Journal articles on the topic 'Contemporary Embroidery'

Lu embroidery, one of the famous embroideries in Shandong province of China, is the earliest recorded Chinese embroidered species found in historical documents of China. Lu embroidery patterns on costumes have a wide range of subjects; their folk contents coagulate plenty of folk emotions. The motifs of Lu embroidery patterns on costumes express the totemism and the nature worship. They are the rites of passage and spiritual religious expressions. The cultural connotations in Lu embroidery patterns on costumes can inspire current designs, provide useful references for contemporary fashion designers and promote the development of embroidery costume markets.

While the men worked in the fields in the wine-like [winter] air, the women sat in the afternoon sun spinning and embroidering while they sang together, before starting to cook for their men. They embroidered phulkaris….” (Tandon 1968, 65). These stereotypes of feminine and masculine work in Prakash Tandon's memory book Punjabi Century illustrate dominant literary representations of economic production in Punjab, a province of the British Raj from the mid-nineteenth century until it was partitioned between independent India and Pakistan in 1947 (see fig. 1). Many Punjabi women used phulkari (literally, “flower-work”) embroidery to decorate their daily garments and handmade gifts in the nineteenth century. Illustrations only partially convey the vibrant visual impact of phulkaris, and even color photographs fail to capture fully the sheen of the silk thread. The embroidery ranges from striking geometric medallions in reds, shocking pinks, and maroons, through almost monochromatic golden tapestry-like, fabric-covering designs, to narrative embroideries depicting people and objects of rural Punjab. Women stitched phulkaris generally on handwoven cotton cloth (khadi), and phulkaris shared linked construction techniques, a dominant embroidery stitch (the darning stitch), and several distinctive motifs (Frater 1993, 71–74; Yacopino 1977, 42–45; Askari and Crill 1997, 95–101).

This article takes the Hami Uyghur embroidery patterns from the perspective of the Silk Road as the research object，explore the embodiment of harmony thought of Chinese traditional culture in Hami Uygur embroidery patterns. Through field investigation, literature analysis, analytical induction to systematically orders and studies the embroidery patterns of Hami Uygur, further summarizes the cultural causes of embroidery patterns and the harmonious cultural phenomenon. The research shows that: Hami Uygur embroidery patterns of the skills, themes and forms are reflected in the thought of harmony, and presents compatible with a variety of famous embroidery techniques, the theme of multiple integration, and the characteristics of harmony in form. It also puts forward the contemporary value of the research on Hami embroidery patterns and culture, which provides an important reference for the inheritance and development of Hami embroidery culture.

Words made of hair. Women’s reappropriations of writing through embroidery Contemporary pieces of embroidery showing words made of human hair open up reflections upon how women artists challenge the traditional partition between the needle (for women) and the pen (for men). The article offers a synthesis on the historical construction of this gendered assignation of needlework to women, from Renaissance to the early twentieth century. The idea of physical and moral coercion appears in the feminine history of needlework as well as in the history of the access of young women to reading and writing. Finally, if embroidery was for a long time excluded from metaphorical descriptions of literature, unlike weaving, the article ends up showing how the crossroads between writing and embroidery can be seen as a part of women’s emancipation.

Words made of hair. Women’s reappropriations of writing through embroidery Contemporary pieces of embroidery showing words made of human hair open up reflections upon how women artists challenge the traditional partition between the needle (for women) and the pen (for men). The article offers a synthesis on the historical construction of this gendered assignation of needlework to women, from Renaissance to the early twentieth century. The idea of physical and moral coercion appears in the feminine history of needlework as well as in the history of the access of young women to reading and writing. Finally, if embroidery was for a long time excluded from metaphorical descriptions of literature, unlike weaving, the article ends up showing how the crossroads between writing and embroidery can be seen as a part of women’s emancipation.

The purpose. This research aims to analyze artistic-compositional characteristics of Ukrainian traditional embroidery and decorative-applied art (using the example of M. Prymachenko’s art) used in the decoration of the actual ethno-styled garments. Methodology. A systematic approach was used in this research to project authorial contemporary garments: literary-analytical, morphological, and comparative analysis of the creative primary source, associative means of its adaptation to the actual fashion trends. The methodology of the research is based on the systematic analysis of the design projects using elements of the cultural heritage of Ukraine. Systematic-informational and visual-analytical methods were used in this research. Systematic-structural analysis was used to analyze the transformation of artistic-compositional elements in the process of shaping contemporary costumes based on associative transformations. Results. In the process of design project of the authorial collection of female Ethno-style clothes, it was found that decorative art and national garments have a high level of authentic symbolism if used for the actual projection image in conditions of contemporary design activity. Characterizations were given to some principles of implementation of the national image in contemporary trends of fashion industry development. Symbolic image of the floral ornament adapted from Prymachenko’s works as well as stylization of her works in ornamental motifs of the collection were used. Based on pre-project analysis and customer survey it was defined that there is significant interest in national motifs. A collection of female clothes targeted at a wide group of customers was designed. Scientific novelty. Principles of design-project of the collection of contemporary garments with authorial embroidery were proposed using an adaptation of national traditions of female clothes embroidery and folk-art decoration as a basis. Usage of different floral motifs and geometric ornament in ethno-style and implementation of this image as popular among contemporary women in their everyday life were justified. Practical significance lies in the development of principles of formation of authorial costume collection project-image, in justification of principles of ethnographically oriented prints and embroidery and the choice of decoration methods of contemporary female clothes.

This article describes a stitch-based research project that took place in 2016 in Manchester. It involved the Ahmed Iqbal Ullah Race Relations Archive, Burnage Academy for Boys and a professional embroiderer. Central to the enquiry is a signature cloth – a textile made up of hand-sewn autographs – used as a vehicle to explore young male identity and stereotypes about embroidery. The investigation signposts the flexibility of the signature that is utilized in the research to locate accessible activities and processes. In so doing, it formulates new avenues to access historical textile artefacts and illuminates their significance and contemporary relevance. The enquiry also outlines some of the tensions and dilemmas that permeate socially engaged practice(s) and offers new insights into the stitch-based collaborative/participatory process, in which the production of the tactile artefact is but one element; for alongside the stitch workshops a commemorative banner was a second outcome, made to memorialize a pupil killed in the school in a racially motivated crime in 1986. Shedding light on embroidery as a form of social engagement, the investigation also provides evidence of its applicability as an alternative, tactile means of communication. It similarly reveals and elucidates the dynamics inherent in this stitch-based community collaboration and draws attention to some of the planned and unexpected outcomes that emerge. The methodology offers a transparent model for those who may engage in similar practices and highlights its applicability to different audiences.

AbstractIn Clothing as Devotion in Contemporary Hinduism, Urmila Mohan explores the materiality and visuality of cloth and clothing as devotional media in contemporary Hinduism. Drawing upon ethnographic research into the global missionizing group “International Society for Krishna Consciousness” (ISKCON), she studies translocal spaces of worship, service, education, and daily life in the group’s headquarters in Mayapur and other parts of India. Focusing on the actions and values of deity dressmaking, devotee clothing and paraphernalia, Mohan shows how activities, such as embroidery and chanting, can be understood as techniques of spirituality, reverence, allegiance—and she proposes the new term “efficacious intimacy” to help understand these complex processes. The monograph brings theoretical advances in Anglo-European material culture and material religion studies into a conversation with South Asian anthropology, sociology, art history, and religion. Ultimately, it demonstrates how embodied interactions as well as representations shape ISKCON’s practitioners as devout subjects, while connecting them with the divine and the wider community.

