WEAVING STORIES at AAM.  

Viewed the current exhibition at the Asian Art Museum, definitely worth a visit. WEAVING STORIES.  on view through May 2, 2022. Joan and M.Glenn Vinson, Jr gifts to the museum are  most appealling.  I was especially interested in the Indonesian textiles. It would have interested me to know when, why and where the collectors acquired their treasures. Women weaving was always linked to their skill and eligibility as a bride.  Sometimes, they even acquired shaman like status. Local organic plants were used such as banana(abaca) and pineapple leaves (pina)  fibers spun into threads.

Curated by Dr. Natasha Reichle, the Associate curator of SE Asian Art, the aluable threads and elaborate ornamentation with gold and silver, ikat and supplementary weft were only worn by royal women.  Textiles also respected different faiths serving as talismans or protective garments.  In a rare silk cepuk from Bali, spiky white triangles aong its borders symbolize the teeth of the guardian deity Barong.  the ikats invited the protection of the gods and ancestors.