Registration Opens for International Textile Symposium
Exhibitions, Marketplace, Symposium--ALL Open to Public
Honolulu, HI….Public registration opens April 1, 2008 for the 11th Textile Society of America (TSA) Biennial Symposium set for September 24 through 27, 2008 at the Sheraton Waikiki Hotel. Textiles as Cultural Expressions is the theme for the major international arts event being coordinated by Tom Klobe, Director Emeritus of the University of Hawaii Art Gallery; and Reiko Brandon, renowned fiber artist and former Curator of Textiles at the Honolulu Academy of Arts. The conference is open to the public with prior registration. You need not be a member of TSA to attend the symposium. Complete program and registration information is currently available online at www.textilesociety.org.
Early-bird registration fees through July 1, 2008, range from $295 for students and $385 for TSA members, to $460 for non-members. Extra fees are required for workshops, pre-symposium tours, and the banquet. Special day rates of $150 (no meals included) for on-site registration will be offered, subject to space availability.
Says conference organizer Klobe, who has a reputation for orchestrating successful community-wide arts events such as Crossings ‘97: France/Hawaii and Crossings 2003: Korea/Hawaii, “This symposium will celebrate the Pacific Rim’s strong cultural traditions in the fiber arts and provide venues for our regional fiber artists to display their work for a worldwide audience.”
The international symposium is expected to attract textile collectors, curators, students, educators, scholars and experts from around the world as well as highlight Hawaii’s own esteemed museum and private collections and knowledgeable curators through a city-wide schedule of exhibitions. In addition to presentations of scholarly papers and panel discussions, which form the foundation of the symposium, there will be an array of textile collection site seminar tours (open only to registered symposium participants); more than a dozen individual exhibitions (open to the public) that will highlight the diversity of this culturally rich Pacific location; and an international textile marketplace (open to the public).
Site seminars will include discussions of plantation era and early 20th century textiles in Hawaii, traditional fibers in Hawaii and the Pacific, Hawaiian quilts, Indonesian textiles, Chinese imperial robes and minority costumes, contemporary textiles in the Pacific region, Japanese textiles and Islamic textiles.
The international symposium will include the Textile Society of America’s Founding Presidents’ Awards banquet to recognize excellence in the field of textile studies and presenters whose proposals are judged to be outstanding. It will conclude with a Pau Hana/Aloha Presentation on Textiles as Cultural Expressions in Hawaii: The Meaning of Hula by Michael Pili Pang and his hula troupe, Halau Hula Ka Noeau.
“I am most excited about the opportunity to introduce our regional researchers, artists, teachers and experts to the greater international textile community. These individuals will be sharing the abundant textile resources of our Asian and Polynesian textile traditions that are rarely available or known outside of Hawaii,” says Klobe.
The symposium will also feature a two-day International Textile Marketplace and Book Fair at the Sheraton Waikiki with a wide array of specialty textile products including books, textile conservation products, wearable art, and one-of-a-kind textile collectibles. The International Textile Marketplace will be open to conference attendees and the general public for shopping from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Thursday and Friday, September 25 and 26, 2008. Dealers, textile artists and regional craft vendors interested in participating in the Marketplace should contact Marketplace Chairperson, Linda-Mei Jaress at ljaress@hotmail.com.
Conference headquarters will be the Sheraton Waikiki, an award-winning meetings and convention property located on Waikiki Beach in the heart of Hawaii’s most famous resort destination. The Sheraton Waikiki is noted for its outstanding conference facilities and will be extending conference rates for pre- and post-conference stays.
In addition to events held at the Sheraton Waikiki, special site tours to museums and private collections will be organized around themes that include art conservation, ethnic textiles, garments in paradise—aloha wear, Hawaiian quilts, plantation era textiles, and traditional Hawaiian fiber arts.
Special exhibitions of contemporary textile and fiber art are being planned in a variety of community venues to coincide with the symposium. The schedule is as follows:
TSA 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 Hawaii at Manoa 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.)
Media Contacts: Sharon Tasaka, Associate Director, 808-956-6888 gallery@hawaii.edu; Lisa Yoshihara, Director, 808-956-6888 gallery@hawaii.edu; Tom Klobe, Project Director, 808-261-6461 klobetm@hawaii.edu
Indonesian Batik From the Christensen Fund Collection – July 3 - October 15, 2008
Bright and Daring: Japanese Kimono in the Taisho Mode – August 5 - October 5, 2008
Blue and White: Indigo-dyed Japanese Textiles – August 5 - October 5, 2008
Japanese Prints of Kimono in the Modern Era -- August 5 - October 5, 2008
Honolulu Academy of Arts, 900 S. Beretania Street, Honolulu, HI 96814
Free to Symposium Attendees Thursday, September 25 through
Sunday, September 28, 2008
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.)