This essay explores glass engravings by Dutch authors Anna Roemers Visscher, Maria Tesselschade Roemers Visscher, and Anna Maria van Schurman. I place these engravings in their rich contemporary contexts, comparing them to other art forms that were the product of female pastime. Like embroidery, emblems, and alba amicorum, engraved glasses combined text and image, transforming each glass into an object that fulfilled key social and cultural functions. Above all, engraving glasses allowed women to forge new self-representations, specifically through their use of play to question binary oppositions and moral certainties.

Purpose The purpose of this study was to collaboratively design eight professional dress ensembles incorporating Hejazi tribal embroidery and to evaluate Saudi female academics’ perceptions about those ensembles as appropriate for professional attire. The concept aimed to offer the potential for increased cultural identity by wearing modernized ethnic dress as everyday workplace attire that was relatively practical, affordable and expressive of Saudi cultural identity. Design/methodology/approach The goal in this research was to engage Saudi female academic professionals in designing clothing that integrated Saudi textile and costume traditions into contemporary styles appropriate for the academic work environment. Two models guided the research. The FEA model (Lamb and Kallal, 1992) was used to organize the questions in the survey questionnaire around an integration of culture with functional, aesthetic and expressive aspects of apparel. The second model guiding the research was an adaptation of the USAP participatory co-design model (Demirbilek and Demirkan, 2004). This model was used to engage study participants in the design process. Findings Qualitative results showed that participants were willing to wear the garments in this study, as the garments represented heritage, looked contemporary in terms of style lines, had comfort and interchangeable garment components, embroidery and printed fabric, fabric used in garment designs and color. Quantitative results showed that the ratings for the final garments were generally higher than the first sketches in the first phase. Results of the eight designs in the collection revealed that the aesthetic aspect was the most referenced by the participants among the FEA aspects. Results also indicated that silver waves design received the highest rating among the designs in terms of FEA aspects. Originality/value This research provides greater understanding of the ethnic culture of the Western region of Saudi Arabia for Western scholars. Previous research has indicated an interest in having garment manufacturing take place in Saudi Arabia (Turkustani, 1995). Findings from this research may lead to future study on the state of apparel production in Saudi Arabia and the potential feasibility of establishing a center for training in digital technology to support small business opportunities for Saudi women who are trained for work in the apparel industry.

Ayrshire whitework, a form of embroidery considered a cheap and popular alternative to lace, was a significant industry in the nineteenth century. Employing thousands of women particularly in the south west of Scotland in the 1850s, the whitework trade combined skill and handicraft with industrial scale organisation, only to decline dramatically by the end of the century. Using census returns, parliamentary reports and contemporary commentary, this article explores the workings of the Ayrshire whitework industry. It will account for the dramatic rise and fall of the industry within the nineteenth century, looking in closer detail at the women of Ayr in particular, and build on existing literature to examine attempts to revive the industry at the turn of the twentieth century.

Abstract This paper analyses the communicative features of traditional Belarusian textiles and embroidery, exploring their history and their use as cultural code from the earliest times to the present. Using cultural semiotic analysis, the article highlights the evolving statements textiles make in regard to contemporary Belarusian culture, with specific attention being paid to the use of textiles in the months surrounding the 2020 presidential election and its aftermath, as well as engaging current fashion design. This paper, combating ideas of Belarusian invisibility, brings to light how textiles are and continue to be symbols and visual expressions of Belarusian cultural identity, and will be useful to scholars and students in the fields of art history, Belarusian studies, cultural studies, semiotics, Slavistics, and textile, costume and fashion studies.

Text and textiles share etymological roots and also have cultural and historical similarities. Temporary Text(iles) is project led research which investigates the relationship between text and textiles in hopes of harnessing its communicative powers. Techniques such as subtraction cutting, embroidery and writing are utilised to produce textile installations that are both performative and ephemeral. These spatial interventions are activated within contemporary art contexts and public spaces such as Altona beach, Campbell Arcade, Testing Grounds and Assembly Point. These experimental sites offer a gentle disruption to people’s everyday routine as well as a space for critical reflection and conversation. In this chaotic time of global grief and tension, the author commits herself to understand the connections between environmental sustainability, forced migrations and the mistreatment against marginalized communities such as refugees and asylum seekers. Temporary Text(iles) describes the different spatial interventions in the research project and analyses its effect in relation to these major social issues.

Introduction. The Kalmyks are a Mongolic Buddhist people that arrived in the Volga region in the 17th century. The specific ethnic features of Buddhism professed by the Kalmyks took shape over centuries of Russian suzerainty and were determined by various historical factors, including prolonged remoteness from Buddhist centers, the total eradication of Buddhist monasteries and centuries-long ban on spiritual guidance experienced in the 20th century, and the official Buddhist restoration by the early 21st century. Goals. The work aims at identifying and comparing traditional and contemporary Buddhist thangka patterns as elements to mirror particular features of Kalmyk iconography, as essential objects of religious cult and cultural heritage at large. Results. The paper shows that in the pre-20th century period Kalmyks used different techniques for producing thangkas — painting, embroidery, and applique ones. In the late 18th century onwards, imports of religious attributes from Tibet and Mongolia were restricted, and the role of art workshops affiliated to local Buddhist temples increased. That resulted in further development of thangka painting schools and the shaping of somewhat ethnic style in depicting Buddhist deities characterized by certain differences from canonical images. The old thangkas from private and public collections have served a basis for the restoration of ethnic painting traditions integral to Kalmykia’s Buddhism proper. The contemporary practices of producing divine images are closely related to stages in the regional development of Buddhism from the late 20th century to the present, lay Buddhist experiences, women’s leisure-time activities, and ethnic entrepreneurship. The study concludes contemporary Kalmyk needlewomen are guided by traditional rules of religious craftsmanship.

Abstract This article examines the China Pavilion at the 2017 Venice Biennale through an exploration of temporality. It argues that the pavilion's deployment of a politics of time ‐ by mobilizing China's dynastic past and its traditional arts to enhance the present ‐ constructs a mode of cultural timelessness that sustains a stultifying visual and discursive regime. Touting the theme of 'Continuum ‐ Generation by Generation', the pavilion paid a lofty tribute to folk-art practices such as embroidery and shadow play, elevating two paintings from the Song Dynasty as the fount of contemporary artistic imagination. This recourse to the past mirrors a predictable and safe representational strategy often mobilized by the country to shape its own public and media image on the global stage. In view of this, the pavilion can be more constructively investigated as an exercise in image and perception management, or nation branding, which reveals the self-narratives that the country embraces. Nation branding serves as a complementary analytical lens that probes the instrumentalization of Chinese traditions, history and past, while crystallizing some parallel visual logics and aims of contemporary art. Aesthetics and nation branding are, therefore, conjoined to question the shared visuality that perpetuates, to borrow a term from Rey Chow, the 'affect of pastness' that obscures a more timely and inventive imaginary of the country.

