The demonstrations, which are free and open to the public, will show the technique of overshot weaving in the blooming leaf or bowknot pattern. The demonstrations will be held on selected Saturdays and Sundays in the exhibition gallery, through September 24.
The "Indiana Jacquard Coverlets" exhibition consists of 13 works of art and is drawn from the IMA's permanent collection and other private collections. The coverlets, which date from the 1840s and 1850s, are featured in the Paul Textile Arts Gallery on the third floor of Krannert Pavilion.
The gallery demonstrations will be held on Saturdays, noon to 3 p.m., August 26, September 16; and on Sundays, 1 to 4 p.m., July 23, August 6, September 17 and 24. In addition, Shirley Willoughby, curator-collections at Conner Prairie, will lead a slide-lecture tour of Indiana's coverlet heritage on Sunday, August 27, at 3 p.m. The cost is $3 for members, $5 for non-members and $4 for students and seniors. Support for this exhibition has been provided by the Institute of Museum Services, the Arts Council of Indianapolis and the City of Indianapolis, the Indiana Arts Commission, and the National Endowment for the Arts.
The Indianapolis Museum of Art, located at 1200 West 38th Street, Indianapolis, Indiana, is open Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Thursday from 10 a.m. to 8:30 p.m.; Sunday from noon to 5 p.m. It is closed Monday and major holidays. For more information, call (317) 923-1331.
"Mysterious Voids at the Heart of Historic Textiles: A Search for Meaning," which opened July 7 at The Textile Museum, Washington, D.C. and continues through January 7, 1996, explores the visual relationships among rugs and textiles featuring undecorated areas. Representing such diverse countries as Turkey, Guatemala, China, Africa and India, 23 objects were selected for exhibition from both The Textile Museum's collection and from private collection. The exhibition is curated by Gerhardt Knodel, head of the Fiber Department and artist-in-residence at the Cranbrook Academy of Art, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan.
In this exhibition, Knodel counters the notion that the "plain" areas of these textiles represent conditions of inactivity or even incompleteness. He asks the viewer to consider "empty" space from a new viewpoint; that is, to see it as the maker's innovative means of creating space.
Knodel believes that "as our world increasingly becomes visually and psychologically dense with people and with objects, it may be useful to reconsider the way objects occupy and alter our sense of space allowing us to transcend physical limits in significant ways." "Mysterious Voids" will explore how textiles help to represent the concept of space.
Architectural space is the openness defined by walls, floors, ceilings, doors and windows. Knodel believes that "it is openness occupied by our body and our mind. Architectural space centers human experience physically and spiritually. No wonder that people through time have attempted to visually represent being home or being centered in the objects with which they live, especially when they aspire to be in a place beyond perfection -- a place that is safe, quiet, inspirational and a place of renewal or potential."
A sense of space in textiles is created in a variety of ways. In some textiles an image of space is created by what appears as a plain shape of color surrounded by a field of active patterning. Most often the plain shape is located at the center of the textiles -- at the "heart" of the textile -- where its central position organizes space into a symmetrical composition.
The polychromed embroidery on a suzani (hanging) from Uzbekistan is defined by crimson-colored circular motifs. The patterns of a heavily brocaded Guatemalan huipil (woman's upper body garment), are grounded by four black round designs on the shoulders and front and back. The large white central medallion on the Indian shawl from Kashmir draws the viewer into the textile. These objects and others in the exhibition were selected to provoke spatial awareness of the viewer's body in relation to the textile.
In the exhibition, the relationship to architecture is made through photographs of natural and architectural sites which accompany the textiles as a sub-text. Taken by Knodel during extensive travels, they are paired with textiles to form relationships that may evoke a new personal reading of the textiles.
For more information about "Mysterious Voids at the Heart of Historic Textiles: A Search for Meaning," please contact The Textile Museum, 2320 S Street NW, Washington, D.C. 20008 or telephone 202-667-0441.
In the afternoon we will set up a natural dye workshop, using several of the classic dye sources in the rug-weaving world. Every participant will be involved in making several types of red, some blues, greens, and a yellow. While dyeing we will discuss mordants -- what are they, what they do, and what effect they have on color and on the yarn? -- as well as light-fastness and wash-fastness. Each participant will take home a set of dyed yarn samples.
September 15: INTRODUCTION TO ORIENTAL RUGS: Cornelia Montgomery Material to be covered: historical period, materials, techniques, the categories of rug weaving including workshop, village and nomadic (or tribal), design types. There will be a slide lecture, exhibition, and many rugs to study and handle. Seminars are held at the gallery of Peter Pap Oriental Rugs, Inc, Main Street, Route 101, Dublin, NH 03444. (603) 563-8717. 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Interested participants are asked to telephone in advance so that lunch, which is included in the fee of $30, can be planned. Participants are encouraged to bring their own rugs and learn about them.
Venue for ACOR III will be Santa Monica's Doubletree Guest Suites Hotel, a friendly and informal setting chosen to retain the intimate, hands-on atmosphere of previous American Conferences.
As in past ACOR programs, a series of focus sessions featuring speakers well known in the rug field will comprise the core of the event. In addition, a series of round-table, open-discussion sessions for advanced collectors will be featured. The popular Dealer's Row introduced at the ACOR II Chicago conference will once again display a wide variety of rugs and other textiles. Plans are also underway to develop a rug exhibition featuring the best of local collections.
The precise starting time of the Conference is now being finalized and will be announced in late September. All who attended ACOR II, along with all American and Canadian rug societies, will receive a mailing around that time detailing conference content and providing registration materials.
As with previous ACOR events, conference capacity will be limited and prospective participants are urged to register promptly upon receipt of the announcement mailing. Anyone wishing their name added to the ACOR III mailing list to receive registration materials should send a postcard to ACOR III, P.O. Box 187, Newtown, PA 18949, U.S.A.