Media Contact: Lesa Griffith, lgriffith@honoluluacademy.org; (808) 532-8712
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.
Media Contact: Lesa Griffith, (808) 532-8712; lgriffith@honoluluacademy.org
Jiyoung Chung: Whisper-Romance III
Academy Art Center, 1111 Victoria St., Honolulu, HI 96814
September 6 - 28, 2008; Free
Tuesday-Friday 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.; Sunday 1-5 p.m.
This is an installation of colorful Joomchi (handmade Korean paper) works by JiYoung Chung. Chung is a painter, paper maker, and mixed media artist. She received her BFA at Rhode Island School of Design and her MFA at Cranbrook Academy of Art. She has had numerous solo exhibitions throughout the U.S. Europe and Asia.
Media Contact: Lesa Griffith, (808) 532-8712; lgriffith@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. Among the other treasures on view are Princess Pauahi’s feather cape, and a feather cloak of Kamehameha the Great, For more information visit www.bishopmuseum.org.
Media Contact: Charlie Aldinger; (808) 847-8271; bishoppr@bishopmusuem.org.
Ili Iho: The Surface Within
Bishop Museum, 1525 Bernice Street, Honolulu, HI 96817
September 20, 2008 through January 11, 2009; Free to Symposium Attendees
Daily, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.; J.M. Long Gallery
Rare kapa cloth, a famous makaloa matplaited 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 eight of Hawaii’s finest artists. University of Hawaii Associate Professor Maile Andrade guest-curates this exhibition. Andrade has invited the artists to explore their ancestral creations and create works that delve into the surfaces within. This exhibition makes imperative the role of the native community in interpreting and understanding their own material culture. This exhibition is supported in part by a Visual and Expressive Arts Grant from the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian. For more information visit www.bishopmuseum.org.
Media Contact: Charlie Aldinger; (808) 847-8271; bishoppr@bishopmusuem.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 11th Textile Society of America Biennial Symposium (September 224-27, 2008), Fundamental Fiber: Lauhala, Tapa & Quilts will feature 19th and 20th century objects from the Museum’s permanent collections. Fiber arts traditions are well engrained in Hawaii’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.
Media Contact: Nanette Napoleon, (808) 261-0705; nanetten@hawaii.rr.com
Exhibitions at Area Galleries and Showrooms:
WeARTables
Louis Pohl Gallery of Fine Art, 1111 Nuuanu 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 Hawaii
The ARTS at Mark’s Garage, 1159 Nuuanu 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 Hawaii Craftsmen, one of Hawaii’s most active and respected arts organizations whose membership includes some of the finest artists and craftsmen in Hawaii. Fiber Hawaii, 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 Hawaii to jury the exhibition as well as share their work and observations about current developments in the field. For more information about Fiber Hawaii visit www.hawaiicraftsmen.org. For more information about ARTS at Marks Garage visit www.artsatmarks.com.
Media Contact: Rose Anne Jones, Executive Director, (808) 521-3282, info@hawaiicraftsmen.org.
Contemporary Fiber Art of Hawaii
The Contemporary Museum at First Hawaiian Center, 999 Bishop Street, Honolulu, HI 96813
September 26, 2008 through January 13, 2009; Free
Monday – Thursday, 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.; Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.
This statewide invitational exhibition showcases the cultural and material diversity of contemporary fiber arts being created by Hawaii’s artists today. This exhibition coincides with the Textile Society of America’s 11th Biennial Symposium. Contemporary Fiber Art of Hawaii reveals how fiber artists today are combining materials and techniques to create highly expressive art works. Featured works range from computer generated images transformed into traditional tapestries to delicate embroidery and quilts exploring political themes. Participating artists including Pam Barton, Eli Baxter, A. Kimberlin Blackburn, Reiko Brandon, Sharon Britt, Sharon Chinen, Karen Galley, Keiko Hatano, Pat Hickman, Darius Homay, Jee-un Kim, Nicole Morita, Phan Nguyen Barker, Walter Nottingham, Anna Peach, Elizabeth Train, Jay Wilson, Carol Yotsuda Kouchi and others.
