I bought my first Kashmiri shawl in a small import shop called Tika in Stratford, Ontario. Since then, my collection of shawls has grown to a dozen ornately designed and heavily textured Kashmiri gems, all to my mind, of immense beauty and refinement. At a lecture recently given at the Textile Museum in Toronto, which revealed the history of these remarkable shawls, my knowledge and love for this exquisite artform only deepened. I learned that in using the tapestry weave technique, these garments were worked with as many as four hundred bobbins of multiple colours, all positioned at the same point on the weft, and that they were designed with freely inventive, overlapping patterns. My favourite designs, seemingly concerned with a symmetrical overall pattern (at first glance), were often completed with a woven area that was quite unique to the body of the piece. This surprise element intrigued me to the point at which I began seeing these particular weavings as drawings representing line, freely executed. Further thought examined the possibility of making a shawl-drawing or paper garment that could actually be worn. Though not a novel idea, I can't seem to resist the opportunity to shake up my own artwork. A Chicago artist, Nick Cave, who makes extraordinarily textured and sculpted costumes, is part of this wearable art wavelength. He brilliantly integrates costume design with the idea of animated sculpture and dance that is at once traditional and exotic, ethnic and timeless, incorporating an element of free-association with his chosen materials. Tempi Libre!
The images show an example of a hand-woven Kashmiri shawl of the Sikh period, cicrca 1850.
Also, see Nick Cave's video on YouTube called "Art In Motion": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PwupTQt9zxY
The images show an example of a hand-woven Kashmiri shawl of the Sikh period, cicrca 1850.
Also, see Nick Cave's video on YouTube called "Art In Motion": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PwupTQt9zxY
