In a interesting clip about curation in this day and age.
Inspirations from Uzbekistan
From March 15th to August 5, 2012 the Seattle Asian Art Museum presents “Colors of the Oasis: Central Asian Ikats.”
This magnificent collection of ikats represent designs from 19th century Uzbekistan. The ikats boldly inspire color and pattern. The exhibit also illustrates the ikat dyeing and production process as well showing the garments’ significance, both socially and aesthetically, to the region.
“Colors of the Oasis” is on loan from The Textile Museum in Washington D.C.
Views from the opening of the new studio. It felt amazing to to finally have the textiles showcased and viewable. It was a great evening and nice to see familiar faces as well as introduce new ones to the collection. Next big milestone will be presenting our project at an archiving conference in June. Lots more to do…
Photos from the exhibit Mottainai: The Fabric of Life at the Portland Japanese Gardens. Some truly stunning pieces from the Meiji era
In preparing 26,000 thousand textiles to be photographed we had a lot of loose threads to gather. Our lint/thread roller sheets were beautiful objects in themselves and we couldn’t help ourselves from documenting them as well as guessing which textiles they came from. Hope you enjoy the small selection, it was hard to choose!
The Essence of a Collection
Aaron Rayburn, cofounder of the PDX design and art blog FORTPORT, visited our studio and created a piece that captures the inspiration and beauty of our textile archives. We hope you enjoy it as much as we do.
(Source: fortport.com)
The Collector Frames the Reference: Viewing Textiles in Work and Travel
Andrea Aranow has created an extensive textile library which spans over four continents and reflects her lifetime passion for textiles. Looking back through the years, she provides insight into her extensive studies and findings inspired by her travels from the East Village of New York, the mountain communities of Peru and onward to Hainan Island in the South China sea. Through her work she has learned to look at textiles by understanding them within their surroundings and to build the environment of groups as she shows them.
In this lecture, Aranow’s visual examples are brought to life through her ability to contextualize the role of the pieces within their cultural origin, while at the same time providing insight into the places where they were created. Her textile library has provided design inspiration to companies creating their own fabric patterns. Join Aranow as she frames the importance of this perspective when bringing these pieces to the western marketplace to inspire current designers.
Join us for a lecture by Andrea Aranow at Blue Rider Design on Thursday, July 28th at 6pm, located at 412 NW Couch St. Suite 407 in Old Town, Portland, OR.
Designer/Ethnographer/Entrepreneur
Andrea Aranow has created fashion and studied textiles since the late 1960’s. Born in Springfield, MA, Aranow grew up sewing and handling cloth. She received a degree in cultural history from Brown University in 1967. She next went to New York to open Dakota Transit, a custom leather and snakeskin apparel shop in the East Village. By 1971 The New York Times noted that “Andrea (had) achieved instant fame with the snakeskin collage clothes (she) made for Jimi Hendrix.”
A few years later, Aranow left New York for the mountains of Peru to begin her textile library of living cultures. From South America, she traveled to Asia, spending years in outlying districts of China and Japan. She spent fifteen years abroad, creating ethnic textile collections for museums. Some collections have been purchased by The British Museum, The Royal Scottish Museum, and The Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Existing holdings include numbers of kimonos, various Peruvian weavings and embroideries, and sample handmade items from many other countries.
In 1987 Aranow returned to New York to start Andrea Aranow Textile Documents ®, a business selling pieces from her international collection to fashion companies as inspiration for new designs.
