Honolulu Plans to Dress to Impress: City-wide Exhibitions Planned for 2008 Textile Society Event
Honolulu, HI….From Hawaiian quilts and kapa to new works by leading contemporary fiber artists to Indonesian and Cambodian textiles and Japanese kimono--Honolulu arts organizations are reaching deep into their textile closets and mounting fabulous textile exhibitions for the 11 th Biennial Textile Society of America Symposium being held in Hawai‘i September 24 through 27, 2008 at the Sheraton Waikiki Hotel. A host of museums, galleries, and other city venues will be featuring extraordinary and unusual, contemporary and traditional textile exhibitions concurrently with the September 2008 symposium, which expects to draw an international crowd of textile curators, scholars, dealers, experts, and students.
Textiles as Cultural Expressions is the over-riding theme for this major international arts event and marketplace being coordinated by Tom Klobe, Director Emeritus of the University of Hawai‘i Art Gallery; and Reiko Brandon, renowned fiber artist and former Curator of Textiles at the Honolulu Academy of Arts. The conference and Textile Marketplace are open to the public. Registration information is available at www.textilesociety.org. All exhibitions will also be open to the public with admission fees as applicable for respective organizations.
FALL 2008 CITY-WIDE TEXTILE EXHIBITION CALENDAR:
Exhibitions at Area Museums:
Writing with Thread: Traditional
Textiles of Southwest Chinese Minorities
September 21-October 31, 2008
University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa Art
Gallery; Free
Monday-Friday 10:30
a.m. –4 p.m.; Sunday Noon to 4
p.m.
Writing with Thread will feature over 500 objects from the most inclusive collection of Southwest Chinese ethnic minority costumes in the world. Writing with Thread will showcase the finest and rarest costumes from 16 ethnic groups and nearly 100 subgroups and will explore the meanings associated with the production and use of indigenous clothing. In societies without written languages, traditions and customs are orally passed from generation to generation. However, the textile arts, largely practiced by women, provide tangible evidence of a group’s history, myths, and legends. The signs and patterns woven or embroidered in their clothing and the ceremonial and ritual use of textiles are often replicated in the accompanying silver ornaments made by men. Angela Sheng, Assistant Professor of Chinese Art History at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada is curator of the exhibition. (For more information about Writing with Thread, visit www.hawaii.edu/artgallery.)
Indonesian Batik From the Christensen
Fund Collection
Woven Legacy: Cambodian Ikat
Bright and Daring: Japanese Kimono
in the Taisho Mode
Japanese Prints of Kimono in
the Modern Era
Honolulu Academy of Arts, 900 S.
Beretania Street, Honolulu, HI 96814
Dates TBA, 2008
Regular Admission; Tuesday–Saturday
10 a.m.–4:30 p.m.; Sunday 1–5 p.m.
Several galleries of the Honolulu Academy of Arts will be devoted to selections from the museum’s superb collection of over 6,000 Asian textiles including exceptional pieces from the renowned Christensen Collection. Also woodblock prints depicting kimono will be shown in a special exhibition selected from the famed James and Mari Michener Collection and the collection of modern era prints. Galleries throughout the Academy regularly feature important examples of the textile arts as part of the artistic heritage of the culture represented. (For more information visit www.honoluluacademy.org.)
Tattered Cultures: Mended Histories
Academy Art Center, 1111 Victoria
Street, Honolulu HI, 96814
September 6 - 28, 2008; Free
Tuesday-Friday 10
a.m. to 4 30 p.m.; Sunday 1-5
p.m.
Presented at the Academy Art Center, this invitational contemporary fiber art exhibition will feature a collection of artworks by international fiber artists who are members of the Textile Society of America. Tattered Cultures is curated by Mary Babcock, Assistant Professor and Fibers Area Chair, Department of Art and Art History, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, in collaboration with Carol Khewhok, Curator of the Academy Art Center at the Honolulu Academy of Arts. The exhibition explores how dominant ideologies of a specific time and place often tatter the cultural heritage of the less-dominant and culturally diverse. Multitudes of lives and events pass by unnoticed, distorted and dismissed by the dominant ideologies of a specific time and place. The result is holes and gaps in human experience and understanding, a tattering of our cultural heritage. This exhibition speaks to the large gaps; places where the dominant culture has suppressed the voices of other modes of being. It also speaks to the more subtle tatterings, the ways in which the lack of commemoration of ordinary lives results in impoverished cultures, cultural fabrics weakened by gaps in recognition, celebration and understanding. For more information visit www.honoluluacademy.org.
Pauahi: A Legacy for Hawai‘i
Bishop Museum, 1525 Bernice Street,
Honolulu, HI 96817
Through December 31, 2008; Free to
Symposium Attendees
Daily, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Castle Memorial
Building
Kapa beaters, exquisite kapa cloth, and other decorating utensils from Bishop Museum’s own fine collection will be on display in this exhibition which celebrates the contributions of Bernice Pauahi Bishop, the last descendent of King Kamehameha I. For more information visit www.bishopmuseum.org.
Contemporary Hawaiian Textile Exhibition
Bishop Museum, 1525 Bernice Street,
Honolulu, HI 96817
Through December 31, 2008; Free to
Symposium Attendees
Daily, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.; J.M. Long
Gallery
Rare kapa cloth, a famous makaloa mat plaited in an eloquent woven protest to the King, spectacular Hawaiian featherwork, and other significant treasures from Bishop Museum’s own fine collection will be on display alongside a selection of contemporary Hawaiian textile arts by some of Hawai‘i’s finest artists. Maile Andrade guest-curates this exhibition. For more information visit www.bishopmuseum.org.
