Textiles - from really ancient to the latest trends

This was a week when I managed to see textiles, (especially embroidery), from two very different time periods - some dating from the late fourth to early third century BC; others from 2017.

The really ancient textiles were part of the British Museum's exhibition of the Scythians: Warriors of Ancient Siberia.  This was an exhibition that included everything from mummified remains, fabulous pieces of goldwork and even a bag for some really old cheese - so a pretty varied exhibition. 

With no written language, these nomadic people are only known through the objects they left with their burials.  However because of the freezing temperatures of Siberia much that would not normally survive for such an ancient culture, has.  I had read there would be some textiles but had not realised how much there would be - or that there would be some really quite fine embroidery.

The early part of the exhibition focused on a large quantity of gold objects - these were in themselves quite remarkable.  The Scythians were keen on animal motifs and this was also reflected in some of the felt pieces on display - including a felt swan and a horse's headpiece resplendent with a goat and bird on top.  Another textile highlight was a shoe decorated with beads and metalwork.  There was also quite a lot of applique work and a really delicate piece of embroidery - now not much more than a collection of chain stitches in the shape of a winged horse.

Definitely an exhibition worth visiting if you have a love of ancient embroidery and/or felt work.  It continues until 14 January 2018.

Then yesterday I visited a very different exhibition showcaseing a whole range of contemporary textiles - the Knitting and Stitching Show at Alexandra Palace in London.  From beginners to accomplished artists everyone was catered for.  I had missed the show for two years running and so it was nice to get back to see some of the variety of work on display.

For me the highlights were the exhibitions - I particularly liked Studio 21's Sewing Machine Project, pieces of which are illustrated here.  This group used the sewing machine as their starting point - looking at it both for its aesthetic values (visual, aural and tactile) and its history (personal, cultural, political and social). 

(Above) Amarjeet Nandhra looked at ideas of manufacturing and piece work 

(also known as the bundle system) - The shirt on your back.

(Above) Mary Morris used monoprints based on her sketchbook drawings for this piece

called On Line. 

(Above) Debbie Lyddon's Fold used strips of fabric folded and "stitched" with wire to consider the relentless mechanical movement of the sewing machine.  This photo does not do Debbie's work justice and I strongly recommend a visit to her own website/blog.

I was also interested in the work of the group Hue who used as their starting point the text of Robert Macfarlane's book The Old Ways.  Macfarlane looked at pathways and landscapes shaped by ancient people and he worked with Hue as they made their textile pieces.  I thought this was a really interesting collaboration.  It is only recently I have learned about Macfarlane's work - first through Jenny Langley, in my own textile group EAST.  She had also been inspired by this author's work in our exhibition Following a Thread earlier this year.  In addition, next year Macfarlane's work will feature in an exhibition at the Foundling Museum.  I definitely need to put his books on my "to do" reading list.

Other highlights for me in the show included the work of Jo Beattie, Haf Weighton, Hilary Hollingworth, Lynda Monk and Diana Harrison.  As well as being inspired by some very talented artists, and do a bit of textile shopping, it was also nice to catch up with like minded friends.

An African adventure

I have to admit, I visited South Africa: the art of a nation at the British Museum because I was between a meeting and an evening function in the Bloomsbury area, but it was an exhibition I had been meaning to visit.

The exhibition is, as the title suggests, about the art of South Africa, stretching back to some of the earliest art in existence, if not the earliest "found" object, up until the present day.  Amongst everything else there are several textile and many beaded pieces of modern art work.

The very first room includes some cave painting that dates back to 1-3,000 years old, juxtaposed with an art work from 2015 - an embroidered applique work.  Both from the same cultural group the textile piece is by the "First People Artists" from Bethesda Arts Centre and shows the Creation of the Sun.  So a modern work with an ancient legend.

In the next room was a piece of art I had only seen previously as a drawing - the Makapansgat Pebble dates back 3 million years.  It was surprisingly bigger than I expected.  Although naturally created it appears to have a human face on each side and it was originally discovered in an area different to where it originated.  It is thought to have been picked up because of its human like features - and there was me thinking Duchamp had "discovered" found art.

