A Continuing Thread

Today I met my abstract painter friend at the Rubin Museum of Art to see "Color and Light" an exhibit of embroidered cloth from India and Pakistan.

The Rubin Museum is housed in what used to be Barney’s department store. Barney’s downtown was a wonderful institution. It was a quaint store of esoteric and exquisite goods. About a decade ago, it transformed from boutique artsy Alexander McQueen to box store, label-whore Paris Hilton. It moved uptown into larger, flashier space and filed Chapter 11 shortly afterward. Barney’s left a lovely empty shell of a building on the corner of 17th Street and 7th Avenue which remained vacant for years.

Fortunately, a wealthy couple with a wonderful Asian art collection saw the potential in the building. They bought it, made gentle renovations, and now have a lovely little museum in Chelsea.

The Rubin’s Museum exhibit spaces are perfectly sized for Asian art. Classical Asian art tends to be dense with ornament. There is so much information in each piece that I find it best to look at a limited number of pieces at one time. Here, the exhibition spaces allow viewers to see a collection of approximately 30-50 pieces on each floor. I believe this exhibit had about 35 pieces, which was ideal.

There was a mix of Hindu (figurative) and Muslim (non-figurative geometric, plant-forms) work. Many of the pieces were rich with subtle, abstract depictions of deities or symbols that only emerged after careful observation (such as the abstract Ganeshe in the early 1900s Kathi bedding cover or dharaniyo).

The use of materials in these pieces is interesting. A mid 1900s wedding dress or jumlo from the northwest Frontier Province of Pakistan included zipper parts stitched into tight coils. Beetle wings or elytra sewn into the boarder of a dresser scarf formed iridescent flower petals and leaves. An indigo thread was embedded under heavily quilted white cloth from Kashmir which was intended as a sort of window shade. When illuminated in a sunny window, the blue thread would emerge as a delicate line.

The layering and juxtaposition of materials and design elements is also intriguing. The base of a large bridal or festival head cover or odhani from Bharwad community in Gujarat was a black tie-dyed cloth. It appeared that a dotted design had been formed using tied-up seeds (a method I witnessed in Jodphur). A stitched border mimicked the white tie-dye design, and was further embellished with an adjacent border design in bright colored threads. This build up of the design from fabric dye to stitching gave it a subtle dimensional effect. The fabric appears to get thicker along the edges.

The intervals of black and white and brightly colored designs energized the piece with a suggestion of movement or radiance. The wide borders along the short ends of the cloth were heavily embroidered with bright colors and the stitches built up in piles of thread. Small mirrors were sewn into the patterns, which lent a greater sense of depth when the flatness of the mirror was contrasted with the topography of the stitches.

Another bridal or festival head cover called a abochhini from Sindh Pakistan had a similar dotted tie-dye fabric base cloth. The embroidered and mirrored border only covered the two long ends. The border stretched into the center of the headress in two floral-covered swastikas. The geometric, floral, and dyed designs complemented each other beautifully. The rustic, unfinished quality of the tie-dyed fabric was balanced by the controlled geometric pattern and polished floral design.

After viewing the show, we decided to make an impromptu visit to Jackson Heights. We had Indian food for lunch and shopped in the Indian music, clothing, jewelry, and grocery stores.

Of course, the cloth at the stores wasn’t as fine as what we viewed at the museum, but the designs, color choices, and stitches echoed what we had observed. It makes me happy to see that these traditions continue in some form.