Fundamental Fiber: Lauhala, Tapa & Quilts
Mission Houses Museum, 553 S. King
Street, Honolulu, HI 96813
Date September 19, 2008 through January
3, 2009; Free to Symposium Attendees
Tuesday through Saturday, 9 a.m.
to 4 p.m.;
Organized in conjunction with the 11 th Textile Society of America Biennial Symposium (September 224-27, 2008), Fundamental Fiber: Lauhala, Tapa & Quilts will feature 19 th and 20 th century objects from the Museum’s permanent collections. Fiber arts traditions are well engrained in Hawai‘i’s ancient, modern, and contemporary cultures. This exhibition offers a unique opportunity to view rarely seen pieces from the permanent collections while providing a forum for local weavers and quilt makers to interact and share current techniques and trends. Extensive public programs are also planned. For more information visit www.missionhouses.org.
Exhibitions at Area Galleries and Showrooms:
WeARTables
Louis Pohl Gallery of Fine Art, 1111
Nu‘uanu Avenue, Honolulu, HI 96817
Tuesday – Saturday, 11
a.m. to 6 p.m.; Free
August
27 through September 27, 2008
The Handweavers’ Hui will present an exhibition of contemporary wearable fiber art created by its members. Sydney Lynch, exhibition chair, may be reached at kenjoinc@aloha.net for more information. For more information about Louis Pohl Gallery of Fine Arts visit www.louispohlgallery.com.
Fiber Hawai‘i
The ARTS at Mark’s Garage, 1159 Nu‘uanu
Avenue, Honolulu, HI 96817
September 16 through October 11,
2008; Free
Tuesday – Saturday 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
This popular biennial juried exhibition is sponsored by Hawai‘i Craftsmen, one of Hawai‘i’s most active and respected arts organizations whose membership includes some of the finest artists and craftsmen in Hawai‘i. Fiber Hawai‘i, a showcase of contemporary art and craft based on fiber traditions, uniquely encourages creative interpretation of fiber as media as well as idea, offering artists an opportunity to explore their work within the context of Contemporary Fiber Art. Artists from all media participate in this juried exhibition. A fiber artist of national stature is brought to Hawai‘i to jury the exhibition as well as share their work and observations about current developments in the field. For more information about Fiber Hawai‘i visit www.hawaiicraftsmen.org. For more information about ARTS at Marks Garage visit www.artsatmarks.com.
Fiber Artists of Hawai‘i
The Contemporary Museum at First
Hawaiian Center, 999 Bishop Street, Honolulu,
HI 96813
September 25 through December, 2008;
Free
Monday – Thursday, 8:30 a.m. to 4
p.m.; Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.
This group exhibition will feature the breadth of contemporary fiber art being created by artists working in Hawai‘i and artists with ties to Hawai‘i. See how Hawai‘i artists are interpreting techniques and ideas from a multitude of traditions.
Moghul Carpets from Doris Duke’s Shangri La
East-West Center Gallery
Monday–Friday, 8
a.m.–5 p.m., Sunday, 12
noon–4 p.m.; Free
Date TBA, 2008
Precious and rarely seen Moghul carpets from Doris Duke’s fabled Shangri La will be on view only a short walk from the University of Hawai‘i Art Gallery.
Selections from the University of Hawai‘i Costume Collection
Miller Hall, Department of Family
and Consumer Sciences, College of Tropical
Agriculture and Human Resources, University
of Hawai‘i at Mānoa
Hours TBA; Free
Date TBA, 2008
The Department of Family and Consume Sciences on the University campus holds one of the most important Asian and Pacific Island costume collections within a United States university. Miller Hall is immediately adjacent to the Art Building.
Pride and Practicality: Japanese Immigrant Clothing in Hawaii
Japanese Cultural Center of Hawai‘i, 2454 S. Beretania St.
Tuesday-Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.;
July 26 through September 27, 2008
Regular Museum Admission
The Japanese immigrants who came to Hawai‘i in a steady stream beginning in 1885 brought a rich cultural heritage that included their clothing. At the first the issei men and women worked in the fields in the rustic cotton kimono they brought with them. But those kimono were not practical for moving among the sugar cane with its razor-sharp edges. As these immigrants came in contact with the diverse ethnic groups in Hawai‘i, they found useful ideas in the dress of other cultures. By assimilating these new ideas and combining them with their own traditional ideas, a unique style of clothing developed. Curated with the help of Barbara Kawakami, important examples of early clothing and the stories of the immigrants will make this exhibition a poignant reminder of the past.
Additional fiber and textile art exhibitions are planned at the Pegge Hopper Gallery, 39hotel, SubZero/Wolf Showroom, Honolulu Hale (City Hall) and other galleries throughout the city.
The Textile Society of America (TSA) provides an international forum for the exchange and dissemination of information about textiles worldwide, from artistic, cultural, economic, historic, political, social, and technical perspectives. TSA was established in 1987 and has over 500 members worldwide.
For more information about the 11 th Biennial Textile Society of America Biennial Symposium in Honolulu, Hawai‘i, visit www.textilesociety.org; or contact Symposium Coordinator Tom Klobe at klobetm@hawaii.edu; Marketplace Coordinator Linda-Mei Jaress at ljaress@hotmail.com.
-pau-