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inform 90 06 07 08 Magic Beauty from Africa Deutsches Textilmuseum, Andreasmarkt 8, D-47809 Krefeld, Germany, www.krefeld.de 28 January-15 April caste closely connected with the social elite and only royalty was allowed to wear their finest work. A symbol of prestige and magnificence Yokoman is the name of the highest ranking strip pattern in red, yellow and green. It belongs to INDIGO: A Blue to Dye For The Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester, www.whit worth.manchester.ac.uk 20 January-15 April Plymouth City Museum and Art Gallery 19 May-1 September www.plymouthmuseum.gov.uk Brighton and Hove It may come as a surprise to learn that one of the most spectacular collections of African textiles has been slumbering in a small museum in provincial Western Germany for the last 30 years. Brigitte Menzel (19301998), former director of that museum, was one of the foremost ethnologists researching and collecting the Oyoko, the leading clan of the Asante people. Since the early 20th century, the Textile Museum in Krefeld had been collecting raffia textiles from Kongo. raffia bast fibres come from the leaves of the raffia palm tree. A fine example acquired in 1959, was made by the Shoowa people of the former kingdom of Kuba (today Dem. Rep. of Kongo). Stem stitch and velvet embroidery create a bold geometric pattern. These textiles reflect one of the oldest indigenous textile traditions of Africa. Several striking tobe robes made by the Hausa people of Northern Nigeria entered the collection of the Textile Museum in 1943. The Hausa are famous for their elaborate embroidery on garments for men of high standing. A family would embroider one garment a year with traditional family designs. The Yoruba from south western Nigeria are well known for their spectacular blue adire textiles made of indigo dyed cotton. When European merchants introduced large quantities of white shirting material in Yoruba towns early in the 20th century, women dyers started to experiment with different dye techniques. Most notably, they hand-painted designs using cassava starch paste prior to dyeing (adire aleke). This exhibition, which draws together three collections of intriguing textiles, testifies to the skill and creativity of West-African textiles. ••• Dr. Elisabeth Hackspiel 06 Palanquin cover, Adanuvo cloth, Ewe People, c.1950, Cotton, 315 x 180cm . 07 Detail of “Tobe”, robe for men, Hausa, Nigeria. Indigo dyed cotton, embroidery, “8 knife pattern”, 127 x 257cm Museum & Art Gallery www.virtualmuseum.info 29 September-6 January 2008 This is a textile blockbuster exhibition and as such should not be missed. Just as the Indigo plant produces a wide range of rich and luminous hues, this exhibition displays with delicate nuance the work of an international group of artists and designers who reveal indigo's originating traditions and explore contemporary innovative uses of today. Indigo has been brought together by Dr Jennifer Harris, textile curator at the Whitworth Art Gallery with input from Jenny Balfour-Paul, an authoritative indigo expert and author of a seminal text in the field, Indigo. The show presents rare and exemplary artifacts but time must be allocated to watch the accompanying videos, which highlight the historical, agricultural, botanical, economic and sociological aspects of this influential dye plant. As well as admiring the profound artistry and craftsmanship required to harness such a famed dye it is important to remember the distressing conditions of indigo workers that led to events such as the “Blue Mutiny” in Bengal in 1886. The ground floor gallery takes the viewer through the far reaching alchemy of Indigo, exhibiting historical and cultural textiles and concluding in a display of denim jeans from prominent designers and legendary brands, such as Jean Paul Gaultier, Alexander McQueen, Levi’s and Gap. Some of the most noteworthy examples include a triple woven cloth from Venezuela, made from silk Moriche palm fibers and wool from the Andean Mountains and dyed with West-African textiles. Many of the items she collected are now extremely rare. Complicated twists of her biography meant Menzel's textiles were split between the Ethnological Museum in Berlin and the German Textile Museum in Krefeld, whereas her comprehensive research notes are preserved in the Ethnological Museum in Leiden, The Netherlands. Fortunately all three cooperated to produce this exhibition dedicated to Brigitte Menzel in memoriam. The earliest records of indigenous West-African textile production date back to the 10th to 15th centuries when Islamic textile merchants ventured there. Later during the 18th and 19th centuries, cotton and cotton textiles became a central commodity in the triangular trade between Europe, Africa and America but despite centuries of colonial exploitation West-African people were able to pursue their own textile traditions. Most famous are the bright and beautiful kente cloths made by the Asante and Ewe people from Ghana and Togo. They consist of long strips woven on narrow horizontal looms. Mainly made of cotton, these strips are skilfully selvedge.org sewn together to form large pieces of cloth which are draped around the body like the ancient Roman Toga. The striped and geometric patterns carry meanings and indicate clan membership. Weavers belonged to a privileged © Jenny Balfour-Paul Collection Dieter Gasse Dieter Gasse
page 93
