OMG - Textile Enthusiasts are Here!!

Yesterday was a very good day for making connections.  At 1:00 I went to my 4th AWA book club meeting.  I have enjoyed all of the discussions so I was looking forward to a good meeting.  The meetings are held in a members home, this one was centrally located in a high rise condo.  There are 3 units per floor but each has its own elevator, so when the door opens to the elevator you are looking at the entry way to the condo you are going to.  When the doors opened  I was greeted by beautiful Asian textiles hanging outside the door!  I swear my heart started beating faster!  The meeting was at the home of Connie who is an art history professor at Penn State and guess what she specializes in, Asian textiles!  She is currently teaching an on-line class while they are stationed in Singapore.  Her home is chock full  of books and textiles, imagine textile on every surface.  Literally there were textiles hanging, laying, sitting everywhere.  Of course I did not have my camera.... bummer.  I did talk to Connie about her collection and she is a fascinating woman.  She is a docent at the ACM (Asian Civilization Museum), I am going to do a tour with Connie at the ACM, she leads the tour in one of the costumes in her collection.

We had a huge storm in the afternoon, all week we have had really BIG storms.  Usually it rains but these have been torrential downpours accompanied by load bursts of thunder, really loud thunder.  Jack (dog) has spent most of the week hiding in the bathroom or huddled by my legs.  I had signed up for a lecture in the evening with the TE/Textile Enthusiasts.  The TE are a study group of the FOM (Friends of the Museums). The FOM supports the major museums here in Singapore, training docents and educating its members.  They have weekly lectures, local museum and city tours and tours of other countries.  All of their activities focus on Asian studies.  I joined FOM specifically to be part of the TE. Anyway, I considered aborting my plan to go to the meeting due to the storm, getting a taxi is easy unless it is raining.  I am so glad I decided to make the effort and go....

I arrived about 5 minutes late, fortunately I was not alone in my tardiness. TE enthusiasts usually meet at the ACM but they were booked for the evening.  This was a special lecture with Dr. Linda McIntosh.  The meeting was held in another high rise condo and once again when the elevator doors opened I was greeted by more than just a door, interesting Asian artwork greeted me.  The hostess for the evening was Digna, a tiny Filipino woman who along with her Australian husband collect Asian artwork.  Honestly, I wondered if I was in a home or museum.  I had hoped Dr. McIntosh might have some textiles with her so I did bring my camera this time.  The lecture was all by powerpoint so no real textiles to see and touch from the lecture. I got permission from Digna to take pictures of her home to post on my blog.  She was flattered by my enthusiasm for her home.  Apparently many of her Filipino friends are a little freaked out by the statues. Apparently they don't like non-Christian religious icons.

The pictures in the blog are all from Digna's home, the  work is lite by spotlights which is effective in her home but made it hard to photograph.  I felt a little awkward taking pictures in someone's home, like some crazy American tourist!  One of the curators for the ACM was there, he explained that 80% of the work in their home is from Burma/ Myanmar, the rest is from surrounding countries - primarily Laos and Thailand.  The first photo is a large Burmese textile, showing the full piece and a close up. The last photo is a gift that was give to Dr. McIntosh for doing the lecture for the TE.  It is a woven piece that is warp Ikat made from abaca (similiar to the banana plant) from the Philippines.

A little about the speaker and the lecture; Dr. Linda McIntosh has a Masters in Thai Textile Studies and a Doctorate in Laotian Textile Studies. She lives in Bangkok and curates shows for the Jim Thompson House.  She has written a book on Laotian Textiles which is due out in 2011, the lecture was based on her doctorate study and her book.  Her mother is Laotian and a weaver, thus Linda's interest in textiles. She focused on Tai (not Thai) ceremonial pieces from mainland SE Asia. The pieces shown were antiques and from a large law firms collection in Bangkok. She went over the technical aspects of how they were made and she knew what she was talking about. The pieces were all supplementary weft, with discontinuous weft, so there were many color changes.  They were sett at 48 epi with a fine silk warp and a heavier cotton weft. She discussed the motifs used and their significance to the ceremonies. The weaver makes the piece without a specific ceremony in mind and the Shaman determines what it is used for.  Although not as prevelant today these pieces are still in use and weavers making them.  Now some are made specifically for commercial use (to sell to tourists), Linda said they are not as intricate as the pieces a weaver would make for their own families use.  One intricate piece can take up to one year! Wish I had a picture to show you.

It was a good day, I found out there are truly Textile Enthusiasts in Singapore.  I was assured that there will be many lovely textiles for me to see and these people can help me learn more and teach me where to find them. I had a hard time sleeping with all the images in my mind from the day.  Oh, and I must have had a big S (for sucker) on my forehead.  The TE asked me to be on their planning committe.

Happy Weaving,
Tracy