2col   B-447.jpg

Woman’s tunic, Het Tui, 1930–1960.

FOR 2-2

‘COLLECTING CONTEXT’ SHOWS CHIN TEXTILES AT HAVERFORD w/1 cut

avv/gs set 1-22 #685349

HAVERFORD, PENN. — Rare textiles of the Chin peoples, a heterogeneous hill group living in western Myanmar (Burma), northeastern India and Bangladesh, will be on view at the John B. Hurford ’60 Humanities Center, Stokes Building, Room 102, Haverford College, February 16–March 25. An opening reception will February 16, from 5 to 7 pm.

“Collecting Context: An Exhibition of Chin Textiles with a Story” includes 13 ceremonial costumes and blankets, and historic and contemporary photographs that show how Chin peoples use these textiles, which are central to Chin social life.

The exhibit offers a dual focus on the objects and on collecting. Chin sellers and donors of textiles, dealers and collectors work together (despite differing goals) to produce knowledge and aesthetic judgments about Chin material culture.

The 13 previously unexhibited (and some unpublished) cloaks, loincloths, skirts and blankets, along with the photographs and multimedia display, speak to Chin cultural traditions and innovations, and to the collector’s role in creating Chin textiles as objects of value.

David W. Fraser, MD (Haverford College Class of ’65) curated the exhibition with Haverford faculty member Maris Gillette. Since 2000, David and Barbara G. Fraser have made seven study trips to western Myanmar and northeast India to study and collect Chin textiles, and have visited archival, photographic and material collections about the Chin in Asia, Europe, and North America.

They have published articles and a book on Chin material culture, Mantles of Merit: Chin Textiles from Myanmar, India and Bangladesh (River Books, 2005); the Frasers also have curated exhibitions at the University of Pennsylvania, Denison University and The Textile Museum.

The college is at 370 Lancaster Avenue. For information, 610-896-1336.