SPARK!: When Threads Meet, They Speak

When Threads Meet, They Speak

Visual descriptions in audio and text formats are listed below for the artworks in the exhibition. Large font labels are also provided, containing artwork details. Artworks are ordered by their placement in the gallery from front to back and top to bottom, starting with the left side of the gallery then to the right, from where visitors enter the exhibition through the John Michael Kohler Arts Center’s atrium.

Untitled, kantha textile – Red Untitled, kantha textile – Blue Dab Tsho moob Ntsuab (Green Mong Jacket Collar) Dab Tsho Hmoob Dawb (White Hmong Jacket Collar) Coiled Dragons Hmong Story Cloth Bengali Story Cloth Boro Futon Cover Boro Futon Cover – Tattered Boro Sashiko Noragi Boro Indigo Kimono Geija Women’s Jacket Hmu Hundred-Bird Coat

Left side of the gallery:

Visual Description of Untitled, kantha textile – Red

Listen here:

Your browser does not support the audio tag.

A deep red colored kantha textile from Bengali culture. It is called a nakshi kantha, meaning it is illustrative. The textile is a rectangle made from synthetic fiber. There is an illustrated imaginary creature. The creature is in the center of the textile and made from multicolored cotton threads that are mainly oranges, blues, yellows, reds, and greens. The creatures’ eyes are prominently displayed within the middle of the textile. The eyes are formed with blue, white, black, and red threads. The creature is made using many embroidered pointed lines and curves that meet into points. The red background is filled with running stitch embroidery done in the same red color. These stitches follow the outline of the creature to make layers of undulating and repetitive lines surrounding the illustration. The piece is inset into a grey fabric holder onto a white wall.

Artwork Label:

Artists Unknown, West Bengal, India  Untitled, kantha textile, c. 2000–2010   Hand-embroidered cotton threads over synthetic cloth   John Michael Kohler Arts Center Collection, gift of Kohler Foundation, Inc. 

Visual Description of Untitled, kantha textile – Blue

Listen here:

Your browser does not support the audio tag.

A dark blue nakshi kantha textile from Bengali culture. The textile has an illustrative creature set in the middle of the cloth. The creature is embroidered onto the fabric and is multi-colored. The embroidered illustration uses circular shapes and patterns to form the creature. The cloth is a synthetic cloth, and the threads are cotton. These cotton threads are in the shades of yellow, red, orange, blue, and green. The creature has two eyes that are set in the middle of the creature. They are formed with green and red threads. Running stitch embroidery with a blue thread is used on the blue background to outline the creature and create undulating wave-like lines around the illustration. The piece is inset into a grey fabric holder onto a white wall.

Artwork Label:

Artists Unknown, West Bengal, India Untitled, kantha textile, c. 2000–2010 Hand-embroidered cotton threads over synthetic cloth John Michael Kohler Arts Center Collection, gift of Kohler Foundation, Inc.

Visual Description of Dab Tsho moob Ntsuab (Green Mong Jacket Collar)

Listen here:

Your browser does not support the audio tag.

A HMong textile from the Green Mong lineage. It is a Dab Tsho textile that is meant to be attached to the back collar of a woman’s jacket in a fashion where it dangles as a free hanging panel. The textile is a rectangle piece of cloth made of synthetic fiber and threads. It has multiple bands of appliqued border lines of various colors in pink, green, yellow, white, and black. These lines form borders around the inner border of yellow squares with pink diamonds. These small squares represent abstract floral designs. At the center bottom of the textile are two squares with small white squares embroidered with purple and green threads forming an X within the two larger squares. The spaces between the...