In studies of contemporary Chinese art, Lin Tianmiao’s work has been overwhelmingly discussed in terms of women’s crafts and maternal roles. Citing her use of embroidery and the female figure, these interpretations have led to broad and often simplified characterizations of her work as “women’s art.” In focusing exclusively on symbolic allusions to gender representation, these discussions overlook the possibility of more complex narratives arising from Lin’s artistic concerns. By starting from the formal, material, and spatial components of her work, this article reveals how Lin has enacted penetrating investigations into manifestations of resistance and tension between physical forms and objects. Replete with taut lines and trembling vibrations, her work scrutinizes the nature of her materials, their limitations, and relationships among different parts of an installation. By tracing such formal and spatial devices, this article reveals three central topics at the heart of Lin’s oeuvre: the insufficiency of language, the urgency of form, and latent visibility. The exploration of these abstract concepts helps us move away from overt symbolic readings of her materials. These topics help show how Lin uses her art as tactics of intervention for interrogating practices of classification in contemporary Chinese art. As such, this article does not discount commentary on identity or gender but, rather, allows for richer, interrelated frameworks for understanding both her work and how it has been historically treated.

Pengabdian Pada Masyarakat (PPM) ini berjudul “Pelatihan Pengembangan Pemasaran Bordir dan Kelom geulis Tasikmalaya”. Kegiatan ini merupakan terintegrasi dengan Riset Fundamental Unpad (RFU) lanjutan tahun 2019. Pemilihan judul PPM kali ini dilatarbelakangi oleh meluasnya pangsa pasar bagi para pelaku ekonomi kreatif seiring berkembangnya penggunaan media sosial dari semula sebagai media komunikasi menjadi media pemasaran produk barang dan jasa. Ini merupakan peluang bagi pelaku usaha bordir dan kelom geulis di Kota Tasikmalaya untuk meluaskan pemasarannya ke skala nasional hingga internasional. Bahkan, bukan tidak mungkin, melebarkan pasarnya hingga skala ekspor. Adanya kegiatan PPM ini diharapkan dapat menumbuhkan semangat pelaku usaha bordir maupun kelom geulis di Kota Tasikmalaya untuk mengoptimalkan penggunaan media sosial sebagai media pemasaran dalam memperluas pasar dan meningkatkan omset yang diperoleh. Kegiatan PPM ini diselenggarakan pada 30 Juli 2019 di Rumah Kreatif BRI di Jalan Siliwangi 51, Kota Tasikmalaya, dengan peserta pelaku usaha bordir dan kelom geulis di Kota Tasikmalaya. Kegiatan ini menghadirkan pembicara dari Kamar Dagang dan Industri (Kadin) Kota Tasikmalaya dan Dosen STMIK DCI, Kota Tasikmalaya. Hasil evaluasi terhadap para peserta pelatihan menunjukkan adanya manfaat yang diperoleh peserta dari materi yang disampaikan narasumber, baik yang berkaitan langsung maupun tidak berkaitan langsung dengan media sosial. Walaupun setelah mengikuti pelatihan tersebut, peserta belum mempraktikkan materi yang diberikan, setidaknya pelatihan membuka wawasan peserta mengenai metode pemasaran yang bisa dilakukan selain pemasaran offline yang biasa dilakukan. Para peserta berharap, ke depannya, pelatihan lebih banyak menghadirkan para praktisi, agar materi pelatihan bisa diarahkan pada materi praktis, lebih kekinian, dan waktunya diperpanjang. The title of our Community Service (PPM) activity is "Training on Marketing Development of Embroidery and Kelom geulis Tasikmalaya". This activity is integrated with Riset Fundamental Unpad (RFU) in 2019. The title is motivated by the expanding market share for a creative economic entrepreneur in line with the development of social media usage as a media marketing products and services. This is an opportunity for embroidery and kelom geulis entrepreneurs IN Tasikmalaya City to expand their marketing to a national and international scale. The existence of PPM activities is expected to foster the enthusiasm of embroidery and kelom geulis entrepreneurs in Tasikmalaya City to optimize the use of social media as a marketing medium in expanding markets and increasing turnover obtained. The PPM activity was held on July 30, 2019, at BRI's Creative House on Jalan Siliwangi 51, Tasikmalaya City. The participants are embroidery and kelom geulis entrepreneurs in Tasikmalaya City. We present the speakers from Tasikmalaya City Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin) and STMIK DCI Lecturer, Tasikmalaya City. We use the lecture method and sharing experiences in marketing products through online media to motivate and strengthen SMEs in the City of Tasikmalaya to use available social media to expand the product marketing. The results showed that the presentation material brings benefits for the participants, the benefits are directly or indirectly are related to social media. Even after participating in the training, the participants did not practice the material provided, at least the training opened the participants' insights into marketing methods that could be carried out other than the usual offline marketing. The participants hoped, in the future, the training would bring more practitioners, so that the training materials could be directed to practical, more contemporary, and extended time.

The ‘Qasab’ case is designed to teach students about the characteristics of social entrepreneurship and the impact it has on the society. It also describes how sustainable development and social innovation are interlinked. ‘Qasab’ was an organization whose main focus was to preserve the traditional art of the Kutch region. The case describes the genesis and the journey of ‘Qasab,’ how it preserved the traditional art forms, and the personality traits of Pankaj Shah (the social entrepreneur who started ‘Qasab’). The case talks about the problems faced by the artisans in the region, which led to the formation of this social venture. Also, it touches upon the HR challenges faced by a social entrepreneur. At the time this case was written, ‘Qasab’ had become a collective enterprise comprising 1,200 rural master craftswomen from 11 ethnic communities spread across 62 villages in the arid interiors of Kutch and has been formally structured and registered as a ‘Producer Company’ owned by traditional craftswomen. ‘Qasab’ included different communities such as — ‘Mutwa’, ‘Sodha Rajput’, ‘Jat-Daneta’, ‘Meghwal’, ‘Sindhi Memon’, ‘DhebariyaRabari’, ‘KacchiRabari’, ‘Ahir’, ‘Halepotra’, ‘Sumra,’‘Hingorja’ and ‘Pathan’ — that had distinct embroidery styles and emphasized maintaining these styles (since the embroideries were an integral part of their cultural identity) — to preserve their unique identities. ‘Qasab’ was known for its outstanding quality of authentic Kutch embroidery, appliqué and patchwork products, its hallmark being traditional motifs reflecting the cultural identity of each community in contemporary designs through items of premium quality. ‘Qasab’ had made artisans stakeholders in the organization and was able to preserve the distinct art of each community. The case is based on the theme of social entrepreneurship and analyzes the process of the emergence of such enterprises, their importance and the factors that lead to their success and sustainability. Students can assess how these organizations are different from other types of organizations. The case should help students to find the parameters that show that social innovation and sustainable development are interlinked. The case can be used to study the business model of social innovation.

The contemporary practice of ‘craftivism’—which uses crafts such as knitting, sewing and embroidery to draw attention to ‘issues of social, political and environmental justice’ (Fitzpatrick 2018: 3)—has its origins in centuries of radical craft work where women and marginalised peoples, in particular, have employed crafts to protest, take a stand or comment on issues that concern them. Recently, craftivist actions have targeted the fashion and textile industry in an effort to highlight and address some of the social and environmental impacts of the global fashion industry, from the throwaway culture of fast fashion through to the unethical pay and working conditions of ready-made garment workers. Drawing on examples of both individual and collective forms of craftivism, this paper explores the ways that craftivism is being deployed not only as a means by which to mobilise the ethical use, consumption and production of fashion and textiles across the globe but also to hold the fashion industry to account against key concerns highlighted by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. In canvassing these examples, the paper considers the utility of craftivism as a model for challenging the fashion industry to effect change.

