Writing with Thread
Traditional Textiles of Southwest Chinese Minorities
January 31 to April 12, 2009 | Brittingham Galleries V, VI, and VII
Writing with Thread: Traditional Textiles of Southwest Chinese Minorities offers a visual feast of exquisite and rare costumes and jewelry from fifteen ethnic groups and nearly one hundred subgroups living in southwest China. These five hundred splendidly woven and embroidered textiles and costume pieces represent work of the finest quality and historic significance. Three galleries will showcase entire ensembles of adults’ and children’s regalia, baby carriers, quilt covers, and silver ornaments, as well as a loom, weaving tools, and embroidery cases. The exhibition will be on view January 31 to April 12, 2009. An opening reception will be held Friday, January 30, from 7–8:30 p.m.
Southwest China is a region of rich river systems and complex topography, inhabited by thirty-one of the country’s fifty-six ethnic groups. Writing with Thread: Traditional Textiles of Southwest Chinese Minorities showcases the superb, detailed craftsmanship from ethnic groups including the Miao (Hmong), Yi, Dong, Tujia, Shui, Zhuang, Dai, Buyi, Yao, Wa, and Zang. The exhibition explores the cultural messages associated with the production and use of indigenous clothing. In societies without written languages, traditions and customs are passed orally from generation to generation. The textile arts, largely practiced by women, also provide tangible evidence of a group’s history, myths, and legends. The signs and patterns woven or embroidered in their clothing are often replicated in the accompanying silver ornaments made by men. The textiles and silver ornaments complement a group’s oral traditions, recording and transmitting ideas and concepts that preserve the identities of their makers and users, and even reconstruct them for those who have lost touch. The needlework and silverwork of each ethnic group reveal variations in origin myths, heroic combats, communal memories, and wish fulfillment.
Textile scholar Angela Sheng, from McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, is principal curator of the exhibition. The objects have been selected from the collection of southwest Chinese textiles owned by Huang Ying-feng, an independent scholar and collector and Director of the Evergrand Museum in Taoyuan, Taiwan. Both will visit the Chazen and give public talks related to the exhibition. Japanese scholar Tomoko Torimaru, who specializes in the history and technology of traditional Chinese Minority textiles, will also come to the Chazen to give a two-part lecture on Miao (Hmong) textile work.
Writing with Thread opened at the University of Hawaii at Manoa Art Gallery, and after it closes at the Chazen Museum of Art it will travel to the Museum of International Folk Art in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and return to Taiwan for an exhibition in Taipei.
The exhibition was organized by the University of Hawaii Art Gallery and the Evergrand Art Museum, Taoyuan, Taiwan, and is supported by the University of Hawaii at Mänoa Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and Graduate Education, John Young Foundation, Blakemore Foundation, Hawaii State Foundation on Culture and the Arts through appropriations from the Legislature of the State of Hawaii and the National Endowment for the Arts, Joseph and Vera Zilber Family Foundation, University of Hawaii at Manoa Center for Chinese Studies/Confucius Institute, Carolyn and Warren Luke, Blodwyn Goo Endowment, University of Hawaii Women’s Campus Club, Gulab and Indru Watumull Grant for Museum Studies in the Arts, Commercial Data Systems, Wing Tek Lum and Chee Ping Lee Lum, and private contributions.
Generous local support for this exhibition has been provided by the Chazen Museum of Art Council, The Great Dane Pub & Brewing Co, Group Health Cooperative, J.H. Findorff & Son Inc., UW Health, Executive Management, Inc., Hilldale Fund, and Wisconsin Arts Board with funds from the State of Wisconsin and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Events
--Thursday January 29, 5:30 p.m. Lecture by Huang Ying-feng, independent scholar and collector of Chinese minority costumes, Director of the Evergrand Museum in Taoyuan, Taiwan, and curatorial advisor for "Writing with Thread." Huang introduces the ethnic minorities represented in the exhibition, then discusses collecting, documenting and classifying pieces, and traveling and interviewing the artisans.
OPENING RECEPTION AND CURATOR LECTURE
Friday January 30, 6 p.m. Curator Lecture: "Writing with Thread: Idea to Implementation,” by Angela Sheng, professor of Chinese Art History, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
Friday January 30, 7 p.m. Opening reception with Madison’s Hmong Keng Players and Hmong Sisters dance group, refreshments, and a cash bar.
--Saturday January 31, 1:30 p.m. Textiles curator Angela Sheng and collector Huang Ying-feng will conduct a gallery walk of Writing with Thread.
MARION STEMMLER MEMORIAL LECTURES
Japanese scholar Tomoko Torimaru, a specialist in the history and technology of traditional Chinese minority textiles, will deliver two lectures about Miao (Hmong) textiles, discussing materials, stitches, garment construction, symbols, and cultural history. These lectures are presented in honor of Marion Stemmler, an award-winning embroiderer and Chazen Museum of Art docent from 1984 to 2008. They were made possible by generous gifts from her friends and family.
Thursday February 19, 5:30 p.m. “Environment and Material Culture: Textiles and Costumes of the Miao (Hmong) People in Guizhou, China.” Ms. Torimaru will discuss the costumes, symbolism, and everyday use, as well as how materials are made.
Sunday February 22, 2 p.m. “One Needle, One Thread: Miao (Hmong) Embroidery and Fabric Piecework from Guizhou, China.” Ms. Torimaru will discuss embroidery, piecework, garment construction, and costume symbols. Session includes an illustrated lecture, a hands-on examination of textiles from private research collections, and an exhibition tour.
FAMILY DAY
Saturday, March 28, 12–4 p.m. The Chazen presents a Family Day celebrating Miao (Hmong) culture with storytelling, performances by Hmong Americans, textile technique demonstrations, tours, and art activities. Children under 12 should be accompanied by an adult. Admission is free.
--Sunday, March 29, 2:30 p.m. Gallery tour with Mary Ann Fitzgerald, Chazen Exhibition Coordinator. Mary Ann Fitzgerald has a specialty in textiles and has traveled among the ethnic groups whose costumes are represented in the exhibition. She will lead a tour and discuss representative examples.
--Weekends, February 7 through exhibition closing, 12:30–4:45 p.m. Docents-on-Duty. Chazen docents will be available in Writing with Thread to answer questions and present mini-tours.
The Chazen Museum of Art is open Tuesdays–Fridays 9 a.m.–5 p.m.; Saturdays and Sundays 11 a.m.–5 p.m.; closed Mondays and major holidays. Admission to galleries and educational events is free. The museum is located on the campus of the University of Wisconsin–Madison and is accessible to wheelchairs from the north entrance (nearest to Library Mall). An elevator is down the corridor to the right.
Parking is available at the City of Madison State Street Campus Ramp (entrances on Frances and Lake streets) and in the University Square parking ramp, entrance on Lake Street. Metered parking is available in the lower level of UW Lot 46, entrances on Lake and Frances streets. Evening and weekend parking is also available in UW Lot 83 under Fluno Center, entrance on Frances Street, and in UW Lot 7 under Grainger Hall, entrance on Brooks Street between University Avenue and Johnson Street.
The Chazen will provide sign language interpreters for associated programs by three-week advance request to Anne Lambert, Curator of Education, weekdays, (608) 263-4421 (voice).