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Fabricating Power with Balinese Textiles

February 23–July 8, 2018
Bard Graduate Center Gallery

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Western scholars and artists converged on the tropical island of Bali, Indonesia, in the first half of the 20th century attracted by its unique culture and vibrant artistic practices. This exhibition considers the making and use of textiles as ceremonial objects that operate within a unique Balinese Hindu cosmology while exploring the role of textiles as symbols of cultural resilience and continuity. On view will be exquisite and rare pieces assembled from collections in the United States, including examples from the American Museum of Natural History that were collected by anthropologists Margaret Mead and Gregory Bateson during their fieldwork in Bali. Deriving their aesthetic and ritual powers from techniques of fabrication and use in various lifecycle ceremonies, these textiles also serve as records of an important period in Balinese history. Drawing on information from the 1930s and recent research, the exhibition presents an overview of Balinese textiles and encourages visitors to consider the value of these objects as they are made and used today.

A Focus Project curated by Urmila Mohan, Bard Graduate Center/AMNH Postdoctoral Fellow in Museum Anthropology. Focus Projects are small-scale academically rigorous exhibitions and publications that are developed and executed by Bard Graduate Center faculty and postdoctoral fellows in collaboration with students in our MA and PhD programs.


Symposium—Bali and Beyond: 
Culture, Power, and Indonesian Textiles

February 26, 2018 1:00 – 6:00 pm

Organized in conjunction with the exhibition Fabricating Power with Balinese Textiles, this symposium expands upon themes of religion, power, and cultural resilience to include textiles from various parts of the Indonesian archipelago. Speakers include anthropologists, textile historians, and curators each of whom will offer reflections on the agency of Indonesian textiles ranging from their spiritual or ritual uses in their culture of origin to their re-contextualization in Western ethnographic and art museums.

1 pm
Peter N. Miller
Dean and Professor, Bard Graduate Center
Ivan Gaskell
Professor, Curator and Head of the Focus Project, Bard Graduate Center

Welcome 
Urmila Mohan
Bard Graduate Center / American Museum of Natural History Postdoctoral Fellow in Museum Anthropology
Introduction

1:20 pm
Adrian Vickers
Professor of Southeast Asian Studies, The University of Sydney
Balinese-Western Interactions in a Colonial Context: The 1930s Context of the Mead-Bateson Collection

2 pm
Meghan Bill
Curatorial Assistant, Arts of Asia, Africa, the Pacific Islands, and the Islamic World, Brooklyn Museum
A History of Indonesian Textiles at the Brooklyn Museum

2:40 pm
Coffee Break

3 pm
Ruth Barnes
Thomas Jaffe Curator of Indo-Pacific Art, Yale University Art Gallery
“Without cloth we cannot marry”: The Making and Meaning of Textiles in Eastern Indonesia

3:40 pm
Susan Rodgers
Professor Emerita, Anthropology, College of the Holy Cross 
Headhunting Cloths? Power and Interpretation in Iban and Dayak Textiles on the Move

4:20 pm
Coffee Break

4:40 pm
Urmila Mohan
Bard Graduate Center / American Museum of Natural History Postdoctoral Fellow in Museum Anthropology
Reflections on Curating Balinese Textiles

5:20 pm
Panel Discussion and Q&A
Moderated by Ivan Gaskell
Professor, Curator and Head of the Focus Project, Bard Graduate Center

6 pm
Reception