Erasure and Persian rugs, Neighborhood Happenings

The Hajii Baba presentation today was a departure from their usual multi slide rug program. It was a scholarly examination of the colonialism and commodification the West has imposed on the art form of the Persian rug. 

This has also enabled the total erasure of identity or credit to the women and children who actually created the rugs, while the men who traded in them grew rich from the rug makers' poorly paid and unrecognized labor. Even Western photographers actually in the process of picturing women and children at work never got their names, just referring to them as "women at a loom" or in generic terms. 

It has also enabled a hierarchy of who has the authority to speak on the art form,  and who commodified it as a luxury item for Western prestigious customers. The notion of white supremacy underlay the assumption that colonial art was being  "rescued" by being taken from the land where it was created.

The pushback is under way, with scholars and others starting to acknowledge that the artisans should be recognized,  that Eastern cultures can curate their own art without  western input, and that there is gross disparity between artisan earnings and that of the middlemen and buyers of their work.

With that preamble, I think the slides speak for themselves.

This was a moving and well researched program, dealing with much more than the beauty of the rugs and the tradition. Politics and agency underlie it all. 

In other news, I finished the skirt!

Here it's completed and pressed

this is how I hem, so the stitches are invisible from the right side

and here you see the overlap at the side, plenty of coverage despite the slit

And this is how it works. Modeled over tights.  First fasten the back, bringing the straps to the front

then fasten the front, bringing the straps round the back.

I'm pleased with it, very nice body to the pleats, nice hang.

And here's the matching fabric I plan to make the pocket from, with the bias tape  for edging. You'll see. This is how the pocket looks

Also while I had a needle handy, I finally figured out how to fix this summer hat which is too big. I found it has this gingham ribbon attached only on one edge, inside the brim.

That was an easy fix. I stitched down the hem leaving a gap,  to create a casing, to thread elastic through, to draw in the brim. Done. Now it fits and I'm wondering why it took years to figure this out. 

In other happenings -- years ago a neighbor friend and I had a purely imaginary neighborhood newsletter, named H--- (name of development) Happenings. Whenever anything interesting happened, we'd check it as a possible feature in H---Happenings.

The latest Happening is the safe delivery of a grandchild to neighbor Gary, after his daughter's complicated pregnancy, mom and baby fine, older siblings very excited. It entailed her going for specialist care to a city hospital quite a distance away, her father going with her. 

He called me last evening,  to update me, and to ask me to coordinate moving two huge bookcases back into the house from the patio.  They were out in the fine weather,  being painted by contractor M.  Rain was in the forecast, he couldn't be there, didn't want M. to move them alone, would I ask neighbor on the other side to help. 

Eventually it was all worked out, after numerous missed connections. In the course of these, I heard everyone's earthquake stories,  where they were at the time, what they thought it was at first,  childbirth stories, both in Bangalore and New Jersey,  also dog training in progress, how dog-friendly Colonial Williamsburg is, and Tuesday Trivia Night at the local bar. All of these got involved in the arrangements. 

The upshot: bookcases safely moved indoors,  mom and baby fine, expected home in a couple of days,  grandfather touch and go! Me, drinking tea to recover from the unexpected evening, and planning to check how contractor and Mrs M did at Trivia Night.

Happy day, everyone, be ready for anything, you never know.