Art and Design Commons^™

A Fragmented Treasure On Display: The Turfan Textile Collection And The Humboldt Forum, Mariachiara Gasparini

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

In the summer 2012, thanks to the Department of Central Asian Art of the museum and the International Dunhuang Project (IDP) at the British Library in London, UK, the so-called Turfan textile collection--gathered during the last century Prussian Turfan Royal Expeditions in the Tarim Basin--held in the Museum of Asian Art in Berlin, Germany, was finally microscopically analyzed and digitized. Except for a couple of pieces taken into account in previous studies as examples of comparison, the collection as a whole (ca. 350 pieces) has not enjoyed particular attention from scholars in the fields of Chinese or Central Asian art …

Threads Of Feeling: Embroidering Craftivism To Protest The Disappearances And Deaths In The “War On Drugs” In Mexico, Maureen Daly Goggin

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Since 2006, at least 130,000 men, women, and children have been killed and another 27,000 have disappeared in the “War on Drugs” in Mexico. This violence affects all “socio-economic levels [who are being] plagued by kidnapping, extortion and murder.” Many connected to those who have gone missing or died have been demanding that authorities locate their loved ones. Frustrated with the lack of action, a Mexican activist group of artists called Fuentes Rojas Red Fountains came together in January 2011 to “raise the visibility for the victims of the US-Mexico Drug War” by, among other things, dying fountains red. Later …

Rematerializing: Interviews With Emerging Artists About Physicality, Pattern And Textile Techniques, Caroline Hayes Charuk

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

This paper will be a presentation of emerging Bay Area artists who draw upon textile materials, forms, and processes, but who refuse the label of ‘textile artist’ in favor of a more ambiguous relationship. References to textiles may be foundational for the work, or brought in as a means to an end. The conceptual basis of their work is contained within its physicality, and they acknowledge (or knowingly set aside) histories of handwork. Each artist has a practice that necessarily slides on a line between the dematerialization of conceptual art and a rematerialization that recognizes haptic experience as indispensable and …

Maguey Hammock: A Weaving Of Resistance And Persistence In Puerto Rico, Soraya Serra Collazo

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Textiles are primary technology to almost all societies. Puerto Rico and the Caribbean are no exceptions. There is an object that has been weaved in the region since pre-Columbian times and it is still passing through the fingers of local artisans. Hamaca, an invention of the American inhabitants,² is an indigenous voice incorporated into many languages. It was in the Caribbean, where Europeans saw its utility, and it was quickly incorporated as the best way of sleeping in their transatlantic voyages. Its production has spread throughout the world and today it is made in many countries. In Puerto Rico …

The Mamluk Kaaba Curtain In The Bursa Grand Mosque, Sumiyo Okumura

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

A Kaaba curtain is a door curtain which covers the door of the holy Kaaba, the most sacred site of Islam in Mecca. Upon the occasion of the conquest of Egypt and Hejaz by Sultan Selim I in 1517, Selim I donated a Kaaba door curtain to the Bursa Grand Mosque, one of the five most important mosques in the Islamic World. This Mamluk curtain is very different from Ottoman Kaaba curtains in both its shape and design motifs. It is noticeable that five fragments, including a piece of inscription, hang down from the upper border. We see a similar …

The Kanga, A Cloth That Reveals- Co-Production Of Culture In Africa And The Indian Ocean Region, Phyllis A. Ressler

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

The Kanga is one of Africa's least understood textiles. As a simple cotton, colorful, hand and machine printed cloth it embodies dynamic historical co-production of culture throughout African and Indian Ocean trade networks. Exploring African mercantile trade history, the coproduction and exchange of iconography, the diverse use and meanings of the Kanga, suggests a valuable discursive role for this textile. Despite its longevity of more than 150 years, its significant role in creation of identities, and its contribution to communication through design and social meaning, the Kanga, receives limited attention in textile research. Though seen by many as a simple …

The Parenthetical Notation Method For Recording Yarn Structure, Jeffrey C. Splitstoser

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Until now, describing yarn structure has been more art than science, especially for complex yarns and cordage like those encountered at Cerrillos, a Paracas (ca. 900-100 B.C.E.) site in the Ica Valley of Peru, where yarns and cordage frequently involve multiple colors, sub-structures, and materials (e.g., Image 1). My early attempts at describing yarn structures using notation were essentially undecipherable to others. Likewise, narrative methods proved too wordy and no less confusing. (For instance, a narrative description of the structure of specimen 2001-L185-B1654- S001, a rope-like yarn pictured in Images 2 and 3, would be: Twelve Z-spun-singly-ply yarns Ztwisted with …

