"I am interested in this basic simple way of weaving uninterrupted for centuries, the same way in different geographical locations in the world" says Dr Canavan. She presented a series of photos on the importance of textiles, the symbols they carry and the creativity they bear.
She has spent years with the Iban Dayak tribes in Borneo, getting through their weaving to the essence of their outlook on religion and life. Each Iban Dayak house is specialized in a skill, woodcarving, sculpting etc... and any skill is considered a gift from God. Some old patterns were lost with memories not recorded or knowledge not transmitted.
"Weavers are not interested in words... Patterns are individual and need to be interpreted by the weaver." Dr Canavan will spend the next five month in Kuwait on a sabbatical to study traditional symbols in the geometrical forms of triangles, diamond shapes in black and white from the desert weaving, a craft close to extinction. A modern state today, Kuwait has the capacity to wipe out the past and build for the new.
In march 2010, she will share her conclusions in another lecture at the Sadu House Museum. Hopefully, she will find with her fresh eye and experienced perception what seems to be less valued and meaningful by the the future generations.
Dr Canavan's blog: Link
3 comments:
Interesting....Weaving, which historically had combined art with function, seems to be the lingua franca across civilizations. Patterns and forms seems to have been written on a same medium using the same material universally used to as rags, tents, and clothing, expressing the particularity of each culture, revealing its mind set at the time.
it is quite a world, and that lecturer had a fascination on weaving and textile.
I really hope that at the end of Dr. Canavan's 5 months in Kuwait we are going to get a much more informative and deeper insight into Sadu weaving. I had been under the wrong impression that her lecture last night was going to focus on Sadu weaving.
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