VISUAL ARTS

Prof. Rodgers, Garrity Chair, Sociology and Anthropology, College of the Holy Cross, and student docents Hana Carey, ’13, Tricia Giglio, ’14, Martha Walters ’14  will give the talk "Transnational Ikat: Fieldwork Discoveries about an Asian Textile on the Move" in conjunction with the exhibition Tranational Ikat. With Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and Holy Cross Dean’s Office support, Rodgers and her students conducted fieldwork in Bali and Kuching, Sarawak in summer 2012 to explore the exhibition’s transnational ikat themes.

Ikat is a ‘textile on the move’ today: moving across borders from Southeast Asia to other parts of the world, moving from ritual use to American fashion wear and other marketplace forms, moving from Asian villages to international museums and art collecting circuits. This exhibition of ikat cloths from Indonesia and Malaysia displays over 40 of these remarkable textiles, both in their deeply ceremonial forms and in their vibrantly commercialized versions. The exhibition focuses on ikats from eastern Indonesia, Sumatra, Sulawesi, and Malaysia’s Sarawak.

The Cantor Art Gallery gratefully acknowledges funding support for Transnational Ikat from the Holy Cross Sociology & Anthropology Department and Asian Studies Program.

Reservations for guided tours of Transnational Ikat for Holy Cross classes, groups, and off-campus visitors are available by contacting Paula Rosenblum, gallery coordinator, at 508-793-3356 or prosenbl@holycross.edu.