam of historical material, meticulously embroidered and woven.

While the Silk Road, as a concept, refers to an area that underwent a thousand years of turbulent history, the physical links were comprised of smaller land routes, often through difficult terrain, and passable only by specialised trade caravans.

The northern ‘–stans’ of the Uzbeks, Kyrghiz, Tajiks, Turcoman and Khazaks exchanged goods with distant neighbours in Afghanistan and northern India, and, depending upon varying political arrangements, the even more distant powers of South Asia, Persia, Byzantium, Russia and China.

The exhibition will briefly examine the political upheavals that destroyed the lives of these communities and their nomadic, semi-nomadic and settled lifestyles.

For more information, visit the website of the Brunei Gallery, London, UK.

Event: Joss Graham’s Christmas Celebration 2016

Event date: shop and gallery open 7–24 December; private view 6 December 2016, 5–9 pm

OATG member Joss Graham will be holding a Christmas celebration at his gallery and shop in London from next week, with a private view next Tuesday evening, 6 December.

Among other art and textile objects available for sale, there will be velvet ikat cushions from Istanbul, recycled sari silk bead necklaces from Delhi, hand-knitted accessories from the Himalayas, as well as textiles from Mexico.

For more information, visit Joss Graham’s website.

Event: Tribal Art London 2016

Event dates: 1 – 4 September 2016

From Peru to the South Pacific, and from Africa to Asia, world art of all periods, from the ancient to the contemporary, is unveiled at this exciting and unique art event. Tribal Art London is the UK’s only art fair devoted exclusively to selling fine and original purpose works of art, from twenty-two international specialists in non-Western art. Works range from dance masks to metalwork, textiles to tribal adornment, early photography to contemporary paintings, and at prices from under £100 to over £20,000.

This year, again, OATG member Joss Graham will be present, and selling a stunning range of textiles and jewellery.

Admission is free, and there will be two lectures every day, on a variety of subjects.

For more information, visit the Tribal Art London website.