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HHow many hands did it take to make this show? That is to say, how many artisans, craftsmen, weavers and artists’ hands went through it? Because this is a textile exhibition that doesn’t just celebrate a short list of single artists, but instead many talented artisans and communities who repeat the tips and skills of their ancestors. Take Entangled Memories, Interwoven Stories and Péro for example: it was created by 50 craftsmen and took 18,000 hours to complete. And that’s one piece, in an exhibition that spans three galleries.
These many hands and hours make Entangled and Woven a very beautiful show. Each fabric is covered in detail and texture. The fabrics are airy and ethereal one minute, and rich and drenched in deep indigo. In the heat, the fabric is shaken by the vibration of the fans, and the hands shoot quickly in the video work on the creation of the pieces. I am disappointed.
What elevates this show from “looks good” to “good” is the actual cultural exchange. The real genre, where the artists have personally experienced, visited other countries, and have created new works in response to these research trips. The exhibition brings together eight artists and groups from Korea and India, inviting them to incorporate new methods into their work, creating something new that transcends borders, culture and time.
The Whitworth has about 20,000 textiles from around the world, and in this exhibition it has several ancient Indian and Korean works, some from the 18th century. They are carefully placed around the building, sometimes showing new works and sometimes teaching us the art. It is difficult for these pieces – especially the wall hangings in frames – to command a presence together with today’s establishment, but they serve as a good history and a link to Manchester’s past as a textile center.
In the center of the gallery is the Veil_A Wonderful Curtain Wrapped Lightly in Gold by Jounghye Yoo. Suspended from the wooden beam on the ceiling is a tunnel of fabric that fades from indigo to red, bursting into glorious gold in the middle and back to red and finally indigo again. Inspired by the gate of the Kashi Vishwanath Temple in Varanasi, the texture of the rich paper is beautiful, and as I walk through it they slightly control the atmosphere, shaking me into a surreal world of color.
The work was done in collaboration with Dr Ismail Mohammad Khatri, an ajrakh printmaker from Gujarat, and his son, Juned Ismail. Ajrakh motifs dance with Korean embroidery using gold thread, and Indian cotton with Korean silk to create a work that unites different skills and blurs the lines between heritage, culture and artists – even between my body and the museum when I disappear in this covered passage.
Connections multiply between the artists in the next gallery where Somi Ko, Young In Hong and the fashion and culture brand Péro play with weight, fragmentation, animals and small mirrors. Somi Ko’s People of One, Moment is a series of Indian cotton figures made using traditional Indian glass. As I approach the dancing bodies, I see bits and pieces of my own form breaking apart and breaking into pieces, liberating me from my body.
At the other end of the building, Young In Hong incorporates this glass work into Sacred Empires, decorative flags made in collaboration with Kala Raksha, a group of artisans in Kutch, home to a small population of seven. In Indian belief, small mirrors are seen as ritual weapons that ward off evil spirits and mediate the presence of God.
The divine – or the spiritual realm – is also very present in the third room where Kaimurai, Sumakshi Singh and Yeonsoon Chang create the invisible. Singh designs a floating, floating bridge to show the links between Korea, India and the UK. They make fabrics that dissolve in water so that when the base dissolves, what’s left is a delicate thread of thread, shimmering on the deep blue walls of the room.
Kaimurai shows the way of meditation through folded sheets of khadi that reach up to the spiritual realm. Combining art and photography, Kaimurai’s work is creative and engaging. Beginning with a bell that hangs on a tall granite plinth, his cards rise slowly, each with a burst of indigo that recedes as if reality is returning.
Meanwhile, Chang ponders the Buddhist concept of Worincheongang, which means “the moon that appears over a thousand rivers”. Her shimmering pieces, dyed indigo and shimmering as if with divine power, evoke a sense of connection with the spiritual world and the realms of the moon itself.
Back in the big picture, Boito’s fantasy creation is created through a fusion of techniques from the Indian state of Odisha. The papier-mache chest comes from Raghurajpur; ringa cloth and beads from Malkangiri; sugarcane from Talabasta – the list goes on. It is a strange creature, with the head of a chicken, the leg of an elephant, the arm of a man and the trunk of a camel, each boasting a different fabric and method of production. It’s a perfect example of what’s happened – happily – in Entangled and Woven: cultures that come together to create the most fascinating art.