Throughout the exhibition there a great diversity of art works but also themes.  The works showed how the problems of colonialism, post-colonialism, HIV/AIDS and apartheid have all influenced South African culture.  This also included work that combined traditional techniques with contemporary themes - particularly in the beadwork of which there was a fair amount.  A wedding cape and train and a wedding blanket from the 1970-80s had patterns similar to those of the car (seen above), but it was particularly interesting to see a tie and collar in beadwork.  Forced to wear western clothing, this had been made in the spirit of dissidence.  There are also several beaded figures - traditional and modern in style.

One of the last art works, and one of the largest, was a work by Mary Sibande called A Reversed Retrogess: Scene 1 (2013).  Two life size figures stand twisted, opposite to each other - one representing the artist's mother and grandmother in an outfit similar to that worn by women in domestic service. However its full blue skirt and long train made it completely impractical as a working outfit.  The second figure in purple was much more fantastical in purple with additions and flounces of net.  Around this figure organic felted "creatures" are supposed to be a protective force. The purple colour refers to the 1989 Purple Rain protests when protesters turned the police water cannon back on the authorities - because the water in it was dyed purple, the police were covered with "purple rain".  Is this what Prince's song referred to?  For an image of this work and more information clinic HERE.  This links to an article by Apollo Magazine about the exhibition.

All in all an interesting and thought provoking exhibition - it continues until 26 February 2017.

Fabric fish and sequined starfish

When I visited the British Museum, London, this week to see the Sicily exhibition, I found an added bonus.  Installed in the Great Court is a creative response to their Sunken Cities exhibition.  Sunken Cities: Egypt's Lost Worlds, tells the story of archaeological sites beneath the Mediterranean at the mouth of the Nile where two cities, submerged for over a thousand years are being explored.  In the Great Court, that exhibition was now interpreted in thread and fabric.

The Sunken Cities exhibition itself includes a large number of objects from huge statues to items of everyday use. Interspersed between the historic items are films and images of the divers face to face with the giant statues now on display.  I visited it a few weeks ago.  Whilst there were many wonders to behold, myself, and the friend I was with, found ourselves losing track of where everything fitted in.  Perhaps it needs a second visit or more likely, I need to read up a little more on Ancient Egyptian history. 

The installation of textile art, Underwater Discoveries, which references both the Egyptian history and also its underwater discovery, is on display until the end of August.  The work is a collaboration between local community groups and artists from the Mary Ward Centre, an adult education college in central London.

The range of techniques used seem representative of the college itself, which runs classes in a range of subjects including printing, embroidery, and beadwork.  

I particularly liked the embroidered star fish (third image from top) but also the jelly fish (above, far right), which are almost translucent against their background - just like real jelly fish often are.

The Sicily exhibition I had gone to visit, was also very interesting.  This display focused on two periods of history, first when the island was invaded by the Greeks (about 734BC) and then when the Normans took over from Arab rule (c.1091).  Both eras created opportunities for cultural exchange.  

Of particular interest from the viewpoint of textile history, was the Norman Kingdom of Sicily (1061-1194), created by a dynasty that reigned over a fragile but tolerant society of Jews, Muslims, Orthodox Greeks, Byzantines, Christian Normans and Italians. This was partly due to Roger II's desire to bring scholars of all races and faiths together, which in turn allowed the creation of new types of art and architecture in the building of his Norman Palace of Palermo.  

Too fragile to be moved, the coronation cloak of Roger II with gold embroidered silk, pearls, enamel plaques and precious jewels is an example of cultural exchange, represented here by a printed satin replica (made in 1993).  Made within a Byzantine empire the original was embroidered by Muslims in Sicily living under a Christian ruler.  An Arabic inscription around its border includes blessings and statements regarding the virtue of the king.  The main design of the robe is of lions attacking camels, either side of a Tree of Life.  The date tree developed from a Middle Eastern symbol of fertility and immortality, later (through the trade of silk textiles) also became a symbol of resurrection and immortality (ie, a representation of the Christian faith).  The symbolism of the lions triumphing over the camels represents Roger's tolerance of his Muslim subjects, but also his dominance.  This is a robe with very definite political and propaganda messages.