The Twenty-First Century Voices Of The Ashanti Adinkra And Kente Cloths Of Ghana, Carol Ventura

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Craft production and use are continually adapting to meet the needs of consumers and the market in order to survive. The Adinkra and Kente cloths of Ghana are no exception, having maintained their visibility and viability by addressing changing and challenging economic and political realities. Fabric strips are sewn together to produce rectangular Adinkra and Kente cloths that are wrapped around human bodies in styles determined by gender and rank. These cloths are not only beautiful, but communicate as well. Old and new symbols representing proverbs, beliefs, and politics are woven into Kente and printed onto Adinkra cloths. Commemorative fabrics …

Queen Alexandra’S 1902 Coronation Gown, Donald Clay Johnson

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Queen Victoria's wearing black mourning clothes for 40 of the 63 years of her reign prompted much discussion between fashion-setting Prince Edward and Princess Alexandra about what should the new queen wear for her coronation, the first state occasion in which they, as king and queen, could define taste and fashion for what was to become the Edwardian era. With such a long interval of time since the last coronation there were no strong expressions of traditional attire for such a ritual occasion which prompted the new king and queen to think expansively about the roles and functions the coronation …

Samplers, Sewing And Star Quilts: Changing Federal Policies Impact Native American Education And Assimilation, Lynne Anderson

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Illustrating the U.S. federal government's changing policies on the assimilation of Native American children is the role of needlework instruction in the schooling of Indian girls. Described and discussed are three examples of 19th and 20th century policy, with emphasis on the textiles resulting from those policies. Early 19th century policy supported mission schools for Indians. Learning to sew was a valued domestic skill in 19th century female education, culminating in the making of a needlework sampler. This focus was adopted in mission schools, illustrated by Christeen Baker's 1830 sampler stitched at the Choctaw Mission School in Mayhew, Mississippi. Shortly …

2012 Final Program

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Final Program

Tuesday September 18, 2012

Wednesday September 19, 2012

Thursday September 20, 2012

Friday September 21, 2012

Saturday September 22, 2012

PRE-SYMPOSIUM WORKSHOPS

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

POST-SYMPOSIUM TOURS

Sunday, September 23, 2012

SITE SEMINARS

Friday, September 21, 2012, between 1:00 and 4:00 PM

12th Biennial Symposium Program, Part 1, Textiles And Settlement: From Plains Space To Cyber Space

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

As President of TSA, I am delighted to welcome you to the 12th Biennial Symposium of the Textile Society of America. This gathering brings together an impressive number of scholars, artists, museum and gallery professionals, educators, and textile enthusiasts from around the world.

As an organization, TSA selects Symposium venues which through their unique site specific offerings broaden our understanding of diverse museum collections and institutions in different geographic settings, encouraging new and old members to discover what yet another location holds of serious interest to specialists. Each gathering has its own flavor and distinct sense of place. For this …

Head Coverings In The Virtual Umma: The Case Of Niqab, Heather Marie Akou

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

A growing body of literature points to the Internet as a place where Muslims are re-imagining themselves as part of a global, interconnected, religious culture—a new virtual umma. Along with issues such as politics, Islamic law, the interpretation of text, and procedures for rituals, hijab (modest dress) is a frequent topic of conversation. Compared to the physical world, where debates are heavily framed by time, place, and the habits of daily life, on the World Wide Web ideas and products flow much more easily. A new convert in Canada, for example, could use the Internet to read translated passages from …

Textiles And Tradition In The Marketplace, Philis Alvic

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Textiles and traditional textile techniques have been part of economic crafts development in many countries for a long time. Many of the schemes for helping the poorest of the world’s poor involve using or adapting textiles and creating products to appeal to the tourist and export markets. Individual styles become marketing tools because they are unique to a particular culture. In coming up with items that will sell, rarely does the product honor the culture that it came from.

While any TSA member would realize the value of traditional textiles, most customers prefer that the fabric be used to make …

Beni Itajime: Carved Board Clamp Resist Dyeing In Red, Masanao Arai, Yoshiko Iwamoto Wada

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Throughout Japanese textile history, Kyokechi or itajime shibori has been known as a resist dyeing process wherein a piece of folded cloth is sandwiched between wooden boards clamped tightly to protect selective areas of fabric from dye. This paper introduces a lesser known group of itajime textiles called beni ita, beni itajime, Kyo beni -- fine, lightweight silks patterned by clamp resist using boards carved with pictorial designs of flowers, birds, etc. These silks were used exclusively for under layers -- shitagi, an underkimono worn by women in the latter Edo Period (1603-1867) through the Meiji Period (1868-1912) and into …

