UH Colloquium for The Exhibition Writing With Thread: Traditional Textiles of Southwest Chinese Minorities

UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII AT MANOA
ART GALLERY
DEPARTMENT OF ART AND ART HISTORY
2535 MCCARTHY MALL
HONOLULU, HI 96822 USA
ph: 808-956-6888
fax: 808-956-9659

PRESS INFORMATION: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 11, 2008CONTACT:
Tom Klobe, Emeritus Director (808) 261-6461, klobetm@hawaii.edu
Lisa Yoshihara, Director (808) 956-6888, gallery@hawaii.edu
Sharon Tasaka, Associate Director (808) 956-6888, gallery@hawaii.edu

COLLOQUIUM
Writing with Thread: Traditional Textiles of Southwest Chinese Minorities
Four scholars from China and one from Taiwan join three scholars from the United States and Canada to foster cross-cultural understanding of ideas and methodologies. This international team of scholars, museum professionals, and field experts of various disciplines will present the research they conducted for the exhibition Writing with Thread: Traditional Textiles of Southwest Chinese Minorities.

SPONSORS
Writing with Thread: Traditional Textiles of Southwest Chinese Minorities is sponsored by the Department of Art and Art History and the College of Arts and Humanities at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. The exhibition and colloquium has received major support from the UH Manoa 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, Blodwyn Goo Endowment, Women's Campus Club, Watumull Grant for Museum Studies in the Arts, Wing Tek Lum and Chee Ping Lee Lum, and private contributions.

LOCATION
Kuykendall Auditorium, Room 101
University of Hawaii at Manoa

DATE
Tuesday, September 23, 2008TIME
9:00 a.m.-12:30 p.m.

ADMISSION
Admission is free. Parking fees may apply.

COLLOQUIUM SUMMARY
A special opportunity awaits those interested in Chinese minority textiles. The University of Hawaii Art Gallery presents an international colloquium in conjunction with the major loan exhibition, Writing with Thread: Traditional Textiles of Southwest Chinese Minorities, from the Evergrand Museum in Taiwan. Four scholars from China and one from Taiwan join three from the United States and Canada to make summary presentations of their research in preparation for the exhibition and catalogue. The eight research associates who worked on this project will discuss the outcomes of their work and answer questions from those attending the colloquium.

The scholars include:Deng Qiyao, Professor and Dean, School of Communication and Design, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, ChinaStevan Harrell, Professor of Anthropology, University of Washington, Seattle
Huang Ying Feng, Architect, Collector, and Curatorial Advisor for Writing with Thread, Taoyuan, Taiwan
Li Qianbin, Director and Curator, Guizhou Provincial Museum, Guizhou, China
Kate Lingley, Assistant Professor of Chinese Art History, University of Hawaii
Angela Sheng, Assistant Professor of Chinese Art History, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada; curator of Writing with ThreadXi Keding, Curator, Cultural Palace of Nationalities, Guizhou; Consultant, Institute of Archaeology and Cultural Relics, Guizhou, China
Zhang Xiao, Director and Associate Professor, Institute of Minority Culture, Guizhou Academy of Social Sciences, Guizhou, China
Interpreters will assist in the presentations.

EXHIBITION SUMMARY
The University of Hawaii Art Gallery hosts a major exhibition from Taiwan that coincides with the Textile Society of America 11th Biennial Symposium in Honolulu. The exhibition, Writing with Thread: Traditional Textiles of Southwest Chinese Minorities, on loan from the Evergrand Art Museum from September 21-November 30, 2008, features a collection of southwest Chinese ethnic minority costumes unmatched in the world. During the last 17 years, the Evergrand Museum in Taiwan, under the direction of Huang Ying Feng, has assembled the most extraordinary examples of the textile arts of the southwest region of China. Of over 11,000 pieces collected by Mr. Huang, more than 500 objects, including historically significant clothing and spectacular silver ornaments from 15 ethnic groups and nearly 100 subgroups, will be shown in the United States for the first time in Writing with Thread.

Writing with Thread will provide an arresting visual feast of exquisite and rare costumes. Visitors will wander through the gallery to view entire ensembles of women's, men's and children's regalia, baby carriers, quilt covers, festive and religious vestments, silver jewelry, embroidered silk valences, and wax-resist dyed curtains, plus a loom, weaving tools, and embroidery cases. All are arranged in a meandering environment that suggests the great river systems of this region of China along which the various groups settled.

Writing with Thread explores the meanings associated with the production and use of indigenous clothing. In societies without written languages, traditions and customs are orally passed from generation to generation. However, the textile arts, largely practiced by women, 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. Together, the textiles and silver ornaments, as complements to their oral traditions, record and transmit ideas and concepts that are important for the preservation and reconstruction of the identities of their makers and users.

The exhibition, the largest and most comprehensive of its kind to date, will showcase the finest and rarest costumes from the Miao (Hmong), Yi, Dong, Tujia, Shui, Zhuang, Dai, Buyi, Yao, Gelao, Hani, Jingpo, Li, Maonan, and Zang. The needlework and silverwork of each ethnic group show variations in their myths of origin and heroic combats, communal memories, and wish fulfillment.

The University of Hawaii Art Gallery has assembled an international team of scholars to conduct research for the exhibition and the accompanying catalogue. Textile scholar Angela Sheng from McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada is principal curator of the exhibition. She has worked with scholars in China to select the most extraordinary examples of objects from this unparalleled collection.

The scale and quality of this spectacular exhibition has already gained worldwide attention. Writing with Thread serves as the fulcrum for the Textile Society of America Biennial Symposium, "Textiles as Cultural Expressions," in Honolulu. From Wednesday, September 24 to Saturday, September 27, 2008 hundreds of textile specialists, curators from many of the most distinguished museums, and scholars from around the world will meet in Hawaii to share their research and observe and learn about Hawaii's own multifaceted textile traditions. Museums and galleries throughout Honolulu will also present textile related exhibitions.

Following its presentation at the University of Hawaii Art Gallery Writing with Thread will travel to the Chazen Art Museum at the University of Wisconsin, Madison and the Museum of International Folk Art in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

PUBLICATION
A 320-page illustrated catalogue will document the exhibition.

PUBLICITY PHOTOS
High-resolution digital images are available upon request.

WEBSITE
For more information please visit http://www.hawaii.edu/artgallery

University of Hawaii System
Established in 1907 and fully accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges, the University of Hawaii is the state's sole public system of higher education. The UH System provides an array of undergraduate, graduate, and professional degrees and community programs on 10 campuses and through educational, training, and research centers across the state. UH enrolls more than 50,000 students from Hawaii, the U.S. mainland, and around the world. For more information visit http://www.hawaii.edu/.