Alongside this cloak replica are fragments of the funerary robe and mitre of Henry VI of Sicily - Islamic gold thread techniques are combined with horizontal repetitions of motifs typical of of North Western Europe.  Unfortunately through the glass they are not easy to see in any detail.

Sicily - continues at the British Museum until 14 August 2016 - ticket purchase required

Underwater Discoveries - continues at the British Museum until 31 August 2016 (free)

Sunken Cities: Egypt's Lost Worlds - continues at the British Museum until 27 November 2016 - ticket purchase required

Krishna's cloth

Room 91 in the British Museum can be found at the back of the "Living and Dying", Wellcome Trust Gallery.  It houses temporary exhibitions, usually of an ethnographic nature and invariably including textiles.  The exhibitions there are free and there is usually a programme of associated talks and events.

At the moment the galleries is host to an exhibition relating to one particular piece of cloth.  Over 9 metres long it is a devotional textile known as the "Vrindavani Vastra". Woven into it are characters and scenes that tell the story of the Hindu god Krishna. The cloth is made up of 12 strips woven using a lampas weave technique, stitched together.  Why it has been stitched as it has and why it was found in Tibet when it originated from India is not known.

It is worth watching the film running at the beginning of the exhibition as here is explained some of the characters that feature in the narrative depicted on the cloth itself - easily spotted are the crane demon and the snake demon.  There are also dance masks and illustrated manuscripts that relate to the same legend on display.  

It was interesting to see how one textile could be enhanced with additional information and artefacts to tell a more complete story of the lives of the society it originated from. One textile but a multi-layered story.

My time at the exhibition was limited, but as Krishna in the Garden of Assam continues until the 15th August 2016, there is time to return.  

Egyptian Texts and Textiles

Think of Egypt and you tend to think of mummies, pyramids, hieroglyphs, etc, but the British Museum exhibition, Egypt: Faith After the Pharaohs, looked at the history and culture of the country from the time when the Pharaohs had lost their power to the Romans.  From belief in multiple gods many people were converted to the idea of one through the religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam.  In the early centuries AD, people of different faiths generally lived side by side, tolerant of their diversity and often influenced by their differences.  

Because of the climate and geological conditions in Egypt, textiles survive in abundance, allowing them to be part of the evidence of life almost 2000 years ago.  Very early on in the exhibition there was a child's linen tunic dating from the 6-7th centuries AD.  

One of the most elaborate textile artefacts of the exhibition was a set of tomb curtains, again dating from the 6-7th century AD.  They were brightly coloured with a border of cartoon like cherubs holding swags and baskets of fruit between them.  With the curtains pulled together two angels held a plaque which was badly worn, but showed a cross in the centre.  The plainer areas were dotted with birds, flowers and fruit.  Apparently the curtains survival was due to their reuse as a burial shroud. 

The exhibition also included one of the oldest known embroidered Islamic cloths - the Marwan tiraz (inscribed textile).  This ceremonial cloth dates from 684-750AD (or 64-133AH).  

Another favourite piece from the exhibition were some fragments of tunic decorations, that included nilometers, ie instruments for measuring the height of the Nile water.  The fragment showed God holding a cornucopia and his companion Euthenia holding a veil filled with fruit.  One cupid figure holds a bird while another engraves the figures IZ (17) and IH (18) indicating the ideal height of the Nile (too much meant flood, too little drought).   

Although not textile related, I also found the section on the Cairo Genizah collection interesting. This is a collection of hundreds of thousands of literary texts abandoned in Ben Ezra Synagogue in Old Cairo.  It gives a remarkable insight into the social and economic life of medieval people living in Egypt and includes personal letters alongside literary works. Two Scottish scholars (twins Agnes Lewis and Margaret Gibson) brought back some of the fragments to their friend, Solomon Schechter in 1896.  He recognised their importance and brought back 193,000 manuscripts back to Cambridge -scholars are still studying them today.