Textiles Of Qaraqalpaqstan And Their Relationship To Central Asian Traditions And The Legacy Of Igor Savitsky, Marinika Babanazarova

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

The Karakalpak people are a semi-nomadic, Turkic-speaking tribe situated near the southern end of the Aral Sea in Uzbekistan, whose textile folk art forms a distinct thread in the larger fabric of the Central Asian textile tradition. The I.V. Savitsky State Art Museum of the Republic of Karakalpakstan in the northwest of Uzbekistan near the southern end of the Aral Sea houses the world’s most comprehensive collection of Karakalpak textile art. Passionately collected by Igor Savitsky despite Soviet prohibitions, he singlehandedly preserved records of a dying culture. This presentation will focus on aspects of the collection as it relates to …

Oriental Carpets, Spatial Dimension, And The Development Of Linear Perspective: From Grid To Projective Grid, Carol Bier

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Studies of the origins of linear perspective in European painting tend to focus on developments in treatment of the spatial dimension, with attention especially devoted to mathematical principles that underlie the representation of three-dimensional space. The theoretical understanding of this is first articulated in Alberti’s treatise De pictura (1435). Given that carpets are relatively flat objects, and that their patterning, no matter how complex, was intended to be viewed as two-dimensional, the linking of carpets to the representation of three-dimensional space would seem to be paradoxical. But the relationship may actually find a basis in historical reality.

Carpets produced in …

Progressional Journeys: Compelling New Directions For Three “New Basketry” Artists, J. Penny Burton

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

The “New Basketry” movement of the late 1960s and the early 1970s was essentially spearheaded by Ed Rossbach. Many leading fiber artists and educators have been touched by this lasting legacy in some manner, whether from their own experiences as students of Rossbach’s, or merely from studying the fine technical and innovative basketry works that emerged during this period. Personal interviews with three dynamic women, who were active early on in this movement—Dorothy Gill Barnes, Patricia Hickman, and Kay Sekimachi—have revealed that an enduring engagement with materials remains central to their ongoing artistic practices. This has resulted in their exploration …

Natural Dyes, Our Global Heritage Of Colors, Dominique Cardon

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

In the past, each civilization throughout the world has selected its own specific range of plant and animal sources of color, each from their respective natural environments. These included dyes and colorants that were used for the hair and skin, for everyday or festive food, for clothing and furnishing textiles, matting, etc. Scientific research into the colorants present in historical and anthropological textiles and objects have revealed a common empiric logic for this selection, and astonishing parallels can be found in the technical processes developed by ancient and traditional dyers of all continents. This lecture will consist of a discussion …

The History And Analysis Of Pre-Aniline Native American Quillwork Dyes, Christina Cole, Susan Heald

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Before beadwork, Native Americans used brightly-colored porcupine quills to decorate objects from moccasins to bags to wall hangings. Though the know-how of folding quills to create floral and abstract designs has survived, very little is known about the materials used to color the quills, particularly on the pre-aniline dyes used by communities east of the Mississippi, as historical recipes tend to be more reflective of Plains and Pacific Northwest quillwork traditions. Additionally, Native American artisans have expressed interest in having museum collections analyzed to further their knowledge of traditional materials. To address the literature gap and answer community questions, a …

Fueled By Silk: Victorian Crazy Quilt Mania, Patricia Cox Crews

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Crazy quilts captured the imagination of American women who made thousands of them between 1880 and 1900. But, what sparked this craze at this particular period in time? Most scholars agree that several factors sparked the national rage for Crazy quilts in the late 19th century, the most important factor being the Japanese and British decorative arts displays at the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia in 1876. The other factor mentioned is the availability of affordable silk fabrics.

Specifically, scholars note how fascinated Americans became with the exotic goods displayed at the popular Japanese pavilion at the Centennial Exhibition. Scholars agree …

Kyrgyz Felt Of The 20th And 21st Centuries, Dinara Chochunbaeva

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Kyrgyz people, representing the ancient nomadic civilization of Central Asia, manufactured felt from time immemorial and utilized it in all aspects of their lives. The portable house of Kyrgyz tribes, the yurt, was covered by felt, while the interior decoration and richly ornamented rugs, household goods, clothes, and toys were felt as well.

