Red Thread Studio

African Textiles Coming to Metropolitan

African textiles are hotter than July right now, for good reason -- what an amazing and rich textile heritage, a treasure trove of color, pattern and symbolic inspiration. A new exhibition of traditional and contemporary African textiles will open at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on September 30 and run through March 29, 2009. From the Met's press release:

Africa's extraordinary legacy of textile arts, with its explosive color and complex graphic statements, will be presented at The Metropolitan Museum of Art beginning September 30. Bringing together more than 40 works dating from the early 19th century to the present – including a spectacular silk and cotton kente prestige cloth woven in Ghana during the 19th century and a 30-foot-long installation work by the contemporary artist Yinka Shonibare – The Essential Art of African Textiles: Design without End will highlight the enduring significance of textiles as a major form of aesthetic expression across the continent. While examining some of the finest and earliest preserved examples of different regional textile traditions, the exhibition will relate these to contemporary works by eight living artists, who draw inspiration from textiles in their explorations of other media ranging from sculpture, painting, and photography, to video and installation art.

This is a key dimension of the spirit of Slow Cloth for me --  illuminating traditional textile techniques and viewing them through the lens of contemporary artists and designers. This exhibition will surely be visually and culturally dramatic and powerful -- I predict we'll see its influence on fashion and textile design, on color forecasting, and in the art world.

Armchair Textile Travels on Sunday Morning

Acey of Sparkling Lotus-Land and Nichobella has written a wonderful review of African Textiles by John Gillow. This book looks magnificent . . . it's expensive but not all that much more than a tank of gas these days, even in my 17-year-old Honda, and will certainly last longer and inspire more. After reading her review I realized that a book I'd checked out from the library last week, called Traditional Indian Textiles, was also by John Gillow. He seems to have a new book forthcoming on Indian textiles as well.

John Gillow is a true global textile explorer (John, wherever you are, do you need an assistant?) and has an incredibly wide-ranging fascination for history, culture and aesthetics seen through the textile lens. As more and more textile traditions are lost, research like his becomes more important.

If Indian textiles interest you, I also recommend Tradition and Beyond: Handmade Indian Textiles, which seems to be more available now. I found my copy at a local store that stocks used and unusual new books, and I'm so glad I bought it. It too was a splurge at the time, but I've never regretted having it for even an instant.

This blog by photographer Claude Renault has a wealth of beautiful photographs of India, and you'll get a feel for the color palette and human emotion of the country seen through an artist's eye.

It's amazing how rich with pattern and color and design the world is. These treasuries of pattern and color in India and Africa contrast quite a bit with the book I'm reading on the Japanese wabi-sabi aesthetic, where colors are subdued, pattern is very subtle, and restful space is paramount.

And if you'd like some world music to go with your textile journey, I've been listening to the beautiful Rise by Anoushka Shankar, Ravi Shankar's daughter. The music is rooted in traditional Indian structures, yet modern and eclectic in its sensibility and very accessible to Western listeners. The song Beloved is transcendent.

photograph of Indian textile by Celeste Goulding.

Betsy Ross Would Be Proud

I've been supporting John Edwards in the primaries, but that doesn't keep me from feeling the thrill of possibility with Barack Obama, or the immense satisfaction of seeing a strong, smart woman as a serious presidential candidate. I'm a fan of Bill Richardson too -- I hope he ends up with a meaningful position in a Democratic administration next year.

I'd been wondering if any of the candidates had a connection to textiles or craft when I visited Kyra's Black Threads blog -- she has a link to Fiber Artists for Obama. And we know that John Edwards's father worked in a textile mill, and he talks eloquently about the demise of domestic textile production. Any other connections to textile art or garments? I don't think we'll see Hillary admitting to any needle arts -- too loaded for her -- but maybe if they win, Bill as First Mate  will continue to expand the White House collection of American crafts that Hillary began in 1993.

Or maybe he'll pick up the knitting or quilting needle himself -- it'd be good for his heart and keep him out of trouble, right? How about it, Bill? Take up the Slow Cloth cause and promote and protect the work of fiber artists around the globe and sustainability in textiles. Call me if you need some help.

Or maybe Obama will win and really bring attention to the contribution of African-American artists to our culture. In textiles, there's the Gee's Bend quilters, and much more. Faith Ringgold is one of our elder godmothers of contemporary quilting, and her work is spectactular, political and inspiring. I am also a huge fan of multimedia artist Betye Saar.

