Search results for ""fowler museum of cultural history,u.s.""

In the past, girls from rural southeastern Europe spent their childhoods weaving, sewing, and embroidering festive dress so that upon reaching puberty they could join the Sunday afternoon village dances garbed in resplendent attire. These extremely colorful and intensely worked garments were often adorned with embroidery, lace, metallic threads, coins, sequins, beads, and, perhaps most importantly, fringe, a symbolic marker of fertility. Over time new forms of dress were added so that by 1900, a southeastern European village woman’s apparel consisted of millennia of layered history. Even today this dress continues to be worn on festive occasions and by older people in rural areas. Lavishly illustrated, Resplendent Dress from Southeastern Europe features fifty stunning nineteenth- through twentieth-century ensembles from Macedonia, Croatia, Albania, Montenegro, and neighboring countries, plus one hundred individual items including aprons, vests, jackets, and robes. Elizabeth Wayland Barber traces this twenty-thousand-year tradition of dress in fascinating detail.

Read more less

In this beautifully illustrated book, textile expert Elena Phipps examines the ancient Peruvian process of weaving textiles with four finished selvages, or edges. Without cutting a thread, master Peruvian weavers wove each textile to the specifications of its intended use, whether a child’s garment, royal mantle, or ritual cloth. This weaving technique required the highest level of skill and forethought and reflects a high cultural value placed on maintaining the integrity of cloth—not only its design and function but also the very way in which it was constructed. The resultant textiles have long been admired for their mastery of color, technique, and design. While exploring the origins and development of this approach to weaving, Phipps also examines its influence on three contemporary artists—Sheila Hicks, James Bassler, and John Cohen—all of whom have considered ancient Peruvian weaving processes in their own work.

Read more less

Focusing on artistic evocations of the irrepressible Gedes - an increasingly dominant family of trickster dieties - In Extremis examines the striking disjunction between social collapse and artistic flourescence in twenty-first century Haiti. It brings together the work of 34 artists, most of them living in Port-au-Prince, where they produce remarkable and controversial bodies of work in a variety of media while confronting on a daily basis the realities of Haiti's frustratingly slow recovery from the earthquake of 2010. Some of these artists have achieved acclaim on the international stage, but many receive new attention or reexamination here.

Read more less

Winner of the Arnold Rubin Outstanding Publication Award from the Arts Council of the African Studies Association The Benue River Valley is the source of some of the most abstract, dramatic, and inventive sculpture in sub-Saharan Africa. A vast region, the Valley extends from the heart of present-day Nigeria eastward to its border with Cameroon, and is home to a large number of ethnic and linguistic groups, all of whom have produced sculptures that are remarkable for their variety. This book brings together figurative wood sculptures and ceramic vessels, masks, and elaborate bronze and iron regalia drawn from public and private collections in Europe and the United States, selected to exemplify important typologies within the region, along with many historical photographs. The 18 contributors demonstrate that the stylistic tendencies were constantly evolving due to cultural exchanges, mutual influences, and other points of contact in an area that like the Benue River itself was historically in a state of flux. These objects speak to us not only through their superb formal qualities but also through the circumstances of their being rooted in a turbulent past, situated between war and colonization.

Read more less

Graffiti is a forceful way of inscribing presence or "being" in the world as well as a means of creating affective links to the potency of natural wonders, religious shrines, and ancient ruins as well as the contemporary cityscape. The photographic elevations presented in this volume represent a graffiti-punctuated pilgrim's progress built around the aesthetics of defacement. Graffiti- and mural-covered walls, buildings, automobiles, and railcars are the artful wonders, the vibrant shrines, and the dynamic ruins that structured Larry Yust's pilgrimage to some of the most famed metropolitan centers of the world. He has brought back panoramic souvenirs; vistas that let us be there in a way that is perhaps better than being there. This book celebrates the artistry and audacity of the taggers and uncommissioned muralists who decorate and deface contemporary cities.

Read more less

This volume juxtaposes for the first time two striking bodies of work by Delhi-based and internationally recognized contemporary artist Vivan Sundaram. Gagawaka, the first project, consists of twenty-seven sculptural garments made from a bizarre assortment of recycled materials including foam cups, surgical masks, tire tubes, tampons, X-ray film, bandages, bras, foil pill wrappers, and drain pipes. These garments evoke a relationship both playful and subversive to fashion, haute couture, the runway, and the brand. The second project, Postmortem, is a collection of haunting sculptural objects composedof mannequins, tailor’s dummies, wooden props, and models of human organs and bones. Postmortem questions the spectacle of Gagawaka with a wider set ofcommentaries about the human body and social concerns related to aging, illness, and death.

