Collection of Carol Summers includes work from Gujarat, Rajasthan.
Bureau Report
SAN FRANCISCO: Two unique exhibitions, “Folk Indian Textiles from the Collection of Carol Summers” and “Meditation in Space & Time: Junco Sato Pollack, Sutra Chants Hangings and Stitch by Stitch Mandala” is being exhibited at the San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles, through April 28th.
Folk Indian Textiles pays homage to the handiwork of India and its rich textile traditions. Meditation in Space & Time is a site specific installation that encourages visitors to slow down, be in the present, participate in a stitching practice, and meditate, all in recognition of those who lost their lives in the Japanese earthquake and tsunami.
Folk Indian Textiles from the Collection of Carol Summers – a local Santa Cruz, California collector and artist – is comprised of both utilitarian and festive textiles. Included are 50 plus objects from Summers’ collection of late nineteenth- and twentieth-century textiles acquired on his various trips to India between 1974-2012.
Collected with an artist’s appreciation for the beauty of design and craftsmanship rather than perfection, it features a variety of techniques—patchwork, embroidery, appliqué, tie-dye, block printing, painted cloth, quilted textiles, hand weaving, and sewing. The exhibit showcases the handiwork and creativity of anonymous craftspeople and highlights the importance of decorative objects to culture.
The textiles come from India and Bangladesh and also include examples from Gujarat and Rajasthan, the Rabari and Banjara peoples, as well as textiles from Muslim communities. Folk Indian Textiles includes embroidered Kantha cloths (covering or carrying cloths), temple hangings, clothing (shawls, children’s garments, bags, dresses), Phulkari cloths, animal trappings (camel covers and cow decorations), and other adornments.
Viewers of Meditation in Space & Time will experience Junco Sato Pollack’s serenely meditative space in the galleries, which will invite visitors to slow down and to look inward. Pollack’s installations are site specific and site sensitive. Centered in the gallery is the translucent Sky Cloud series: a group of four large-format, vertical, scroll-like hangings that evoke a kinetic energy.
The artist has create a stitched mandala, with audience participation, that will grow throughout the course of the exhibition. The act of creating the stitched mandala, a time-based process of simple repetition of hand stitching, is also a tribute to those who have lost their lives to the Japanese earthquake and tsunami, one year ago.
Pollack uses digital imaging, metallic devoreé, shibori, disperse dye, heat compression, dye sublimation processes, as well as thousands of hand stitches to create her subtle and ethereal pieces.
As a printmaker of woodcuts, Summers has received grants from the Italian Government, Tiffany, Fulbright and Guggenheim Foundation Fellowships, and the Council for the International Exchange of Scholars. He has also received an Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from his alma mater, Bard College. His work is represented widely in museum and private collections in the United States and abroad.
Summers first visited India to conduct woodcut workshops at universities and art schools in 1974, and returned for a second tour in 1979. Lured to India originally by the conservative Malwa school of Rajput paintings, he became enchanted by Indian folk arts and their rich textile heritage.
With their imaginative use of aniline dyes and synthetic thread, the folk textiles he found there not only exhibit a unique love of color and playfulness in varying tradition, but also pay homage to the talent and spirit of the Indian people who fashioned them.
Much of his collection was acquired during his travels in the states of Rajasthan and Gujarat in India as well as Sindh Province in present-day Pakistan and other areas. Since 1993, Summers has led tours of India, mainly Rajasthan, focusing on folk arts and the palaces of the Rajputs. He has published two full-color catalogs from his collection, A Treasury of Indian Folk Textiles and Another Treasury of Indian Folk Textiles and is working on a third. His collection has been exhibited in galleries and museums locally and nationally.