Felt also had sacral meaning and played an important role in the social life of the tribe. The elected leader was lifted up by tribe members on a piece of white felt, symbolizing public acknowledgment of his power; in funerary traditions a piece of felt was used …

Trousseaux: From Weaving Handwoven Textiles To Collecting Mass Commodities, Kimberly Hart

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

In rural Turkey, trousseaux are a personal and socially representative collection of textile practices, economies, and desires. This paper addresses the questions of how, when, why and in what forms handweaving gave way to the collection of mass-produced commodities and handmade goods reflecting urban styles in trousseaux. It considers how local communities abandon cultural heritage production for their own consumption and make the transition to desiring, making and buying decorative goods, which reflect current fashions in both local and national terms. The paper is based on long-term ethnographic research in rural villages in western Anatolia, where handweaving once demonstrated cultural …

Mapping Textile Space: Stitched And Woven Terrains, Elizabeth Ingraham

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Mapping is a fundamental way of converting personal knowledge to transmittable knowledge and maps are unique in the way they use space to represent space. Maps are selective in what they choose to represent, seductive in their contours and calligraphic marks and powerful in their ability to locate, describe, demarcate and ground.

I will present a visually rich journey through the work of contemporary artists who use stitching and weaving to map both literal and metaphorical terrains in a textile space. Among the artists we will look at are:
• Linda Gass, whose stitched topographic reliefs are at once descriptive …

Geometric Abstraction In Pre-Columbian Tapestry And Its Enduring Influence, Susan Iverson

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Making art requires looking back and looking forward while maintaining a strong presence in the current cultural world. As a tapestry weaver, when I look back, I look at pre-Columbian weaving for inspiration. It is looking at the art and architecture of these ancient cultures that has allowed me to appreciate weaving as the basis for geometric pattern and abstraction. With an understanding that they developed their images for completely different reasons than those of the contemporary artist, I respond to their respect for the woven grid and their apparent desire to work with this structure instead of against it. …

Handwork As A Conceptual Strategy, Jane Kidd

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

This paper will discuss my commitment to the material identity of woven tapestry as an artistic practice and my interest in the handmade as a conceptual strategy and counterpoint to the immediacy and temporal nature of contemporary culture.

Much of the work in the milieu of contemporary fibre is moving away from the handmade object to embrace installation, intervention, digital technology and hybrid approaches to material and process. The discreet material identity of traditional textile processes like woven tapestry seem out of step, bringing into question the value of skill, disciplinarity and the handmade object.

Throughout my practice, skill and …

Low Tech Transmission: European Tapestry To High Tech America, Christine Laffer

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

European tapestry techniques reached the U.S. in several waves of cultural transmission, starting in the late 1800s when the first tapestry studios were established on the east coast. The differences between the two continents and their focus on different types of technical knowledge appeared almost instantly. In Europe, institutions guarded the logic and purity of their techniques through systems ranging from educational programs to state-run tapestry studios over several hundred years. In the U.S., tapestry existed primarily as a commercial enterprise serving a small sector of the population over a few decades. Further, the lack of an educational component prevented …

Kitab Al-Hadaya Wa Al-Tuhaf: A Unique Window On Islamic Textiles, Wendy Landry

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

During the first millennium, a rare kind of literature evolved in the Islamic world that provides a fascinating window on the interest and importance of material objects. A unique example of this literature, entitled Kitab al-Hadaya wa al-Tuhaf [Book of Gifts and Rarities] was translated into English, annotated and published in 1996 by Kuwaiti curator and scholar Ghada al Hijjawi al-Qaddumi. It is an anthology of anecdotes referring to the period between the sixth century and the twelfth century, probably compiled in the late twelfth century by an official in the Islamic Egyptian government.

Although the historical veracity of the …

Order And Complexity In My Woven Work, Janice Lessman-Moss

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

My art practice revolves around an interest in abstract systems and digital design in combination with the mechanical, mathematical, and material aspects of weaving. The process of weaving conjures images of the sequential mapping of linear time along the length of the warp, while designing on the computer implies speed and layering as in circular time. These two concepts are integrated in the construction and visual interpretation of my woven work. Using the generative capabilities of the computer, sharply defined and regular patterns of shapes are integrated with more organic and seemingly random systems. Their interplay seeks a balance that …

Red Gold - Raising Cochineal In Oaxaca, Eric Chávez Santiago, Hector Manuel Meneses Lozano

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Oaxaca’s diversity may be appreciated in its geography, people, and food. Therefore, artistic expressions throughout the state are truly rich in their variety. Textiles are one of the major expressions that have transcended through time and among the vast offer of materials, cochineal has been one of Oaxaca’s treasures. Capable of producing many different shades, cochineal has been widely used for dyeing since Pre-Columbian times. After reaching a point of extraordinary production as an exporting good, the cochineal cultivation started to decrease as the use of synthetic dyes started to spread. The Museo Textil de Oaxaca (Textile Museum of Oaxaca …