The exhibition had begun with three texts (one Jewish, one Christian and one Islamic).  It ended with three tunics, each different but with decoration that does not allow them to be identified as from any particular culture - similarities and diversity, altogether.

I visited this exhibition in its last days.  I had not expected there to be so many textile items on display and as they come from a range of museums (British Museum, Victoria and Albert and the Louvre), I was lucky to see them altogether.  My timing also meant that the exhibition shop was selling items at very discounted prices - the image at the top of this post is that of an embroidered bag, made in modern Egypt.  The British Museum's next major exhibition on Sicily (opens April) also promises some textiles so it looks as if I will have to go back there again in the spring.

Prehistoric Embroidery

Many years ago, when I studied creative embroidery (City and Guilds), a favourite topic was the history element.  There are several ancient pieces still extant.  There are quite a few pieces in the V&A Museum, including several medieval copes.  I expect these will be star pieces in their exhibition on opus Anglicanum later this year.  Perhaps the most famous, ancient embroidery is the work known as the Bayeux Tapestry (11th century). There is also some interesting Viking embroidery at the National Museum of Denmark (which dates from 970/971AD).  I think the oldest embroidery that exists was found in China.

Today I saw evidence of an exceptionally ancient piece of English embroidery.  Click HERE for a picture though it is not very exciting - and it looks just the same in real life.  What is remarkable is that it is over 2000 years old.  It is a piece of iron which was once a brooch.  The brooch corroded but the mark of the woven cloth it was attached to was imprinted on its surface and, it is said, shows evidence of embroidery at its edge.  I looked very closely but I could not see it, but perhaps with a magnifying glass, and no glass cabinet in between?  Yet I still thought it really fascinating because it showed evidence of "ordinary" embroidery in pre-historic Britain.  It dates from 250-100BC and was found in the East Riding of Yorkshire.

It was part of the British Museum, Celts: Art and Identity exhibition.  There were two other pieces of embroidery on display - one a banner at the entrance which dated from 1896 (designed by a TH Thomas) and used annually in the Welsh Eisteddfod, and another decorating part of a "druid" costume, also for the Eisteddfod.

The exhibition looked at what is meant by the term Celtic - like many such labels its meaning has changed over time.  Originally it was the Greeks back in 500BC who used it to describe people of continental Europe (not Britain or Ireland), later it was used to differentiate non-Roman people.  In 1703-7, "Celtic" described the languages of Scotland, Wales, Cornwall, Ireland, Brittany and the Isle of Man which are all connected linguistically but then developed separately.  The eighteenth century was also the time when the idea of the Celts was first romanticised.

I learnt that Celtic is not a race of people but a term to describe communities with a non-Mediterranean way of looking at the world (ie, they were different from the Classical world).  Celtic art is identified as including stylised plants, animals and people with abstract shape-shifting designs, most likely reflecting religious beliefs.  Celtic art was picked up and used by the Romans, and it developed and changed over the years. It was used to decorate pots, weapons, books and jewellery - all of which were on display.  There were a large number of torcs - some of them very fine and delicate, some hefty and looked very uncomfortable to wear.  It is believed the different designs represented regional differences.

Going around this exhibition looking at the designs that survived on pots and other objects I wondered how many would have been inspired by, or replicated in, embroidery.  This week an archaeological dig in Cambridgeshire (Must Farm) was reported as finding textiles dating from the Bronze Age so perhaps there is a chance of finding some even older embroidery.

The exhibition at the British Museum continues until 31st January 2016.

Here's to 2016

New Year is for me always a time to take stock of the year just past.  Every time I visit an exhibition now I make a record of it in a scrapbook - I have been doing it since 2012 and it is surprising how just a little bit of information takes you back in time, remembering things that were on display. Something nice to look through on a cold, dark, rainy winter's evening.