Based on reflections that have emerged in contemporary criticism, elaborating transformations and questioning the meanings and limits of the traditional notion of literature, it is intended to act, mapping, in the Brazilian production of the present, other spaces for the creation and insertion of literature, new textualities emergencies, poetry in particular, and its unfolding as poetry outside itself. Attention to the gesture, and to its reverse, also lead us to think how the circuits of poetry, today, are crossed by other manual forms, as is the case of embroidery and installations, which, in an increasingly latent way , have been incorporating the written word: from the mantle of Arthur Bispo do Rosário, through the voiles of José Leonilson, to the pennants of Julia Panadés. The trajectory, here, is not linear and much less finished: the constellation starts from what they read, from the way they incorporated their readings into their works, and how they are read, in Penelope’s endless gesture, when performing, by day, the sewing the shroud, to undo it at night, leaving us with the arduous and continuous task of writing and reading, successively and infinitely.

Restoring and revitalizing popular port products is a long-term process. The time workmanship for making a shirt by an experienced craftswoman lasts about from six to nine months. Various studies of the folk costume often require the restoration of the product. The need for restoration is imposed by: the analysis and study of the cooperation of embroidery elements with the form of product offered by shirts of different types; analysis and adaptation of the shape of the shirt to the conformation of the wearer; analysis of the form and assembly methods offered by the cut schemes; restoration of cut landmarks and schemes with immediate simulation on the mannequin of museum products (Republic of Moldova); analysis and adaptation of these products to carrier conformation parameters; identification of conformation parameters, etc. The advanced level of contemporary digital technologies allows us in reduced time to simulate the product form without waste accumulations and the destruction of raw material resources. In this work will be presented the results offered by the digital simulation of the products of folk costumes, vestiges of the cultural heritage from the Museum of History and Ethnography, Hancesti city. You also have the connection possibilities of digital technologies and technologies used in the manufacture of popular port products.

Purpose: The contemporary research was intended to survey the countryside women's participation in monetary creating activities and had explored socio-economic obstacles faced by them while carrying out their home activities. Methodology: Survey was carried out in two purposively selected villages in the Mardan district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. by Usage of a simple random technique, targeting a total of 112 women respondents’ primary data were collected with the help of a semi-structured interview schedule and analyzed with the help of descriptive statistics techniques. Findings: The study found that the literacy rate was low among the sampled respondents therefore livestock rearing and embroidery work was the most common income-generating activities among the respondents. There were no formal and recognized training centers or any other guidance providers for the women in the study area. Moreover, the lack of marketing facilities had restrained the respondents to sell out their products at cheaper prices, therefore, sampled respondents faced problem/s in performing income-generating activities in the study area. Implications: credit and marketing facilities can also be promoted for the sustainable business advancement of the rural women so they can sell their products at reasonable prices to improve their socio-economic conditions.

Ecaterina Ajder, representative of the early `80s of plastic artists from the Republic of Moldova, constantly opts for endowing the work of art with innovative stylistic values. Plastic tradition and modernity originally connect in her creation, contributing to the generation of current messages through image. Preferring to materialize her thematic and plastic predilections in the genre of artistic tapestry and easel painting, Ecaterina Ajder has drawn and consolidated over the decades her unmistakable stylistic facet, in which the insurmountable landmarks of folk art have found a favorable artistic fulfillment and integration into relevant contemporary creative trends. In the artistic tapestry, the painter significantly capitalized both the aesthetic expressions obtained from the classic weaving, and from combining it with various techniques such as felt and embroidery. When referring to the easel painting she highlighted the traditional aspects of structural-constructive constitution of the image field and, at the same time, the impressive artistic expressions, obtained after practicing mixed techniques, giving priority to the collage methodology. In the artist’s creation, both the conceptualization and aesthetic interpretation of the theme, as well as the way of operating with plastic means imminently contribute to the demarcation and supplementing of the semantic area of the work with high value expressions.

The article attempts to identify changes that have occurred in the lingual world model of Ukrainians in recent years. The results of the “Word of the Year” contest in Ukraine served as the material for observation and analysis. Every year the online dictionary of neologisms and slang of the modern Ukrainian language “Myslovo” declares the “word of the year” – the most socially significant, popular and used word. Other nominees in the short list for the award are also important words to indicate current phenomena, events, concepts or persons. Usually, “modern” words fall into the nomination. Such lexemes are contemporary (reflect current events in the society), universal (formed by the new-fashioned trends), popular (are in the center of public thought and debate). Thus, in 2013 the “word of the year” became “Euromaidan”, in 2014 – “cyborgs”, in 2015 – “blockade”. In 2016, “corruption” became much more relevant, in 2017 the most popular was “bezviz” (visa-free regime), and in 2018 originally Greek word “tomos” became widely used. Therefore, the chosen “words of the year” (and nominees for this award) act as lexical representatives of those phenomena and events that are of the most concern for the society, and consequently have impact on the lingual world model of Ukrainians. The results of the Ukrainian competition were compared with the results of the similar contests in other countries, in particular, Belarus and Russia. Using comparative analysis, the common features of the Ukrainian and Belarussian lingual world models of XXI century were revealed as well as the opposite views of Ukrainians and Russians on important socio-political phenomena. For example, Belarusians use the loanword from Ukrainian “vyshyvanka” (‘colloquial name for the embroidered shirt in Ukrainian and Belarusian national costumes’) from which the derived word – neologism “vyshymaika” (‘colloquial name for the t-shirt that combines tradional embroidery with the modern design’) was formed. The imperial ambitions of Russians were verbalized in the politically motivated neologism-hashtag “#krymnash”(Crimea is ours), which became the “Word of the Year 2014” in Russia. Therefore, it can be claimed that the XXI century Ukrainian standart language is being enriched with new lexemes that are gradually being used by Ukrainians, becoming part of their lingual world model. These words may be partially (see “Euromaidan”, “bezviz”) or completely (see “tomos”) adopted from the other donor languages, but, as practice shows, they are being organically incorporated into the Ukrainian usus.

Since the fraudulent presidential elections of 9 August 2020, the Republic of Belarus has become a battleground between the women-led democratic opposition forces and the authoritarian regime of Alexander Lukashenka. Current forms of political oppression in Belarus make open public protest dangerous. This exhibition report highlights safer ways to express dissent in a dictatorial society by grounding it in the textile arts, collective labor, and participatory practices. “The Code of Presence: Belarusian Protest Embroideries and Textile Patterns” is a permanent digital exhibition that I curated in 2022 hosted by the University of Michigan Library. The exhibition features 12 textile projects created by professional female artists from Belarus, including the works of Rufina Bazlova, Masha Maroz, Varvara Sudnik, Anna Bundeleva, Nasta Vasiuchenka, Lesia Pcholka, Vasilisa Palianina, Dasha Sazanovich, Yuliya Tsviatkova and Da(r)sha Golova. The exhibition explores how Craftivism, a global trend in contemporary art associated with political activism, correlates with the artists’ perceptions of the country’s textile heritage. The purpose of this report is to introduce individual artists, their voices and projects. It is grouped into three distinct, albeit overlapping, categories: 1) individual craftivist strategies in Belarusian protest embroideries; 2) collective craftivist embroidery practices; and 3) traditional textile patterns in other media. Galvanized by the protests of 2020–2021, political artists’ embroideries and ornamental graphics emerged as a protest ritual of a new kind, igniting a powerful process of cultural heritage revitalization, and documenting the events of the protests, working with such themes as feminism, female labor, memory, and trauma.

