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Full-Text Articles in Art and Design
Javanesque Effects: Appropriation Of Batik And Its Transformations In Modern Textiles, Abby Lillethun
Javanesque Effects: Appropriation Of Batik And Its Transformations In Modern Textiles, Abby Lillethun
Abby Lillethun
American batik practice emerged in the early twentieth century based on traditional techniques from Java and those filtered through Dutch Nieuwe Kunst. The promotion of batik through the Arts and Crafts movement in North America fostered egalitarian endorsement from artisans, individual practitioners, and consumers, across geographic locales, social milieu, and skill levels. Encouraged by manuals, magazine articles, and exhibitions, enthusiasm for batik grew across the nation and in the avant-garde enclave of Greenwich Village. While practitioners were cautioned to avoid excessive veining or crackle in their works in emulation of fine tradition, commercial enterprises helped to transform the aesthetic …
Black Silk, Brown Silk: China And Beyond—Traditional Practice Meets Fashion, Abby Lillethun
Black Silk, Brown Silk: China And Beyond—Traditional Practice Meets Fashion, Abby Lillethun
Abby Lillethun
This one-hour discussion panel will examine bi-colored black and brown silk textiles called chiao-chou and shiang-yin-sa, (a.k.a. black gummed silk, Canton silk, cloud perfumed silk, gambiered silk, and by other names). Little known in the West, these textiles express cultural identities associated with a specific geographic locals where the required mud treatment can take place. Thus, the textiles have primarily been made in southern China in Guangdong province and in Southeast Asia in Thailand and Vietnam where Chinese immigration occurred. Since their heyday during the Qing Dynasty (1644–1911), they faded from use. The panel first contextualizes the textiles and the …