However New Year is also a time for looking forward and planning exhibitions coming up over the year ahead, though I doubt I'll get to them all.  This is a list of textile related exhibitions either currently in progress (and some of which I have seen, but recommend) or coming up in the next 12 months.

Firstly some shows already started, some just about to finish:

Until 4th January 2016 - Fashion Rules at Kensington Palace, London - looking at the glamorous dresses of the Queen, Princess Margaret and Princess Diana; it then reopens on 11 February 2016 as Fashion Rules, Restyled.

Until 9 January 2016 - Losing the Compass at White Cube, Mason's Yard in Bermondsey - includes work by Amish quilters, William Morris but also many fine art, contemporary artists working in textiles.

Until 10 January 2016 - Fabric of India at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.  Definitely a "must see" exhibition which I hoped to revisit; but now think time is against me.

Until 13 January 2016 - Olga de Amariai: Alchemist  at the Rook & Raven Gallery on London's Soho area.  Another exhibition I have only just learnt of, with work by an artist described in Embroidery magazine (Jan/Feb 2016) as "the Louise Bourgeois of Columbia" (review by Liz Hoggard".

Until 31 January 2016 - Shoes: Pleasure and Pain also at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.  An interesting exhibition but very crowded - in the lower galleries.  Wish I had had time to leave my coat in the cloakroom.

Until 28 February 2016 - Liberty in Fashion at the Fashion and Textile Museum, London.  Still on my "to do" list.

Until 1 March 2016 - The White Show at the Flow Gallery, London includes stitched work by Richard McVetis.  Another "to do" list show.

Until 1 May 2016 - A Stitch in Time: Home Sewing Before 1900, also at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.  I have only just learnt about this display which apparently has been available since May 2015.  It is in Gallery 116.

Until 15 May 2016 - Life and Sole: Footwear from the Islamic World - another display I have only just discovered and apparently includes some embroidered shoes.  In Room 34 of the British Museum.

Opening in 2016:

5 January to 19 March 2016 - Centenary Stitches will be exhibiting at the National Archives, Kew. Knitted clothing items made for a film Tell Them About Us, that told the story of two brothers during WWI also gave an insight into the sort of items made on the Home Front to make life in the trenches a little more bearable.

11 February to 22 May 2016 - Vogue 100: A Century of Style, National Portrait Gallery, London.  An exhibition to celebrate 100 years of British Vogue with a display of photographs documenting the story of one of the most influential fashion magazines.

20 February to 29 May 2016 - Social Fabric: African Textiles at the William Morris Gallery, Walthamstow.  Printed fabrics from east and south Africa show how textiles can express the concerns of the people who wear them.

11 March to 17 April 2016 - Art Textiles: Marian Clayden at the Fashion and Textile Museum, London.  Born in 1937, Marian was a skilled dyer and painter of textiles for the fashion industry.  She died in 2015 and this retrospective will showcase work from her incredible career.

16 April 2016 to 5 February 2017 - Undressed: 350 Years of Underwear in Fashion at the Victoria and Albert Museum.  A look at the history of undergarments.

15 June to 10 July 2016 - E.A.S.T. will be exhibiting Between the Lines at Landmark Arts Centre, Teddington. Also talk and workshops - more details in due course.

13 October 2016 to 5 February 2017 - The Vulgar at the Barbican, London.  Looking at notions of vulgarity by looking at fashions of the Renaissance, 18th century and current times.

21 November 2016 to 28 March 2017 - Opus Anglicanum: Masterpieces of English Medieval Embroidery at the Victoria and Albert Museum.  A golden age for English embroidery, this exhibition looks at not only the craftsmanship but at the wider world at the time they were created.

I will try and keep a separate page on this blog now of exhibitions with a textile theme.  Hopefully I can update this as and when I learn of new ones.

I'd love to hear from anyone else on exhibitions I should add.

Shifting Patterns

If you search for "barkcloth" on the internet there are two types of fabric under this name - a textured fabric for soft furnishing, popular in the mid-twentieth century, and cloth made from bark.  I had never heard of the furnishing fabric, but now I have discovered what it is, I was quite pleased that it was the latter type that was on display at the British Museum.

