University of Nebraska - Lincoln DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings Textile Society of America 9-2012 Textile Society of America- Abstracts and Biographies Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/tsaconf "Textile Society of America- Abstracts and Biographies" (2012). Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings. 761. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/tsaconf/761 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Textile Society of America at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. The Changing Politics of Textiles as Portrayed on Somali Postage Stamps Heather Akou When Somalia became an independent nation in 1960, the change in power was celebrated with new postage stamps. Departing from the royal portraits and vague images of "natives" favored by their colonizers, Somalis chose to circulate detailed images of local plants, animals, artisanal products, and beautiful young women in wrapped fabrics. In the early 1960s, these images were fairly accurate representations of contemporary fashions. Over the next twenty years, with a few notable exceptions, these images became more romanticized focusing on the folk dress worn by nomads in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Confronting drought, corruption, and economic interference from the West, dictator Siad Barre (who came to power in a military coup in 1969) longed openly for the "good old days" of nomadic life. As the country became increasingly unstable in the 1980s, leading to the collapse of the national government in 1991, postal depictions of textiles and wrapped clothing became even more divorced from reality: surface patterns unrelated to the drape of the cloth, fabrics that were too thin or wrapped in impossible ways, and styles of dress that were nothing but fantasy. This paper is based on an analysis of postage stamps collected by the author dating from the 1920s to 2000. As a form of material culture closely tied to national governments, postage stamps provide a fascinating window into the changing political landscape of Somalia. Dr. Heather Marie Akou is an associate professor of Dress Studies and Fashion Design at Indiana University (Bloomington) in the department of Apparel Merchandising and Interior Design. She is also a member of the African Studies, Islamic Studies, and Middle Eastern Studies programs as well as an adjunct faculty member in Anthropology. Her book, the Politics of Dress in Somali Culture was released by Indiana University Press in June 2011. She is currently gathering new data on contemporary Islamic fashion along with how native-born converts to Islam in North America decide to change or not change their appearance over time. Weaving to Decontaminate History: A Response to Bosnia’s Ethnic Cleansing Azra Aksamija This paper investigates the potency of textile art as a medium of documenting, analyzing and interviewing in crisis and political conflict. It explores the modalities though which textile art - and more specifically, the tradition of kilim weaving - can offer a critical response to nationalism, while facilitating social healing of communities damaged by war and genocide. I aim to address these issues though my art project "Monument in Waiting," a wool kilim hand- woven by female victims of the 1992-95 war in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Inspired by "Afghan war rugs," the pattern of this seemingly traditional Bosnian kilim represents abstracted facts and personal memories about the ethnic cleansing in Bosnia, depicting the story of nine destroyed and recently rebuilt mosques. The systematic destruction of religious architecture showed that nationalist extremists recognized them as evidence of coexistence, and targeted it specifically to recreate Bosnian territories ethnically and religiously pure. This story depicted on this kilim focuses on mosque architecture with regard to the way in which the wanton destruction created a rupture in the cultural continuity of Bosnian Muslims, and made its witnesses, and the next generation much more aware of the function of the mosque as a marker of cultural, spiritual and national identity. The argument posed in my paper views kilim weaving as a medium for countering the nationalists' premise of cultural purification through the act of reweaving those memories of existence and coexistence erase in the war. The project "Monument in Waiting" was exhibited at the 54th Venice Biennale. Azra Aksamija is an artist and architectural historian, currently Assistant Professor in the Visual Arts at MIT's Art, Culture and Technology Program. She holds M.Arch. degree from Princeton University (2004) and Ph.D. from MIT (Architecture, 2011). In her interdisciplinary practice, Aksamija investigates the potency of art and architecture to facilitate transformative mediation of conflicts though cultural pedagogy. Her artwork takes shape though different types of media, including textile, video, performance, sculpture and/or new media. Recent exhibitions include the Royal Academy of Arts London (2010), Jewish Museum Berlin (2011), and the 54th Art Biennale in Venice (2011). The Impact of Dividing One Ethnical Community to Two or More Subgroups by a Political Act Yaser Al Saghrji The impact of dividing one ethnical community to two or more subgroups by a political act has always showed its outcomes on that group's weavings. The Beluchies are a classical example. However nowhere have I seen the outcome results of such a case as clear as we did in the Kurdish area divided between north western Syria (Afreen) and south eastern Turkey. On the Syrian side of the border weavings for home use only unlike their cousins across the border in Turkey a country that became a destination for kilim-buyers from all over the world. I went to the area rented a home met the last few living weavers collected more than 150 pieces and studied them well. We have also showed those to dealers and experts and asked their opinions. I saw how the arbitrary drawing of the middle east map by the end of 19th century and the beginning of the 20th worked unconsciously well in keeping the textiles of that area from corruption that altered those made by the same group across the border. Very few types of textiles came to a halt being affected by commercializing. political act in this case kept those pieces in a "pure" form. 1980 started to work in textile retail business in Damascus Syria 1992 graduated from Damascus University B A in English literature 1993-1996 freelance textiles buyer in Turkey, Iran some central Asia and north Africa 1996 established Yanakilims kilim business 1996 current first Syrian published in hali exhibited in historic sites in Damascus and dubai lectured on tribal weavings and had talk tour in usa 2002-2005 partnered in Arabesque textiles business in London UK 2003 with my wife co-started Alwan Afreen weaving 1968 born project Current I work on my website my book about Kurdish rugs from north western Syria and live with my wife and two boys in MD USA Embroidered Politics Miriam Ali-De-Unzaga A magnificent embroidered tunic was found in 1968 at the Monastery of OÒa in Burgos, Spain (one of the richest and most influential monasteries during the Iberian Medieval period). The significance and great value of this embroidery, produced in al-Andalus, is threefold: 1) Its high material value: made of silk and gold of extremely high quality. 2) Its visual value, which includes Arabic inscriptions (eulogies and qur'anic verses) and the iconography of a royal figure and sixty-six animals. 3) Its historical value: used and reused by Andalusi and Castilian rulers, the embroidery is an unexpected witness of the political relationships between these two contexts. However, despite its historical and artistic value, this piece remains unknown and has not been given its rightful prominent place in the history and culture of the Iberian Peninsula. My contribution: 1) Presents new data based on iconographic analysis and documentary sources, which determine with high certainty the identity of the figure of the embroidery and its production and use under the Andalusi Umayad Caliphate as a prestigious robe of honour. 2) Explores the embroidery's various biographies within Muslim and Christian courts revealing a complex framework of relationships between Andalusi and Castilian political elites (10th- 11th centuries); and focus on how the materiality of the embroidery illustrates political and cultural aspects of Islamic civilization within al-Andalus, which in turn helps to understand the aspects which brought cross-cultural-dressing to the Castilian milieu. Miriam Ali-de Unzaga' has carried out pioneering research on textile culture for more than a decade. She holds a Master's degree in Islamic Humanities from the Institute of Ismaili Studies, in London; M.Phil & D.Phil from the Institute of Anthropology & Museum Ethnography, University of Oxford. Doctoral thesis: Weaving Social Life. She has been awarded postdoctoral fellowships by the ROM, Toronto, the University of Oxford, and Harvard University. Her publications focus on Andalusi and Fatimid textiles and those social actors involved with them. Currently Visiting Scholar at the Papyrus Museum-Austrian National Library carrying out research on Egyptian medieval textiles. Samplers, Sewing, and Star Quilts: Changing