Miao
MINNEAPOLIS—Members of one of the largest ethnic
54
minorities in China, most Miao people live in the
southern provinces of Guizhou, Hunan, and Yunnan.
Like many other Asian cultures, Miao peoples employ
textiles, clothing, and accessories to express their
identity. For the Miao, elaborate festival costumes and
silver adornments are the most important forms of visual
art, and their embroidery and indigo-dyeing techniques
are renowned. Clothing indicates the wearer’s
age and marital status and marks important rites of
passage. Traditional motifs record Miao history and
beliefs, while decorative techniques, patterning, and
stitches distinguish one group from another.
The Minneapolis Institute of Arts is holding an exhibition
of this material titled Miao Clothing and Jewelry
from China. On view until July 1, 2018, it features
nearly fi fty examples from MIA’s collection of more
than 1,200 textiles and 450 pieces of jewelry made in
the last century by Miao artists.
ABOVE RIGHT: Eric Adjetey
Anang (Ghanaian, b. 1985),
Honey bee coffi n, 2017.
Kane Kwei Carpentry
Workshop, Accra, Ghana.
Northern white pine, nails, glue, joint
compound, acrylic paint, satin fabric.
L: 2.74 m.
Collection of the artist. Photo: UIMA.
ABOVE LEFT: Woman’s
skirt, jacket, sash, apron,
hat, and necklace.
China. 20th century.
Cotton, silk, embroidery, indigo dye,
beads.
Minneapolis Institute of Arts, The
Helen Jones Fund for Asian Art,
98.15.4 (skirt), 94.54.8 (sash),
94.54.3 (apron), 96.91.6a, b (hat);
the Ethel Morrison Van Derlip
Fund and gift of funds from Thirza
Cleveland and Joan Wurtele,
95.43.34 (coat); and the Suzanne
S. Roberts Fund for Asian Art,
2003.134.12 (necklace).
MUSEUM NEWS
Art & the Afterlife
IOWA CITY—For the fi rst time in more than twenty
years, the University of Iowa Museum of Art is presenting
a solo exhibition of works by a contemporary African
artist. Art & the Afterlife: Fantasy Coffi ns by Eric
Adjetey Anang features coffi ns by the Ghanaian artist
who is the grandson of Seth Kane Kwei (1922–1992),
the innovator of the elaborate Ghanaian coffi ns that
have attracted international attention over the years.
These are among the most celebrated (and debated)
forms of African art today. As the exhibition demonstrates,
the “afterlife” of Anang’s work refers at once
to a funerary tradition among Ga peoples of southern
Ghana and to an artistic practice that reconfi gures the
scope and meaning of mortality and cultural identity.
Anang now manages the Kane Kwei Carpentry Workshop
just outside Accra, which opened in the 1950s
and continues to make the customized coffi ns today.
Since the UIMA still is not open, the exhibition is being
held at the Black Box Theater at the Iowa Memorial
Union, where it can be seen until December 10, 2017.
In addition to the coffi ns themselves, the installation
also features video-recorded interviews with Anang
and other coffi n-makers from Ghana. The exhibition
was curated by Cory Gundlach, UIMA Curator of the
Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas, and Anang
was UIMA artist-in-residence during autumn of 2017.
The Coromandel Coast
HONOLULU—For centuries, the Indian subcontinent
was renowned as a center for the production of cotton
textiles. The earliest archaeological fragments, found
in the Indus Valley of Pakistan, date back to 3200 BC.
The related industries of processing cotton—including
spinning, weaving, bleaching, dyeing, printing,
and painting—would soon become well-established
unrivaled specializations and traditions. Painted cloths
from the Coromandel Coast, manufactured in the vicinity
of Masulipatam and Pulicat, were considered
especially refi ned and esthetically pleasing and com-
RIGHT: Ceremonial cloth,
dodot. Coromandel Coast,
India, for the Indonesian
market. 18th century.
Cotton, plain weave, mordant-dyed,
painted, and printed.
Honolulu Museum of Art, gift of The
Christensen Fund, 2001,
inv. 10860.1.