I had the pleasure of meeting Betye Saar once, when I worked at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago and she and her daughter Alison Saar had a joint exhibition. In the main gallery Julian Schnabel had an exhibition that was suffocating in its own art-world egotism and posturing. The Saars had a much smaller gallery and an absolute jewel of a show that quietly played second fiddle to Mr. Schnabel. But their authenticity, integrity and spirit was so immense that for me it far overshadowed the big whoop in the main gallery. The Saars gave me an unforgettable lesson about the meaning of making art versus "success" in the art world, and also about using culture and gender references in art in an effective and unapologetic way.

I thought one of my recent magazines also had reviews of African-American textile arts books, but my highly refined controlled-chaos organizational system is failing me. I'll find it. Meanwhile, the magazine stack is getting bigger. My new issues of Selvedge (No. 21, The Responsibility Issue) and Surface Design (Winter 2008, Structured Surfaces) came yesterday -- both breathtaking. I think Selvedge integrates its graphic design and its content better than anybody to produce a truly extraordinary, appetizing, collectable journal. And it totally, totally makes me want to move to England for a year or two to immerse myself in the textile world there.  

Surface Design editor Patricia Malarcher has tremendous authority and impeccable, sophisticated taste and intelligence, as well as being an artist herself, and her voice and sensibilities make this magazine extremely valuable too. In this new issue, my first stop will be the article on artist Yvonne Morton, who is inspired by textile arts of the Congo -- this is truly a Slow Cloth artist all the way.

Over on Beading at the Beach, BeadBabe49 questions meditation and stitching, and whether other artists talk about it and recognize it. I thought of her when I read Patricia Malarcher's editorial in Surface Design. She quotes Lenore Tawney: "I'm not just patiently doing it. It's done with devotion." Patricia goes on to say:

The sense of devotion embedded in structure is a subliminal text that is frequently visible in artworks of fibrous materials. The incremental repetitive gestures that accumulate into woven, knotted, looped, wrapped, or pieced-together surfaces leave evidence of quiet, and quieting, time dedicated to making.

Through that sense of quiet and meditative process, we can emerge and give our work a strong and passionate voice.

What Is Novel Is What We Have Not Seen And Heard Before

There is a wonderful tutorial on sashiko at the Purl Bee blog. This Japanese craft has elements of quilting and of a very ordered embroidery; the thread is heavier than Western quilting thread, no frame or hoop is used, and traditional stitching patterns are geometric and symmetrical. Mari explains the process in detail with wonderful and very helpful photographs.

According to Nancy Shriber in her lovely Sashiko Handbags 14 On 14 book,

Sashiko was originally designed as a mending technique to quilt together several layers of fabric for warmth and durability or for strengthening a single layer of fabric. Like quilting in America, sashiko had humble beginnings. The Japanese have been doing sashiko for practical sewing purposes since the early 18th century. It was developed as a way to recycle fabric and to extend the life of the garment. Sashiko is a running stitch sewn in repeating or interlocking patterns through one or more layers of fabric. As with many art forms, most of the stitch designs are simplified representations of things found in nature such as plants, birds, and clouds.

Visit Nancy's Contemporary Sashiko Web site gallery -- she has instructions there for this beautiful, simple wallet/checkbook cover as an introduction to contemporary sashiko:

Despite its humble beginnings, as with other Japanese crafts, sashiko is a beautiful form with infinite levels of skill and subtlety. In the United States we tend to want to make everything quick and easy and oversimplified -- and at the same time, create products to sell  that may not be necessary or even desirable to the heart of the practice.

As a result, sometimes the beauty and nuance of textile traditions are really lost on us. For instance: As I was searching around for information on sashiko, I came across this site on the Akan Cultural Symbols Project via Quilt Ethnic. In the Akan culture in Ghana, traditional cloth is woven to communicate with a rich and specific language -- here's one pattern from the site:

EMAA DA - NOVELTY

               

Symbol of     EXPERIENTIAL KNOWLEDGE, CREATIVITY, NOVELTY, and INNOVATION
From the proverb:  Dea emmaa da eno ne dea yennhunu na yennte bi da. 
Literal translation:  What  is novel is what we have not seen and heard before

Now, I know I've seen similar African fabrics and have only seen color and pattern, with no idea about the rich conveyance of concepts, messages, language and communication woven into the cloth by master artisans. This richness and meaning exists in textiles from so many cultures. This is part of the Slow Cloth approach: respecting the significance -- as well as enjoying the beauty -- of world textiles.