Their exhibition looks at the use of this textile on the islands of the Pacific, using techniques that most likely date back 5,000 years (or more) up to the present day.  

The exhibition is small, and at the very back of the museum, but it is one of their free exhibitions. This also means it was perfectly okay to take photographs allowing me to record the variety of patterns and textures that were on display.  I was also pleased to see, at the very beginning of the exhibition, a small piece of barkcloth that could be touched - allowing visitors to experience the softness of what might be perceived as a rather hard textile.

This piece (above) was printed with leaves.

And there were other fabrics like these above, that were printed to look like woven textiles.

There was a great variety of patterns and designs - perfect for anyone looking for interesting sources for their own contemporary work.

Some of the pieces had additional embellishments with fringing and beading as seen in this sample.

As well as garments there were masks, headdresses (as illustrated, above) and body adornments.  One designer has even used the material for a very (non traditional) wedding dress.

This exhibition is worth a visit.  It is not very big so perhaps something to combine with other areas, or displays such as Indigenous Australia, which finishes on 2nd August, or the new Drawing in Silver and Gold, or the Celtic Art exhibition both opening in September.

The Shifting Patterns exhibition continues at the British Museum until 6 December - in room 91.

Why would anyone embroider a cup?

Renaissance art is very much about showing off - your power, your wealth, your position in society. It seems that anything that could be decorated was, and embroidery used to be one of the most highly prized of skills, much more expensive to commission than painting.  A new permanent gallery at the British Museum to house the Waddesdon Bequest is full of the sort of items that proved you had "arrived".

There are some absolutely exquisite items on display - carved wood and rock crystal, lacquarware, enamel, jewels and paintings, etc, etc, etc.  The miniature wood carvings are almost beyond belief.  I was however surprised to see that the collection also included some embroidery - it was not even obvious on first viewing. 

The most impressive of the embroidered items is a gold cup (Transylvanian Gold Cup, WB.66) - not something I would have thought of as an embroidered item.  In fact it is hard to believe that the sides and top section of the base is fabric, decorated with jewels and pearls.  There is no information as to how or when it was used, but it seems obvious that it was ceremonial rather than a functional drinking cup.

The other embroidered item was a knife sheaf (Wedding knife sheath, WB.202).  Unfortunately not easy to photograph but the British Museum website does offer a much better photo.

This gallery is a new permanent gallery - completely free to visit.  It really needs more than one visit to take in everything.

Was it as nice when it was new?

My dad used to say, "It must have been nice when it was new", on visits to museums.  I seem to remember being in a gallery and the lady attendant getting quite upset by his remark. What did he mean?  It was, (whatever we were looking at), quite beautiful now, she said.  

One section of Defining Beauty: the body in ancient Greek art at the British Museum made me think that some things were not as nice when they were new.  Replicas statues were painted in the bright colours as they would have been decorated originally. We are so used to ancient statues in smooth, monochrome marble or patinated bronze, that despite the evidence to the contrary, most people today would probably say they prefer them as they are now.  It is a great reminder that the definition of beauty can change over the centuries but it did give an insight into the textiles the figures might have worn.

Not surprisingly there were few other textiles depicted throughout the exhibition, as a large number of the statues were male nudes. Whilst the Persians and Assyrians believed nudity was only for the portrayal of the defeated enemy, the ancient Greeks believed it to be a symbol of rightousness.  Men had to be fighting fit and the idealised statutory was a symbol of not only their personal strength but the strength of their individual societies.  There were some textiles (albeit marble and bronze depictions of), to be found. The drapery that was in evidence on the female figures suggested fabrics of a gossamer fineness that must have been very beautiful in real life.

It was an exhibition worth seeing, especially to admire the technical expertise of the craftsmen (or women) who could turn stone into flesh.  It also explained why such works were so radical, when now they are considered so classical.  Sadly few of the Greek originals survive and many were copies - but copies by Romans so still pretty ancient.

The exhibition continues until 5 July 2015.