Contact: Calandra Childers,
SAM Public Relations
Exuberant Fabrics of Central Asia Explored in Ikat Exhibition at Seattle Asian Art Museum
Colors of the Oasis
March 15August 5, 2012
SEATTLE, March 6, 2012 – Colors of the Oasis, a striking new exhibition, opens March 15 at the Seattle Asian Art Museum and features the dazzling textiles that were created in the oasis cities of Central Asia. Organized by The Textile Museum in Washington, D.C. the exhibition features 65 ikat textiles primarily from Uzbekistan, where this art form, utilizing daring designs and jewel-like colors, emerged in the 19th century. This exhibition heralds the recent revival of the ikat technique after near extinction during the Soviet era, and growing global popularity through popular design houses such as Oscar de la Renta, J. Crew, West Elm and Pottery Barn. In addition, two films by Kazakhstan director Almagul Menlibayeva that explore her nomadic heritage in concert with an ancient belief system are featured.
Ikat, a term derived from a Malay word meaning to tie or bind, is a technique that requires supreme concentration and collaboration, the results of which give each image a blazing edge that is ikat’s distinctive signature. Unlike a majority of textiles woven with solid-colored thread or printed or dyed after weaving, ikat is produced using the reverse process. Individual threads are first dyed with several colors that, when woven together, produce energetic patterns. Successful application of this complex technique requires extensive forethought and teamwork between various craftsmen and the designer. Ikat has been considered a cultural treasure and fashion statement in Uzbekistan for over two centuries. After centuries of trade along the Silk Road, Central Asian artists elevated the technique to new heights of innovation, experimenting with exuberant designs that combine menacing hooks with floral arabesques, scorpions with tulips, or flowing water with pomegranates.
Visitors to the exhibition will be able to see the special effects that are unique to this art form: the sumptuous quality of silk that has been dyed in rich saturated colors, glazes that give the fabric a unique polish, and linings made out of sharply contrasting cotton prints. To enhance this experience for visitors who may not be familiar with Central Asian art history, life in the oasis kingdoms will be introduced. Remarkable photographs by a Russian photographer who experimented with color in the early 20th century provide glimpses of life on the streets of oasis kingdoms. In the largest gallery, visitors will be surrounded by an ikat city bazaar, akin to walking into a design kaleidoscope where urban energy mixed with this textile heritage. Contemporary photographs from two major cities, Bukhara and Samarkand, will further explore ornate decorative surfaces. Samarkand, nicknamed the “City of Famous Shadows” and the “Jewel of Islam”, and Bukhara, known as the “Pedestal of Greatness”, are home to astonishing buildings covered in colored geometric, floral and epigraphic patterns which reflect their influence on the textiles on display.
To bring the vision of Central Asia up to the present, two videos by Almagul Menlibayeva are included in the installation. Born in Kazakhstan in 1969, Ms. Menlibayeva stages complex mythological narratives that fuse her own nomadic heritage with ancient belief systems that were challenged by 60 years of Soviet domination. Milk for Lambs, 2010, depicts the many roles of women in the Steppes, and emphasizes the ways women strive to keep cultures intact. Butterflies of Aisha Bibi, 2010, recounts an ancient love story of the Sufi poet’s daughter Aisha Bibi and Karakhan. The push/pull dynamic between these lovers is played out in a drama that involves many observations of unfulfilled longing with a problematic relationship. As men and women appear and disappear in and out of dramatic architecture, their choices in clothing underline the changes in 21st century life in Central Asia.
Colors of the Oasis comes to the Seattle Asian Art Museum after opening at The Textile Museum in Washington DC (October 16, 2010–March 13, 2011). Curated by Sumru Belger Krody, senior curator of Eastern Hemisphere Collections at The Textile Museum. Pamela McClusky, SAM’s Curator for African and Oceanic Art, is the curator for the show in Seattle.
This exhibition is on loan from The Textile Museum, Washington, D.C. Exhibition sponsor is MIR Corporation.