The Museum of Applied Arts (Iparművészeti Múzeum) at Budapest houses an embroidered Gothic antependium which belonged to the church of St Chrysogonus, which was the seat of the Benedictine Abbey at Zadar. At an unspecified time, the antependium became part of the collection of Zsigmund Bubics, an art historian, collector and the bishop of Košice in present-day Slovakia from 1887 to 1906, and was donated to the Museum of Applied Arts in 1909. It measures 94 by 190 cm. The majority of the antependium’s surface is filled with the figures of saints set beneath three pointed, Gothic arches. The central field is occupied by the enthroned Virgin with the Christ Child, in the left field is St Chrysogonus and in the right St Benedict. In the upper section of the antependium one can see the busts of two saints who might be identified as St Gregory the Pope and St Donatus. Along the lateral edges of this triptych-like antependium are vertical borders, at the centres of which are niches with two small standing female saints who wear crowns (St Scholastica and St Anastasia). To the left of the Virgin’s throne is the figure of a donor depicted kneeling with his hands clasped in prayer, which has unfortunately not been provided with an inscription. It is clear, however, that he is wearing the Benedictine habit with a somewhat over-emphasized hood falling down his back. The Benedictine donor might be identified as one of the abbots of the monastery of St Chrysogonus. It is suggested in the article that this may have been John de Ontiaco (Joannes de Onciache) from the bishopric of Lyon, who was the abbot of the monastery of St Chrysogonus from 1345 to 1377. The author argues that the antependium was produced in a weaving workshop in Venice during the late 1360s or early 1370s, on the basis of comparisons with similar contemporary painted and embroidered artworks. Based on the iconographic programme which was depicted on the antependium, but also on the information found in archival records, the author proposes that the antependium was made for the altar of St Chrysogonus which stood in the north apse of the abbey church. Although it has not been established when the antependium left Zadar, based on the similarities between the crimson satin fabric, which replaced the original surface on which the embroidery was applied, on the antependium from the Church of St Mary at Zadar, and the antependium from the Church of St Chrysogonus, it is stated that both interventions were made in the Benedictine Convent of St Mary at Zadar during a short period of time in the last quarter of the eighteenth century. This is also understood as evidence that at that time the antependium from the Church of St Chrysogonus was still being carefully kept at Zadar.

All over the world prostitution is linked to poverty and the responsibility for aged parents and large families. Women who have little or no education and who lack job skills fall into prostitution because they see no other alternative. Social rehabilitation of sex workers should be the priority of government programs like the one described by Tabibul Islam in Contemporary Women's Issues (Rights-Bangladesh: New Attempt to Rehabilitate Sex Workers, from Global Information Network 1999). In various parts of the world there are NGOs (non-governmental organizations) involved in health developmental issues and the prevention of AIDS, and some are offering rehabilitation programs for sex workers. For example in Bamako, Thailand, India, Haiti, and Viet Nam, some NGOs are educating sex workers about the risks of Sexually Transmiitted Diseases (STDs) and HIV/AIDS and promoting job programs along with training classes in sewing, cooking and secretarial skills. Others are involved in the development of small businesses so that sex workers become economically independent from the sex industry (see Women, Poverty and AIDS: Sex, Drugs and Structural Violence. Edited by Farmer, Paul, Margaret Connors Margaret, and Jane Simmons. Monroe, ME: Common Courage Press. 1996). This paper examines a project implemented in 1993 and 1997 in Antananarivo (Madagascar) for the purpose of empowering a group of sex workers. The project sponsored by foreign donors had the goal of training about 50 sex-workers in sewing and embroidery skills for the making of clothing and household goods for the tourist market. The main purpose was to promote the social reinstatement of sex workers by giving them the opportunity to learn new skills that would enable them to support themselves with dignity.

Socio-normative life of Ukrainians of the 20th – the beginning of the 21th centuries, that covers aspects of management, self-organization and formation of public institutions, mutual assistance and leisure, regulation of behavior, is a poorly studied topic in ethnological science. During the establishment of the Soviet system, which completely changed the traditional way of life of Ukrainian peasants, a major transformation of the customs of public life took place. Following Ukraine’s independence, modern social normative practices were developing according to the requirements of the new legislation. As the result, nowadays there is a considerable urgency to investigate the specifics and changes that have taken place in public life in the Ukrainian villages in the second half of the 20th – early 21th centuries. In the new socio-economic and national-religious contexts, despite the changes in industrial relations and socio-professional composition of the rural population, the system of traditional social life in Ukraine was able to maintain positive and well-considered skills of social coexistence, forms of daily and festive leisure, as well as the moral and ethical standards of people’s coexistence. The article on the materials of expeditions to Chernivtsi, Ternopil, Zakarpattya, Odessa, Kharkiv regions analyzes the preservation and peculiarities of transformation of traditional social forms of leisure and communication of peasants during the second half of the 20th – early 21th centuries. The types and places of daily (customs of «calling for freshness», «going for liver», mutual assistance, evening meetings) and festive (during the temple holiday, mutual guests, youth entertainment, celebration of the village holiday) leisure of the village community are revealed. Most of the information was recorded on evening meetings. They are a socio-everyday entity that organically combines entertainment and work elements. Usually, the main guideline for their conducting was hand work (spinning, embroidery, sewing), accompanied by songs and entertainment. The made records give a certain idea of the contemporary collective customs and traditions of Ukrainians in rural areas, especially of interpersonal relations in the Ukrainian peasant environment of today. The common belief among the respondents is that some changes in people’s behavior are manifested by a decrease in interest in communication than before (reciprocal guest-houses between the villagers have become a rarity – they only gather on holidays). Today, the customs of collective mutual assistance (in case of distress or distress in one of the villagers) are still preserved among the rural population.

AbstractThis paper deals with Plato's use ofpoikilosand cognates to describe democracy. It does not argue that Plato'sRepubliccontains empirical analyses of some contemporary event, but supposes that an historical reading of the book is possible and legitimate. Post Peloponnesian War Athenian society experienced profound socio-economic changes. Echoing the aristocratic élite's circumspect anxiety when faced with thenouveaux riches, Plato clearly regards obsessive greediness as one of the root causes of the corruption of any political system. Referring to democracy, the philosopher invents thehimation poikilonor ‘embroidered coat of many colours' metaphor. By materializing the multifaceted concept ofpoikilia, this metaphor gives a single and palpable form to the principaltopoiof anti-democratic rhetoric: thehimation poikilonevokes the motley constitution of the Athenian regime, the tyrant's ostentatious opulence, aped by thedemos turannos, the inconstancy of thedemos, the deceitful character of democracy and, last but not least, its penchant for spectacles.

This article demonstrates the need for the iconic status and function of Buddhist scripture to receive more attention by illuminating how lay Korean Buddhists try to appropriate the power of sutras. The oral and aural aspects of scripture, explained by Wilfred Cantwell Smith, provide only a limited understanding of the characteristics of scripture. It should be noted that, before modern times, most lay people, not only in Buddhist cultures but also in Christian and other traditions, neither had the chance to recite scriptures nor to listen to their recitations regularly. Several clear examples demonstrate contemporary Korean Buddhists’ acceptance of the iconic status of sutras and their attempt to appropriate the power and status of those sacred texts. In contemporary Korea, lay Buddhists try to claim the power of scriptures in their daily lives by repeating and possessing them. Twenty-first century lay believers who cannot read or recite in a traditional style have found new methods of repetition, such as internet programs for copying sacred texts and for playing recordings of their recitations. In addition, many Korean Buddhists consider the act of having sutras in one’s possession to be an effective way of accessing the sacred status and power of these texts. Hence, various ways of possessing them have been developed in a wide range of products, from fancy gilded sutras to sneakers embroidered with mantras.

