Utter Fabrication!

The phrase means "a lie -  totally made-up". But the other week, Bob and I visited an utterly fabulous exhibition of fabrics from all around the globe. Entitled "journeys" and displayed at Blickling Hall, our local NT property, it was just a part of a lifetime's collection of fabrics, amassed by Karun Thakar. Born in Kenya, growing up in Delhi finally settling in the UK, this man has been obsessed with textiles since childhood. There is a helpful explanatory video here [I'm putting KTs quotes in red.]We began in the entrance hall- KT says "the hall has a lot of portraits of men...so we wanted to bring the presence of women's work into the hallway"

We saw  kanthas, and baghs - the former , bedquilts made from saris or repurposed fabrics, the latter, head shawls worn at festivals and weddings. A riot of colour, a diversity of stitching- representing the realities of rural and local life. 'In the textiles, needles became tools of agency and remembrance for women'

In the Brown Drawing Room, KT chose to display lots of Indian textiles. in 1938, Philip Kerr,Blickling's last owner, invited Jawaharta Nehru and his daughter Indira Gandhi here, to discuss the future of an independent India. A Kashmir shawl, Gujurat hangings and a palampore [block printed cotton wall hanging] The British East India Company [founded 1600] exported Indian fabrics to Europe, and they became instantly fashionable. I was sorry that no reference was made to the Norwich Shawl [a number of reviewers have picked up this point!]

The prints in the Print Room were mostly collected  by an earlier owner of the Hall, John Hobart on his travels in Italy. John had eight children, four of whom died very young. He never recovered from this loss. KT chose to display this unfinished Italian silk-on-linen embroidery to represent their unfinished lives..."I am fascinated by unfinished textiles because they represent all sorts of possibilities...a thing of curiosity that leaves the gaps for the viewer to fill in"

In the South Drawing Room, KT reflects colonial trading power. The East India Company brought in the chintz printed fabric in the 1600s but this affected English and French producers. The Calico Acts were passed in the 1700s - and European textile production, like these French toile du Jouy designs flourished, whilst increased colonial activity in the subcontinent decimated the Indian industries.

In the Upper Ante Room Blickling has a collection of Japanese object - here KT displayed some of his kimonos [the guide told us he has thousands in store!]

In the Peter the Great Room, there were, unsurprisingly , many robes from the Russian Empire - " I want to show the diversity of people living across Russia in the 1800s...ikat robes, and Arabichi coats

The Long Gallery and Library housed some fabulous African printed fabrics - kente cloth made from silk and cotton traded across the world as early as the 1500s/

The whole thing was a riot of colour, and beautiful stitchery. As I went from room to room ,there were many other visitors [mostly women], admiring, discussing, comparing the textiles. It was good to talk with other people who share my passion for working with fabric, restoring old materials, reclaiming forgotten techniques ....

It is a good, worth seeing. But Bob and I both felt the information panels were a little short on facts- which places in Russia were represented by those robes,  how did the designs link across the world? Where are they telling the story of how the boteh motif of India appearing on the Norwich shawl, and then on Paisley shawls and now often called a Paisley Pattern? what was the symbolism of the different colours used?  I did feel sorry for the volunteer NT guides, because many of the visitors were asking these questions, and they were not sufficiently equipped to answer them. 

But that deficit means I only award 4*