Read more less

In 1976 Dutch textile specialist Rens Heringa first visited Kerek in rural East Java and discovered a region where—unlike the rest of Java—the full range of textiles with woven patterning, as well as the only batik still made on handwoven cotton cloth, continued to be produced for local use. Each type of cloth made in Kerek is created for a specific purpose—to be worn by a person of a particular age, social, or residential group; to serve in life-cycle events such as marriage or funerals; to act as a focal point in agricultural ceremonies or curing rites. The functions, techniques, patterning, and especially the color combinations of the cloth all form part of a highly structured and elaborate system of belief that is remarkably integrated with the community’s social organization, mythology, and ritual practices. Remnants of similarly integrated systems of belief are known from many parts of Java, but by the late 20th century the full system could be observed only in Kerek. Batik from Kerek today represents the antecedents of the courtly and urban batik found in collections around the world.

Read more less

The margins of the Americas―borders that are at once physical and societal―engender sacred figures who walk the fine line between sinfulness and sanctity. In worship and artistic representation alike, these entities reflect and impact the experiences of those who regularly struggle with harsh and frequently dangerous economic, political, legal, geographic, gender, and racial realities. In this volume, Patrick A. Polk and his fellow authors examine a series of crucial, and often controversial, divine beings from Mexico, Brazil, Guatemala, Argentina, and the United States. They also find fascinating parallels between the lives and acts of these holy ones and those who have been formally sanctioned by the Catholic Church, revealing the peculiar interrelationship of sin to sanctity. Featured are numerous illustrations of the works of artists who interpret official and unofficial saints, folk heroes turned supernatural intercessors. The broad range of objects considered, from pop culture to fine art, attests to a widespread international infatuation with these complex and often counter-cultural spirits.

Read more less

Weaver's Stories from Island Southeast Asia delves into the personal stories of individual textile artists, bringing recognition to their accomplishments, skills, and extraordinary lives. Photographs of ten women from eight locations in the Southeast Asian archipelago along with examples of their weaving are accompanied by a DVD showing them at work. The book is part of a project to bring stories from the lives of Southeast Asian weavers and batik makers to an American audience, using video as the main component. Although the makers of textiles are generally not named in American museum collections, the creation of textiles is not anonymous in Southeast Asian communities. Senior artists are held in public esteem, and the cloth they produce is instantly recognizable to local people as their unique product.

Read more less

Winner of the R. L. Shep Ethnic Textiles Award sponsored by the Textile Society of America Asia is renowned for the production of fine handwoven cottons and luxurious silks -- important items of trade for centuries. In addition to these celebrated fabrics, however, weavers throughout the region produced cloth from ramie, hemp, pina, and banana fibers (including Philippine abaca and Okinawan ito basho), as well as a number of lesser-known plant fibers. Over the course of the twentieth century, many of these Asian plant fiber weaving traditions became marginalized or hovered on the brink of extinction, given the advent of synthetic fabrics, growing industrialization, and increased international textile trade. As the essays in this book testify, however, they have not vanished altogether. Rather, in recent times weavers have purposefully chosen to pursue various efforts directed at their preservation, revival, or reinvention. In many cases, the production of bast and leaf fiber textiles is now thriving in newly globalized situations. This volume presents eight essays documenting the current state of bast and leaf fiber weaving traditions in Vietnam, Borneo, Korea, Burma, Okinawa, the Philippines, Japan, and Micronesia. The processes that have nurtured or buffeted attempts to preserve or revive the production of these textiles are examined and abundantly illustrated with color photographs.

Read more less

Jose Bedia is an artist, practitioner, and devotee whose work emanates from his diverse and often systematic religious journeys, experiences, and encounters. Transcultural Pilgrim invites the reader into Bedia's spiritual worlds, which range from his Cuban birthplace to Central Africa and to the indigenous Americas, as revealed in his distinctive and frequently autobiographical visual language. The power and immediacy of Bedia's large-scale paintings and drawings and the material complexity of his installations immediately draw the viewer into his work. Judith Bettelheim and Janet Catherine Berlo have worked closely with Bedia for years, studying his journeys and their complex representations in his art, as well as the ethnographic collections which inspire him.