Nakshi kantha is a traditional quilt typical of Bengal, a cultural-historical area in South Asia now divided between Bangladesh and India’s West Bengal. Rural women make richly-embroidered quilts by stitching together rags embellished with various stitches to form motifs and designs that have been deliberately taken from the maker’s own habitat. The composition of the motifs renders the perception of the artisans visible, and thus it becomes the maker’s autobiography. Once made only by joining rags embellished with endless running stitches, nowadays modern technologies (for making and decorating) and materials have been added as the blanket has reached public realms from its domestic sphere. This transition and commodification tends to elicit certain reactions either overtly or covertly. This article is based on my MA thesis, defended at the University of Tartu, entitled ”Transformation of a Traditional Textile Craft: A Case Study of Nakshi kantha” in which I have discussed the commodification of a traditional quilt, Nakshi kantha, focusing on how a piece of domestic craft has turned into a commercialised product, how this raises questions regarding conventional thinking about the authenticity of heritage production and how this carries the essence of its historical purposes in its contemporary form. For my thesis, I have collected qualitative data by conducting interviews with the users, artisans, and the entrepreneurs, who all shared stories of their affiliation with this form of heritage production and its transformation. With its various functions and metaphorical meanings, this embroidered textile craft has been valued as a part of Bengali heritage. Since undergoing commercialisation in the recent past, the quilt has become very popular as a memento of its recipient’s origins and attachment. It has enjoyed substantial market success, albeit at the price of its traditional vernacular meaning. Keywords: Nakshi kantha, quilt, Bengal, traditional handicraft, commercialisation, heritage

Nakshi kantha is a traditional quilt typical of Bengal, a cultural-historical area in South Asia now divided between Bangladesh and India’s West Bengal. Rural women make richly-embroidered quilts by stitching together rags embellished with various stitches to form motifs and designs that have been deliberately taken from the maker’s own habitat. The composition of the motifs renders the perception of the artisans visible, and thus it becomes the maker’s autobiography. Once made only by joining rags embellished with endless running stitches, nowadays modern technologies (for making and decorating) and materials have been added as the blanket has reached public realms from its domestic sphere. This transition and commodification tends to elicit certain reactions either overtly or covertly. This article is based on my MA thesis, defended at the University of Tartu, entitled ”Transformation of a Traditional Textile Craft: A Case Study of Nakshi kantha” in which I have discussed the commodification of a traditional quilt, Nakshi kantha, focusing on how a piece of domestic craft has turned into a commercialised product, how this raises questions regarding conventional thinking about the authenticity of heritage production and how this carries the essence of its historical purposes in its contemporary form. For my thesis, I have collected qualitative data by conducting interviews with the users, artisans, and the entrepreneurs, who all shared stories of their affiliation with this form of heritage production and its transformation. With its various functions and metaphorical meanings, this embroidered textile craft has been valued as a part of Bengali heritage. Since undergoing commercialisation in the recent past, the quilt has become very popular as a memento of its recipient’s origins and attachment. It has enjoyed substantial market success, albeit at the price of its traditional vernacular meaning. Keywords: Nakshi kantha, quilt, Bengal, traditional handicraft, commercialisation, heritage

Textile patterns, whether printed, knitted, woven or embroidered, tend to be inspired by and created in response to the visual environment. The soundscape is a significant component of the embodied multisensory landscape ‐ from the buzz of fluorescent tube lights in an office to the intermittent roar of water flowing in a river; no space is ever silent (Schafer 1994). Attunement to environmental soundscape provides inspiration in music, art and, in this case, the creation of textile patterns, challenging the visual bias of pattern creation. In this ongoing study, the audio sources from bird song to horses galloping are visualized into spectrograms forming contemporary landscape-inspired textile patterns. Spectrograms are a type of visualization of an audio spectrum where the intensity and multiple frequencies are displayed across time, rather than simply the pitch and amplitude of the sound source. These spectrograms are then transformed into textile patterns through the interaction between a maker's existing skill set and digital software. By sharing this process with a group of textile practitioners, this sound-to-visual approach forms the foundation of a co-created textile pattern design. In this way, the process of soundscape-inspired design challenges the visual bias of existing textile patterns, contributing to the sensory ethnography of the contemporary landscape. Here we explore key insights that emerged from the project ‐ experimenting, collaborating and disrupting ‐ through the imagery of process and pattern making, as well as, through the narratives and reflections of the practitioners, presenting a collective visual encounter. In the end, the project opens dialogues to collaboratively understand and relate to the local soundscape as a source of inspiration for pattern making, and begins to formalize a design narrative based on the non-visual environment.

The twenty-fourth of September 1905 started as a typical Sunday in Zion City, Illinois. Promptly at 2:00 P.M. John Alexander Dowie ascended the platform of Shiloh Tabernacle, robed in the brightly embroidered garments of an Old Testament High Priest. He was acknowledged by the seven thousand souls who sat before him as the Messenger of the Covenant, the third and final incarnation of the prophet Elijah, and the General Overseer and First Apostle of the Christian Catholic Apostolic Church in Zion. The 6,600 acres of farms, homes, factories, and businesses surrounding the tabernacle were exclusively his. And for all practical purposes, so were the people. One contemporary journalist judged that Dowie had come to possess the “most autocratic power it is possible to wield in this republic,” while another concluded that “no man… of our time has ever secured anything like the personal following he has.” Near the end of the five hour service the prophet changed into his white expiation robes and, as he had done on countless Sundays in the past, prepared to bless and distribute the Holy Sacraments. But this time, in the semi-darkness of the early evening, he seemed to stagger and slump to the floor. The people soon learned that Dowie had suffered a crippling stroke. They also soon knew that their effort to build a biblical Zion on the “sky-skirted prairie” north of Chicago was in shambles.

Men and women, trained in the occupations of spinner, weaver, dyer, tailor and embroiderer, manufactured the renowned textile products of the Sokoto Caliphate, a nineteenth-century state in the central Sudan region of West Africa. The numerical distributions of men and women within these occupations were uneven, but not in accordance with the pattern described most frequently in the literature. Offered here is another, more detailed view of textile production. Women were not simply spinners but were also weavers and dyers. Uneven, too, were the geographical distributions of men and women workers. Men skilled in textile manufacturing were widely disseminated throughout the caliphate, as were women spinners; women skilled at weaving and dyeing, however, were concentrated mainly in the southern emirates of Nupe and Ilorin. Similarly, male entrepreneurs organized large-scale textile manufacturing enterprises in the north-central portion of the caliphate while enterprises created by women were located to the south.New sources, the textile products of the caliphate, along with other contemporary evidence, reveal that women's work was more varied, more prominent, more highly skilled and more organized than previously thought. Comparative analyses along gender lines show that men's work and women's work were similar in the degree of training required and the levels of skill achieved. Labor, especially skilled labor, was critical to textile production if the caliphate was to maintain its external markets. But there were substantial differences in the degree to which men and women could mobilize and organize labor. A variety of social and political factors in caliphate society combined to assist men and hinder women in the organization and management of textile manufacturing.