91 Inform 09 Courtesy of The Textile Museum, Washington © The Whitworth Art Gallery 10 indigo, eucalyptus and cochineal. Its complexities will astound the most accomplished weaver. Similar in splendor are three scarves woven by Aranya Crafts (Bangladesh) and Darshan Shah (West Bengali, India) and dyed in Aqualeaf Indigo by Jenny Balfour-Paul and Lucy Goffin. The fabric’s translucence and the pale hues achieved with this method results in a rare aqueous beauty. Do not be misled however, the exhibition continues, in the upper gallery where the most striking work is displayed. The light and airiness of the space has a spiritual quality appropriate for the specially commissioned “Blue Art”. Hiroyuki Shindo's Shindigo Space, 2006, is defined by the tension between his textile sails, Shidigo Shibori, suspended like ephemeral beams of light and shadow and his Shindigo Balls that sit like contained moments diverting the path of the viewer. Careful meandering leads to the intense vision of Shihoko Fukumoto’s masterfully dyed triptych, Between East and West, 2003, composed of The Universe (banner), The Plough (chair) and The Firmament (carpet). Fukumoto explores new territory here, using cotton velvet for the first time and upholstering an ornate Victorian chair, said to represent a Western design sensibility. Fukumoto’s innovative technique requires 30 to 50 meticulous applications of dye, rinsing between each dipping to produce the luminous transition from pure white to the deep rich indigo. She claims only Japanese indigo can achieve such expansive gradation. The effect instills in the viewer a reverence for the depth and clarity of her work. Like looking at the infinite distance of an evening sky; one can only remain fixed, lost in its arresting beauty. ••• Laura Sherrif 08 Funeral Cloth (‘hinggi’), 2000, Indonesia, warp ikatwoven cotton dyed with indigo and morinda red. 09 Detail, Man’s robe, boubou lomasa brodé, 1880-1920, hand-woven indigo-dyed embroidered cotton RED The Textile Museum, Washington, 2 February-8 July 2007, www.textilemuseum.org passionate, powerful and ready to celebrate a second rite of passage with head held high. Where these examples of red were overt, sexy, dominant, other works were more careful in how they han- Rebecca A. T. Stevens, Curator for Red has constructed a powerful exhibition. Transcending the categorizing of textiles by technique, material, cultural origin or historical era, Stevens interrogates the essence of red, 'arguably the world's most significant color', and certainly the colour most deeply rooted in the collective psyche of humankind. Constrained by the modest proportion of the upper gallery at the Museum, Steven's curatorial strategy was to seek a small number of key textile pieces, and to place them within the space in such a way as to set up cross-referential meanings. Works span history: the oldest 2,500 years old and the most recent only five. In each, we can appreciated what Amy Butler Greenfield, author of A Perfect Red: Empire, Espionage, and the Quest for the Color of Desire calls ‘the events and emotions at the core of the human condition: danger and courage, revolution and war, violence and sin, desire and passion, even life itself.’ Echoing Valerie Steele's interest in the potency of the red dress, three such garments are included or notably absent in the exhibition. The Beverley Semmes Red Dress (1992) was omitted because the Museum's walls were not tall enough for this gargantuan piece. The work is represented in a video, but somehow that it needed to inhabit a mega-space testifies to that work's essential potency and it resonated for me in the show as much by not being there… The Peggy Jennings designed dress with jacket, however, was impactful by its presence. Designed for a second marriage, this silk and machine-made lace ensemble spoke authoritatively to the Western cultural icon of the virginal white wedding dress, proclaiming the wearer as dled red's potency. In the Heian (794-1185) and Edo (1600-1868) periods in Japan, wearing red was forbidden for ordinary citizens, and chic city dwellers wore red hidden as undergarments to enjoy its glamour, danger and illegality. An early 20th–century kimono in austere black has a tantalising slash of crimson brilliance within each sleeve. Red's talismanic properties are also activated in an early 20th century possibly Macedonian tunic, where red embroidery around the neck, sleeve and hem openings ward off the evil eye and protect against evil spirits. And in contemporary terms, there is something of the talisman as well as the symbol of remembrance and human unity in the Aids Awareness red ribbon also exhibited. Human desire to paint or dye the true and magnificent reds of the nature was thwarted for centuries. The importance of Mexican cochineal, and its affect on textile production in Europe is best illustrated through a sumptuous silk velvet Ottoman floor covering or nihale. A deep purple red was achieved by use of this imported dyestuff, once second only in value to silver. The invention of cheaper synthetic dyestuffs in the 19th century destroyed the cochineal market, but did not undermine the significance of the colour. Stevens notes the vast range of shades – scarlet, vermillion, maroon, crimson, fire-engine, pillar-box – and the multiple meanings they carry and she emphasizes how red fabric is used universally selvedge.org to ‘underscore personal status, celebrate love and beauty, protect against evil, promote good fortune and mark life cycle passages.’ ••• Dr Catherine Harper 10 Border Fragment, Nasca, Peru 50 BCE - AD 200

