IMAGE DETAILS

Details of various Cambodian weavings

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01 March 2007

It has become a tradition to have museum-type expositions at the entrance of the Caskey-Lees San Francisco Asian and Tribal Art Fairs. Here contributing editor Thomas Murray, a past curator of such exhibits, looks at the special display of Khmer weft ikat diagonal twill weavings from Cambodia, presented by Lee and Vichai Chinalai during the recent Arts of Pacific Asia Show (9 – 11 February 2007).

Lee and Vichai Chinalai from Shoreham in New York have established themselves as the leading dealers of Chinese Minority and Mainland Southeast Asian textiles in the United States. They have done so by presenting at major art fairs artistically striking and intellectually engaging cloth and objects which are not only beautiful but often relatively early.

As dealers, the Chinalais have academic credibility as well; they have published more articles and essays on their manifold areas of interest than any of their colleagues, often breaking new ground in their research, as, for instance in their recent article ‘Written in Silk’ (HALI 150, pp.86-89), which provides a context for understanding Meifu Li headcloths from Hainan, which are embroidered with calligraphic poems. But now they have eclipsed even those accomplishments with the special exhibition ‘Cambodian Ikat, An Exploration’ at The Festival Pavilion at Fort Mason.

In previous years, the Chinalais were always the first to lend well photographed and properly described art objects from remote parts of China’s minority areas for such presentations, thereby making a visiting curator’s job much easier. It therefore my pleasure as a former beneficiary of their aid to reciprocate with a few words to describe what happened when they were given the opportunity to present the results of years of study of weft ikat diagonal twill weavings from Cambodia: sheer magic, that’s what!

Theirs was a magic spun of a world long ago. Whether draped on bamboo poles from on high or running at great lengths horizontally, the cloth recalled the decorated wall friezes at the ruins of Angkor; looking at their deep colours and exotic motifs, it was easy to day-dream of a Court populated by beautiful women wrapped in even more beautiful silks, sampot chawng kbun for the royals and sampot hol for lesser ladies, going about their rituals in the temple. The presentation was especially rich in the most prestigious Khmer ikats of all, temple hangings known as pidan. Some display narratives of the Buddha’s life, while others are populated with naga serpents, hamsa geese, peacocks, and perhaps most importantly, sailing vessels that refer to the opening of trade during the historic period but may have archaic symbolic values as well, related to the earlier roots of Dongson drums from Vietnam and observed in so called ‘ship cloths’ of south Sumatra. Never worn, many pidan display the finest technical virtuosity of binding and dyeing found in Southeast Asia among Indian influenced textiles, as noted in their sharply detailed graphics.

 This exceptional collection was assembled over decades and was revealed in San Francisco for the first time. Taking their role as educators seriously, the Chinalais waxed eloquently in their profusely illustrated essay introducing their exhibit, which was published over 18 pages in the show handbook, making it a ‘must-have’ catalogue. No symbol is left unexplained; no weaving technique un-discussed, including some pretty obscure variants: a novel example for me was what is termed ‘Ceremonial Table Cover’, which presents “spaced-dyed ikat in a continuous supplementary weft weave” which is perhaps more beautiful on the back than on the front! It takes a tremendous commitment of time and money to put together and hold a collection of such merit. Now that it is on the market, it is my hope that an astute museum or private collector will act quickly and acquire the whole group. We will not soon see such a gathering of greatness again!