In this article we want to make known the creative and organizational process of activist art of Latin American women in whose experimental projects textile materials and techniques would be protagonists as a means of showing society their insubordination to the power of patriarchy and social injustice. These women who silently embroider in the streets the names of their murdered companions, who collect the garments of those disappeared migrants who plot fictions from the creative in search of their interiority, would focus our attention through these maternal textiles as emotional symbols impregnated by the energy of the new contemporary martyrs that are made visible through their artistic actions and the community of volunteers committed to these projects. They, like the great goddesses, would carry the cloak, the veil and in their hands the thread, the spindle and the distaff, thus presiding over the birth of forms, the passing of time and the fertile power of the goddess as a symbol of creation and of social transformation. En este artículo queremos dar a conocer el proceso creativo y organizativo del arte activista de las mujeres latinoamericanas en cuyos proyectos experimentales serían protagonistas los materiales y técnicas textiles como medio de mostrar a la sociedad su insumisión ante el poder del patriarcado y la injusticia social. Estas mujeres que bordan en silencio en las calles los nombres de sus compañeras asesinadas, que recogen las prendas de aquellos migrantes desaparecidos que traman ficciones desde lo creativo en busca de su interioridad, focalizarían nuestra atención a través de estos textiles maternos como símbolos emotivos impregnados por la energía de los nuevos mártires contemporáneos que se hacen visibles a través de sus acciones artísticas y la comunidad de voluntarias comprometidas con estos proyectos. Ellas al igual que las grandes diosas portarían el manto, el velo y en sus manos el hilo, el huso y la rueca presidiendo así el nacimiento de las formas, el devenir del tiempo y el poder fecundo de la diosa como símbolo de creación y de transformación social.

This article, grounded in long-term ethnographic research among producers of contemporary luxurious embroideries and fashions in Lucknow, a North Indian city famous for its golden age as a powerful cultural center of opulence and excess, shows how anthropological knowledge can enrich current critical discussions of luxury and inequality. Since the 1990s, anthropology has seen a boom in consumption and material culture studies coterminous with the rise of identity politics and its celebration of diversity. In anthropological theory, as well, linking consumption to identity has stolen the limelight. In the process, questions of production, inequality, and reproduction of social structures have been overshadowed. Critical reappraisal of luxury in anthropological theory can paradoxically show us a way out of this identity trap, since luxury, unlike other consumer goods, demands that we think about inequality. Luxury also forces us to think beyond luxury brands, goods, and commodified experiences, pushing us toward more fundamental questions about what constitutes a good life, morality, and social order. The ethnographic case presented here, which reveals how structural violence can go hand-in-hand with paradoxical luxuries facilitated by fatalist attitudes, points to what such an anthropology of luxury might look like. In a village near Lucknow, women embroider luxury pieces for fashion ramps and celebrities, while being fed meritocratic dreams of individual progress and success by fashion designers and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) who try to convince them to work ever harder in the name of empowerment. But the women laugh at luxury goods, designers, and middle-class activists and, instead, insist on an antiwork ethic and a valorization of leisure—on wasting time over working; they prefer to “luxuriate” rather than indulge in luxury goods. However, this perception of luxury is connected to hierarchical inequality and a sense of social fatalism that has been reinvigorated through new experiences with competitive inequality, neoliberal pollution, and the false promises of meritocracy.

‘Stim Your Heart Out’ is a set of concepts and beliefs that advocate the benefits of the autistic culture of ‘stimming’, a repetitive physical action that provides enjoyment, comfort and contributes towards self-regulation of emotions. Facilitating the exploration of contemporary movement in the context of stimming and self-regulation, workshops generated a series of movement scores, culminating in a patented choreographic system of stimming performances documented at the www.stimyourheartout.com website and associated film. ‘Syndrome Rebel’ utilises this new choreographic system, where a performative movement score was created. A new stimming symbology/language was then developed and embroidered around the edge of a circular blanket, to record the movement score in this new symbology. The artist then interacted with these symbols within a live integrated movement score stimming performance. Continuing the conversations of Civil Rights and Feminism, the work uses textiles, language and performance to challenge the use of deficit language by the medical academic fraternity, and to protest against social behavioural norms, and the stigma that medical and educational practitioners and society associate with autistic behaviours, due to their medicalised perspective of ‘cure.’ These works advocate for autistic people to be able to celebrate and practise their autistic culture, while sharing the self-awareness of our sensory perception and neuroperspective with the rest of society. The project and performance address the prevalence of mental health conditions among autistic people, raise the discussion of art as a process of social cognition, and speak to the gap between descriptions of embodied cognition and the co-construction of lived experience. ‘Stim Your Heart Out’ project and ‘Syndrome Rebel’ performance make connections across my lived-experience and research practices within the arts and sciences.

This article is about the artistic legacy of the famous monumental artist Grigory Avksentievich Dovzhenko, who lived and worked in the difficult and contradictory times of Ukrainian history and yet managed to preserve the identity of our culture in his works, perpetuate its signs in paintings, murals, mosaics, «Stone embroidered shirts». Studying local history, preserving cultural heritage sites, popularizing the historical past contributes to the formation of national and local identities, and gives impetus to the development of local communities. It is the community, its past, its distinctive identity, that is becoming the determining factor today, especially in the light of the processes of decentralization and preservation of the memory of generations. Life fate and creative heritage of G. Dovzhenko, a famous Ukrainian monumental artist, who devoted almost six decades to art. Each of his thoughts, every sketch, drawing, portrait, panel, still life is a continuation of eternal life, preservation of family memory. His creative heritage enriches today's and future generations. It must be remembered that the culture of every nation belongs to humanity, and our holy duty is to honor our cultural lights, be proud of them and popularize them, otherwise our awareness of ourselves as a nation will be impossible. Also during this period G. Dovzhenko addresses the topics of the national past. This is how the mosaic and fresco images of the times of Kievan Rus and Khmelnytskyi appear. Among the works of these years, the mosaic composition «Kiy, Schek, Choriv and their sister Lybid» is distinguished on the facade of the cinema «Rovesnik» in Kiev (1971), in which the artist managed to show the opto-color possibilities of smalt - the favorite material of ancient Ukrainian masters. G. Dovzhenko also portrays still lifes - bouquets of flowers in jugs, bread, fruits. But most often he paints flowering or covered with abundant fruit tree branches. These peculiar fragments of natural motifs are depicted by harmonious patterns on the canvas. G. Dovzhenko's artistic look reveals the organization of the subject world. The artist is constantly studying the laws and interconnections of natural forms. Hundreds of sketches of flowers and plants are of value to the attentive and skillful reproduction of form and color, the identification of logical structural conditionality of the structure, they are extremely interesting and further stylization, processing into decorative elements. This is a rare case in the practice of contemporary artists, when the artist does not use secondary material, but seeks to find and understand the laws of rhythm and symmetry, color plastics and structure. G. Dovzhenko in his work sought to embody a sense of gratitude for life. The artist was constantly experimenting, looking for different solutions of mosaic panels, based on the use of the best ancient traditions.