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Magic Beauty from Africa

Deutsches Textilmuseum, Andreasmarkt 8, D-47809 Krefeld, Germany, www.krefeld.de 28 January-15 April

caste closely connected with the social elite and only royalty was allowed to wear their finest work. A symbol of prestige and magnificence Yokoman is the name of the highest ranking strip pattern in red, yellow and green. It belongs to

INDIGO: A Blue to Dye For

The Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester, www.whit worth.manchester.ac.uk 20 January-15 April Plymouth City Museum and Art Gallery 19 May-1 September www.plymouthmuseum.gov.uk Brighton and Hove

It may come as a surprise to learn that one of the most spectacular collections of African textiles has been slumbering in a small museum in provincial Western Germany for the last 30 years. Brigitte Menzel (19301998), former director of that museum, was one of the foremost ethnologists researching and collecting

the Oyoko, the leading clan of the Asante people. Since the early 20th century, the Textile Museum in Krefeld had been collecting raffia textiles from Kongo. raffia bast fibres come from the leaves of the raffia palm tree. A fine example acquired in 1959, was made by the Shoowa people of the former kingdom of Kuba (today Dem. Rep. of Kongo). Stem stitch and velvet embroidery create a bold geometric pattern. These textiles reflect one of the oldest indigenous textile traditions of Africa. Several striking tobe robes made by the Hausa people of Northern Nigeria entered the collection of the Textile Museum in 1943. The Hausa are famous for their elaborate embroidery on garments for men of high standing. A family would embroider one garment a year with traditional family designs. The Yoruba from south western Nigeria are well known for their spectacular blue adire textiles made of indigo dyed cotton. When European merchants introduced large quantities of white shirting material in Yoruba towns early in the 20th century, women dyers started to experiment with different dye techniques. Most notably, they hand-painted designs using cassava starch paste prior to dyeing (adire aleke). This exhibition, which draws together three collections of intriguing textiles, testifies to the skill and creativity of West-African textiles. ••• Dr. Elisabeth Hackspiel 06 Palanquin cover, Adanuvo cloth, Ewe People, c.1950, Cotton, 315 x 180cm . 07 Detail of “Tobe”, robe for men, Hausa, Nigeria. Indigo dyed cotton, embroidery, “8 knife pattern”, 127 x 257cm

Museum & Art Gallery www.virtualmuseum.info 29 September-6 January 2008

This is a textile blockbuster exhibition and as such should not be missed. Just as the Indigo plant produces a wide range of rich and luminous hues, this exhibition displays with delicate nuance the work of an international group of artists and designers who reveal indigo's originating traditions and explore contemporary innovative uses of today. Indigo has been brought together by Dr Jennifer Harris, textile curator at the Whitworth Art Gallery with input from Jenny Balfour-Paul, an authoritative indigo expert and author of a seminal text in the field, Indigo. The show presents rare and exemplary artifacts but time must be allocated to watch the accompanying videos, which highlight the historical, agricultural, botanical, economic and sociological aspects of this influential dye plant. As well as admiring the profound artistry and craftsmanship required to harness such a famed dye it is important to remember the distressing conditions of indigo workers that led to events such as the “Blue Mutiny” in Bengal in 1886. The ground floor gallery takes the viewer through the far reaching alchemy of Indigo, exhibiting historical and cultural textiles and concluding in a display of denim jeans from prominent designers and legendary brands, such as Jean Paul Gaultier, Alexander McQueen, Levi’s and Gap. Some of the most noteworthy examples include a triple woven cloth from Venezuela, made from silk Moriche palm fibers and wool from the Andean Mountains and dyed with

West-African textiles. Many of the items she collected are now extremely rare. Complicated twists of her biography meant Menzel's textiles were split between the Ethnological Museum in Berlin and the German Textile Museum in Krefeld, whereas her comprehensive research notes are preserved in the Ethnological Museum in Leiden, The Netherlands. Fortunately all three cooperated to produce this exhibition dedicated to Brigitte Menzel in memoriam. The earliest records of indigenous West-African textile production date back to the 10th to 15th centuries when Islamic textile merchants ventured there. Later during the 18th and 19th centuries, cotton and cotton textiles became a central commodity in the triangular trade between Europe, Africa and America but despite centuries of colonial exploitation West-African people were able to pursue their own textile traditions. Most famous are the bright and beautiful kente cloths made by the Asante and Ewe people from Ghana and Togo. They consist of long strips woven on narrow horizontal looms. Mainly made of cotton, these strips are skilfully

selvedge.org

sewn together to form large pieces of cloth which are draped around the body like the ancient Roman Toga. The striped and geometric patterns carry meanings and indicate clan membership. Weavers belonged to a privileged

© Jenny Balfour-Paul Collection

Dieter Gasse

Dieter Gasse

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