Read more less

After water, tea is the most frequently consumed beverage on the face of the earth. In ancient China tea was regarded as one of the seven daily necessities of life; for many Japanese it has served as a ritual element in the quest for enlightenment. In England afternoon tea holds an immutable place in the popular imagination, while in the United States it is often associated with the American Revolution. While various teas have been prepared in an assortment of ways and have played parts in countless culinary practices, it is also important to note that tea is and nearly always been a highly important commodity. As such, it has played a variety of striking and often paradoxical roles on the world stage--an ancient health remedy, an element of cultural practice, a source of profound spiritual insights, but also a catalyst for brutal international conflict, drug trafficking, crushing taxes, and horrific labor conditions. In the course of Steeped in History, editor Beatrice Hohenegger and eleven distinguished historians and art historians trace the impact of tea from its discovery in ancient China to the present-day tea plantations of Assam, crossing oceans and continents in the process. In so doing, they examine the multitude of ways in which tea has figured in the visual and literary arts. These include not only the myriad vessels fashioned for the preparation, presentation, and consumption of tea but also tea-related scenes embellishing ceramics and textiles and forming the subject of paintings, drawings, caricature, songs, and poetry.

Read more less

Order and Disorder looks at the cross-cultural context and collaborative nature of Aligheiero Boetti's iconic artworks. The original, often large-scale works in his series Mappe (Maps), Tutto (Everything), and "squared word" were created in needle and thread by women in Afghanistan and in Pakistani refugee camps following the Soviet invasion in 1979, under the direction of Boetti (1940-1994). Photographs of the artworks and of Afghan women embroidering them are accompanied by examples of embroidered garments and textiles made by Afghanistan's diverse peoples. Such items reveal the country's complex demography and illustrate the kinds of embroideries that were widely traded during the years that Boetti visited.

Read more less

Timor has been a divided island at least since the seventeenth century when Dutch and Portuguese colonial empires competed for its control. Despite this fragmentation, the weaving of cloth has remained intimately linked to the cultural history of the Timorese peoples as a whole. Handwoven cotton garments serve as markers of identity and nurture social relationships when they are exchanged. Women in Timor weave an impressive variety of cloth, routinely combining more weaving techniques than any other region of Southeast Asia. This technical prowess and diversity of design make weaving the most important form of artistic expression in Timor and allow groups as small as individual families to proclaim their unique heritage. Independence for Timor-Leste (East Timor) in 2002 - following invasion by Indonesia and years of violent warfare (1975–1999) - brought with it more stable conditions and improved access for researchers. Textiles of Timor, Island in the Woven Sea brings together for the first time woven works from all parts of the island, demonstrating that the textile arts form a common foundation uniting Timor’s diverse peoples despite the painful history of the country's division.

Read more less

This lavishly illustrated volume, demonstrating the scope and depth of the vast and remarkable global collections of the Fowler Museum at ucla, has been produced as part of the ongoing celebration of the institution’s fiftieth-anniversary year. It recalls many of the highlights of the Museum’s formation, focusing not only on collections development but also on a long history of programmatic innovation. The book begins with an essay by the Museum’s director, Marla C. Berns, which sketches the Fowler’s history, and this is followed by a section reproducing in color and large format 250 stunning works from the collection. Berns’s lengthy history of involvement with the Fowler - which began when she worked for the Museum as a graduate intern while pursuing her doctorate at UCLA - and the innovative strategies she has introduced, have uniquely situated her to author this book.

Read more less

Light and Shadows highlights the 2,700-year history of Jews in Iran. It reveals centuries of oppression, fascinating cultural borrowings, and great artistic achievements. The story is told through rare archaeological artifacts, illuminated manuscripts, beautiful ritual objects and amulets, ceremonial garments, musical instruments, photographs, and more. It examines as well the large-scale exodus of the Jewish community following the Islamic Revolution in 1979. Today, at least 25,000 practicing Jews remain in Iran, unwilling to give up their ancestral home and the distinctive way of life they have led there. Light and Shadows is a co-publication between the Fowler Museum at UCLA and Beit Hatfutsot--The Museum of the Jewish People in Tel Aviv.

Read more less