Hearst Art Gallery
Saint Mary's College
Moraga, California
925-631-4379
Stories Woven In: the Navajo Way of Seeing
The Hearst Art Gallery of Saint Mary's
College will present "Stories Woven In: the Navajo Way of Seeing, "
a major exhibition about Navajo weaving and culture, opening on Saturday,
October 2, and continuing through Sunday, December 19, 1999. On display
are forty-nine superb examples of Navajo blankets and rugs spanning more
than one hundred and thirty years. However, it is the recently uncovered
stories behind the creation of these objects, passed down from generation
to generation of weavers, that make this exhibition unique.
When
curators Paul Zolbrod and Rosann Willink first began to research Navajo
rug design two decades ago, they were surprised to find bits of unusual
material that had found their way into the textiles. "What appears
on the surface to be a beautiful design actually has a deeper meaning: a
body of information about the past in the same way our western culture relies
on books to preserve its heritage," claims Zolbrod, the senior curator
at the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture. Co-curator Willink is a University
of New Mexico instructor of Navajo language and member of a family of weavers
from Pueblo Pintada. (left: Wearing Blanket, 1890, 47 x 76
inches; right: Blanket (Germantown), 1900, 47 x 75 inches, Photo
by Blair Clarke)
Using the laboratories of the University of New Mexico,
they discovered slivers of animal sinew, dollar bills and feathers carefully
hidden within the fibers. Along with ancient stories, the Navajo weavers
and 
elders
they consulted gradually divulged weaving secrets to the two researchers
rarely before shared with outsiders. The curators learned that while a weaver
may duplicate a scene before her, with all the subtleties of dawn, cloud,
mesa and sand, weavers have imbued ceremonial and family textiles with greater
power and meaning. Horse sinew meant that a rider could carry the strength
of a particular animal with him on journeys and paper currency would bring
prosperity. In one poignant story, hidden feathers represented a hope for
freedom from a 19th century Navajo weaver, who was kidnapped from her pueblo
by another tribe who coveted her renown weaving skill.
Traditional designs, including the most geometric, were
a form of prayer. The patterns and the weaving process itself, always begin
slowly, like a chant, then grow more complex toward the center before fading
to a closing symmetrical to the opening. In addition to the superb textiles,
the exhibition includes photographs, photo-enlargements of weaving detail,
wall-mounted passages of text including weavers' quotes, chants, stories,
and poems, and CD soundtrack and continuous loop video that takes the viewer
from sheep raising to wool preparation to weaving. Zolbrod and Willink have
written an extensive color catalog, Weaving a World: Textiles and the
Navajo Way of Seeing, which will be available for sale in the Gallery
shop.
On Sunday, October 10, the co-curators will present a slide
lecture, "Weaving An Exhibition: Matching Stories With Rugs,"
on the collaboration among Navajo weavers, elders and museums curators in
the development of this exhibition. Tours, storytelling and hands-on activities
for people of all ages will round out the afternoon program. The exhibition
is funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment
for the Humanities, and the Museum of New Mexico Foundation.
Read more about the Hearst Art
Gallery in Resource Library Magazine.
Search for more articles
and essays on American art in Resource Library. See America's Distinguished Artists
for biographical information on historic artists.
This page was originally published in 1999 in Resource
Library Magazine. Please see Resource Library's Overview section for
more information.
Copyright 2012 Traditional
Fine Arts Organization, Inc., an Arizona nonprofit
corporation. All rights reserved.
When
curators Paul Zolbrod and Rosann Willink first began to research Navajo
rug design two decades ago, they were surprised to find bits of unusual
material that had found their way into the textiles. "What appears
on the surface to be a beautiful design actually has a deeper meaning: a
body of information about the past in the same way our western culture relies
on books to preserve its heritage," claims Zolbrod, the senior curator
at the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture. Co-curator Willink is a University
of New Mexico instructor of Navajo language and member of a family of weavers
from Pueblo Pintada. (left: Wearing Blanket, 1890, 47 x 76
inches; right: Blanket (Germantown), 1900, 47 x 75 inches, Photo
by Blair Clarke)