If you read my blog, you will know that earlier in the week I visited the Royal Albert Memorial Museum in Exeter. It was during this visit that I spotted this exhibit.
The title of the piece is called Genealogy and was produced by the New Zealand & Samoa born artist Rosanna Raymond in 2007 as a commissioned piece from the Museum.
The actual artistry is a pair of denim jeans adorned with stitched pieces of decorated barkcloth. Here is a photograph of the information plate.
Each piece of barkcloth reflects the importance of Polynesian qualities which as the plate above states "female creativity and the artist's own identity"
I stood for ages looking at the detail and stitching. Pondering on just what had inspired the artist to create such a piece and the name she gave it.
I am a bit stumped by this post about barkcloth...They would have looked good worn by Twiggy. (sorry !)
ReplyDeleteOh Nigel! Well I did say it was a tenuous link. The barkcloth is coloured, patterned & stitched (adorned) to the jeans.
DeleteI liked it, but it was perhaps too out of the box? Sadly, I could not think of a likely candidate in my own collection or Guildford collection! Will try better next week.
This reminds me of American crazy quilts, although I suspect one has to be a New Zealander to really understand the significance of barkcloth.
ReplyDeleteI had two very nive pieces of tapa cloth from my visit to Fiji in the 1980s, but sadly they were attacked by termites and I had to abandon them prior to our move to New Zealand. I think tapa cloth is a very appropriate sepia subject. By the way, it's not really part of New Zealand Maori culture, although since there are so many NZers of Pacific Island origin, I suppose you could say it is now.
ReplyDeleteFrom your post and comments I was guessing barkcloth existed only in your part of the world. Off to google, and learned it was once common in Asia too, Indonesia specified. Those stitches remind of Home Economics class.
ReplyDeleteHazel
Is that a necklace next to the jeans?
ReplyDeleteHow lucky for you to have viewed this! I also see the necklace next to the most lovely of art-jeans! Nice perfect photos!
ReplyDeleteVery interesting. I saw many patched jeans during the 1960s and I've seen patchwork quilts. this is a very nice sepia combination of the two and totally fits the theme of adornment.
ReplyDeleteAlthough the symbols on the jeans mean nothing to me, I understand the connection to genealogy from the description on the information plate.
ReplyDeleteWOW!!! That is amazing... thanks for sharing, Catherine.
ReplyDeleteThose are fascinating. Reminiscent of the tapa cloth I recall from ancient Hawaiian pieces.
ReplyDelete