On loss and absence: textiles of mourning and survival

Abstract

"A journey through the rich histories of textiles that explores their significant cultural roles, from memorializing lost loved ones to resisting oppression. From ancient Egyptian shrouds to medieval relics, textiles have played both functional and symbolic roles in rituals of death across time and place. Featuring funeral hangings, mourning samplers, garments, and many other textiles and fragments, along with works by contemporary textile artists such as Nick Cave (b. 1959) and Angela Hennessey (b. 1971), this book highlights how these objects help people negotiate experiences of loss, grief, healing, and survival. With over seventy textiles dating from antiquity to today, On Loss and Absence brings together examples from cultures and traditions around the world. Close-up photographs provide an intimate look at the wealth of artistic and historical information embedded in their intricate details and painstaking techniques. In four key sections--Death and Grief, Transition of Realms, Care and Healing, and Resistance and Survival--artists, conservators, educators, and scholars offer their in-depth perspectives on select objects and their context. Contemporary practitioners, including the Noqanchis collective of Andean weavers and Navajo weavers Lynda Teller Pete and Barbara Teller Ornelas, provide insight into the enduring legacies of Indigenous textile arts. A behind-the-scenes look at textile conservation examines preservation techniques in the larger thematic context of care and survival." -- Provided by publisher.

Contents

Introduction. Textiles of Mourning and Survival / Isaac Facio, Nneka Kai, L Vinebaum, Anne Wilson -- Death and Mourning. The Geometry of Loss / Valerie Cassel Oliver ; Grief and Disconsolate Forgetting : Objects of Mourning in the Context of Empire and Slavery / Jenni Sorkin ; Silent Witness : Ancient Textiles as Biocultural Archives of Disease and Human History / Gustavo Da Silva, Isaac Facio, Cristian Koepfli, Lucinda Pelon -- Transition of Realms. Of Water and Sky Along a Fibered Path / Folayemi Wilson ; For Eighteen Looped Clouds / Jen Chen-su Huang -- Care and Repair. Fragmentary Understanding : Textiles in the Encyclopedic Museum / Melinda Watt ; Wounds, Scars, and a Bandage / Jerry Bleem ; Representing and Re-Presenting Textiles / Sarah Molina, Cybele Tom -- Resistance and Survival. The Timelessness of Tatreez : Stitched Stories of Palestinian Makers Once Known / Wafa Ghnaim ; Material Inheritances, Lasting 'Til Sunday / Nneka Kai ; The Heartbeat of Andean Weaving / Alipio Melo, María José Murillo, Danitza Willka ; Rembrance as Resistance : The Quilts of Dorothy Burge / Sharbreon Plummer ; The Enduring Beauty of Diné Textiles / Lynda Teller Pete, Barbara Teller Ornelas.