Media Contact: Pua LeMelle; plemelle@tcmhi.org
Fields of Flowers: Woven Carpets and Mughal Treasures
East-West Center Gallery
Monday–Friday, 8 a.m.–5 p.m., Sunday, 12 noon–4 p.m.; Free
September 21 through December 31, 2008
In mid-seventeenth century Mughal India, the taste for naturalistic floral sprays reached an apogee of artistic expression. The aesthetic style dominated the arts of South Asia from the 17th century to the present, and has had an impact on even Western and Chinese aesthetic traditions. The taste for beautiful floral motifs is seen in a rare pair of large, unusually-shaped Mughal carpets in the collection at Shangri La. Paired together, the carpets form a bold field of flowers with an interior void wherein a person, most likely a royal personage, would have sat in splendor. The exhibition will include a pedestrian bridge, enabling visitors to view the carpets more closely. Intricate works of art inspired by Mughal floral patterns, including brassware, paintings, stonework, woodwork, and textiles will also be displayed. Photographs and video will demonstrate social and historical context. This exhibition is presented by the East-West Center Arts Program and Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Arts. The exhibition is co-curated by Michael Schuster, Ph.D., and Sharon Littlefield, Ph.D.
Media Contacts: Michael Schuster, Curator, East-West Center Gallery; 808-944-7543; SchusteM@EastWestCenter.org
Selections from the University of Hawaii Costume Collection
Miller Hall, Department of Family and Consumer Sciences, College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources, University of Hawaii at Manoa
11 a.m. -1 p.m. Monday-Friday; Sunday, September 28: 1-4 p.m.
Wednesday September 24: 4:30- 8 p.m.
September 20-30, 2008; Free
The Department of Family and Consumer 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.
Media Contacts:
Pride and Practicality: Japanese Immigrant Clothing in Hawaii
Japanese Cultural Center of Hawaii, 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 Hawaii in a steady stream beginning in 1885 brought a rich cultural heritage that included their clothing. At 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 Hawaii, 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.
Media Contact: Christy Takamune, (808) 945-7633; Fax (808) 944-1123; Email: takamune@jcch.com
Ancient Customs, Ancient Stories: Lampung Ceremonial Textiles and Objects
Hamilton Library Bridge Gallery; University of Hawaii at Mānoa, 2550 McCarthy Mall
September 8-October 31, 2008; Open daily all Library hours; Free
Examples of remnants of house architecture, ceremonial furniture and objects, mats and beadwork will be shown to demonstrate their relation to the imagery of textiles from Lampung, the southernmost province of Sumatra, Indonesia. This exhibition is curated by Garrett and Bronwen Solyom as part of the Textile Society of America site seminar on textiles from the Malay archipelago and New Guinea.
Media Contact: Bronwen Solyom; (808) 956-2849; brons@hawaii.edu
Exhibitions at Area Hotels:
Pacific Island Textiles as Status, Wealth, Genealogy, Supernatural Protection
Outrigger Waikiki Hotel
Lobby Koa Showcase, 2335 Kalakaua Avenue, Honolulu
September 8 – October 10, 2008
Worn or displayed, woven or plaited, these textiles from the Pacific Islands are both utilitarian and ceremonial, secular and sacred. In the Marshall Islands they provided clothing before the introduction of trade clothes. In Fiji, masi is essential for all ceremonies from birth to death as well as for the ordination of chiefs. In Tonga large nagatu honor their king, smaller ones wrap bridal couples and bury the dead. In Yap and the outer islands of Ulithi, supernatural powers are believed woven into machi worn only by chiefs. From Papua New Guinea and the Marquesas women have utilized traditional bark cloth to express their creativity and earn much needed cash. Caroline Yacoe is serving as consulting curator. Textiles on view will include Marshall Island mats and kili bags; Fiji masi including a wedding set; Tongan ngatu; Samoan siapo; Colinwood Bay tapa from Papua New Guinea; Marquesan tapa from the breadfruit tree; woven burial shroud from the highlands in Papua New Guinea; and Hawaiian five-layer kapa moe. Several photographs will also be included featuring images of a Tongan woman painting ngatu; a Fijian wedding couple in masi; tapa worn by dancing men of Papau New Guinea; and tapa from Pitcairn.
Media Contact: Marylou Foley, (808) 924-6040; marylou.foley@outrigger.com.
The Textile Society of America gratefully acknowledges the Department of Business, Economic Development & Tourism (DBEDT) of the State of Hawaii for its support of the 11th Biennial Symposium in Honolulu.
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 11th Biennial Textile Society of America Symposium in Honolulu, Hawaii, visit www.textilesociety.org, or contact Tom Klobe at klobetm@hawaii.edu.
-pau-