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Indepth Arts News:
"SHAMIANA: THE MUGHAL TENT"
2000-05-27 until 2000-07-01
ROCHDALE ART GALLERY
Rochdale, ,
UK United Kingdom
Shamiana: The Mughal Tent is a unique exhibition. Twenty richly decorated
textile panels, designed and hand-made by groups of mainly South Asian women and
girls from the United Kingdom and across the world, will be displayed. The
panels are a testament to the inspirational power of the arts of South Asia and
the textile skills, imagination and powers of self-expression of their makers
who, without formal art or design training, have created works of extraordinary
freshness and quality.
Shamiana is an arts education initiative by the Victoria and Albert Museum,
London. It symbolises the United Kingdom's links with South Asia, both past and
present, and the continuing vitality of the South Asian cultural tradition.
The qanats or decorated textile tent panels in the collection of the Victoria
and Albert Museum inspired women who were themselves skilled both in
contemporary machine textile techniques and in traditional hand methods of
sewing and embroidery. The groups created their own designs and images, based
on the forms, symbolism and techniques of Islamic art used in a contemporary
way. We were wanting the women to say something about their own lives and we
felt we were giving status to their skills as embroiders but also to their
thoughts and opinions. Subjects covered include life in Blackburn, Arabic
calligraphy and Burnley women from different cultural backgrounds.
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