Recent conservation and restoration work on the icon of the Virgin and Child which stood on the altar in the Church of St. Nicholas at Prijeko in Dubrovnik has enabled a new interpretation of this paining. The icon, painted on a panel made of poplar wood, features a centrally-placed Virgin holding the Child in her arms painted on a gold background between the two smaller figures of St. Peter and St. John the Baptist. The figures are painted in the manner of the fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Dubrovnik style, and represent a later intervention which significantly changed the original appearance and composition of the older icon by adding the two saints and touching up the Virgin’s clothes with Renaissance ornaments, all of which was performed by the well-known Dubrovnik painter Nikola Božidarević. It can be assumed that the icon originally featured a standing or seated Virgin and Child. The Virgin is depicted with her head slightly lowered and pointing to the Christ Child whom she is holding on her right side. The chubby boy is not seated on his mother’s lap but is reclining on his right side and leaningforward while his face is turned towards the spectator. He is dressed in a red sleeveless tunic with a simple neck-line which is embroidered with gold thread. The Child is leaning himself on the Virgin’s right hand which is holding him. He is firmly grasping her thumb with one hand and her index finger with the other in a very intimate nursing gesture while she, true to the Hodegitria scheme, is pointing at him with her left hand, which is raised to the level of her breasts. Such an almost-realistic depiction of Christ as a small child with tiny eyes, mouth and nose, drastically departs from the model which portrays him with the mature face of an adult, as was customary in icon painting. The Virgin is wearing a luxurious gold cloak which was repainted with large Renaissance-style flowers. Her head is covered with a traditional maphorion which forms a wide ring around it and is encircled by a nimbus which was bored into thegold background. Her skin tone is pink and lit diffusely, and was painted with almost no green shadows, which is typical of Byzantine painting. The Virgin’s face is striking and markedly oval. It is characterized by a silhouetted, long, thin nose which is connected to the eyebrows. The ridge of the nose is emphasized with a double edge and gently lit whilethe almond-shaped eyes with dark circles are set below the inky arches of the eyebrows. The Virgin’s cheeks are smooth and rosy while her lips are red. The plasticity of her round chin is emphasized by a crease below the lower lip and its shadow. The Virgin’s eyes, nose and mouth are outlined with a thick red line. Her hands are light pink in colour and haveelongated fingers and pronounced, round muscles on the wrists. The fingers are separated and the nails are outlined with precision. The deep, resounding hues of the colour red and the gilding, together with the pale pink skin tone of her face, create an impression of monumentality. The type of the reclining Christ Child has been identified in Byzantine iconography as the Anapeson. Its theological background lies in the emphasis of Christ’s dual nature: although the Christ Child is asleep, the Christ as God is always keeping watch over humans. The image was inspired by a phrase from Genesis 49: 9 about a sleeping lion to whom Christ is compared: the lion sleeps with his eyes open. The Anapeson is drowsy and awake at the same time, and therefore his eyes are not completely shut. Such a paradox is a theological anticipation of his “sleep” in the tomb and represents an allegory of his death and Resurrection. The position, gesture and clothes of the Anapeson in Byzantine art are not always the same. Most frequently, the ChristChild is not depicted lying in his mother’s arms but on an oval bed or pillow, resting his head on his hand, while the Virgin is kneeling by his side. Therefore, the Anapeson from Dubrovnik is unique thanks to the conspicuously humanized relationship between the figures which is particularly evident in Christ’s explicitly intimate gesture of grasping the fingers of his mother’s hand: his right hand is literally “inserting” itself in the space between the Virgin’s thumb and index finger. At the same time, the baring of his arms provided the painter with an opportunity to depict the pale tones of a child’s tender skin. The problem of the iconography of the Anapeson in the medieval painting at Dubrovnik is further complicated by a painting which was greatly venerated in Župa Dubrovačka as Santa Maria del Breno. It has not been preserved but an illustration of it was published in Gumppenberg’sfamous Atlas Marianus which shows the Virgin seated on a high-backed throne and holding the sleeping and reclining Child. The position of this Anapeson Christ does not correspond fully to the icon from the Church of St. Nicholas because the Child is lying on its back and his naked body is covered with the swaddling fabric. The icon of the Virgin and Child from Prijeko claims a special place in the corpus of Romanesque icons on the Adriatic through its monumentality and intimate character. The details of the striking and lively Virgin’s face, dominated by the pronounced and gently curved Cimabuesque nose joined to the shallow arches of her eyebrows, link her with the Benedictine Virgin at Zadar. Furthermore, based on the manner of painting characterized by the use of intense red for the shadows in the nose and eye area, together with the characteristic shape of the elongated, narrow eyes, this Virgin and Child should be brought into connection with the painter who is known as the Master of the Benedictine Virgin. The so-called Benedictine Virgin is an icon, now at the Benedictine Convent at Zadar, which depicts the Virgin seated on a throne with a red, ceremonial, imperial cushion, in a solemn scheme of the Kyriotissa, the heavenly queen holding the Christ Child on her lap. The throne is wooden and has a round back topped with wooden finials which can also be seen in the Byzantine Kahn Virgin and the Mellon Madonna, as well as in later Veneto-Cretan painting. The throne is set under a shallow ciborium arch which is rendered in relief and supportedby twisted colonettes and so the painting itself is sunk into the surface of the panel. A very similar scheme with a triumphal arch can be seen on Byzantine ivory diptychs with shallow ciborium arches and twisted colonettes. In its composition, the icon from Prijeko is a combination ofthe Kyr i ot i ss a and the Hodegitria, because the Virgin as the heavenly queen does not hold the Christ Child frontally before her but on her right-hand side while pointing at him as the road to salvation. He is seated on his mother’s arm and is supporting himself by pressing his crossed legsagainst her thigh which symbolizes his future Passion. He is wearing a formal classical costume with a red cloak over his shoulder. He is depicted in half profile which opens up the frontal view of the red clavus on his navy blue chiton.He is blessing with the two fingers of his right hand and at the same time reaching for the unusual flower rendered in pastiglia which the Virgin is raising in her left hand and offering to him. At the same time, she is holding the lower part of Christ’s body tightly with her right hand.Various scholars have dated the icon of the Benedictine Virgin to the early fourteenth century. While Gothic features are particularly evident in the costumes of the donors, the elements such as the modelling of the throne and the presence of the ceremonial cushion belong to the Byzantine style of the thirteenth century. The back of the icon of the Benedictine Virgin features the figure of St. Peter set within a border consisting of a lively and colourful vegetal scroll which could be understood as either Romanesque or Byzantine. However, St. Peter’s identifying titulus is written in Latin while that of the Virgin is in Greek. The figure of St. Peter was painted according to the Byzantine tradition: his striking and severe face is rendered linearly in a rigid composition, which is complemented by his classical contrapposto against a green-gray parapet wall, while the background is of dark green-blue colour. Equally Byzantine is themanner of depicting the drapery with flat, shallow folds filled with white lines at the bottom of the garment while, at the same time, the curved undulating hem of the cloak which falls down St. Peter’s right side is Gothic. The overall appearance of St. Peter is perhaps even more Byzantine than that of the Virgin. Such elements, together with the typically Byzantine costumes, speak clearly of a skilful artist who uses hybrid visual language consisting of Byzantine painting and elements of the Romanesque and Gothic. Of particular interest are the wide nimbuses surrounding the heads of the Virgin and Child (St. Peter has a flat one) which are rendered in relief and filled with a neat sequence of shallow blind archesexecuted in the pastiglia technique which, according to M. Frinta, originated in Cyprus. The Venetian and Byzantine elements of the Benedictine Virgin have already been pointed out in the scholarship. Apart from importing art works and artists such as painters and mosaic makers directly from Byzantium into Venice, what was the extent and nature of the Byzantineinfluence on Venetian artistic achievements in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries? We know that the art of Venice and the West alike were affected by the Fourth Crusade and the sack of Constantinople in 1204, and by the newly founded Latin Empire which lasted until 1261.The Venetians played a particularly significant political and administrative role in this Empire and the contemporary hybrid artistic style of the eastern Mediterranean, called Crusader Art and marked by the strong involvement of the Knights Templar, must have been disseminated through the established routes. In addition to Cyprus, Apulia and Sicily which served as stops for the artists and art works en route to Venice and Tuscany, another station must have been Dalmatia where eastern and western influences intermingled and complemented each other.However, it is interesting that the icon of the Benedictine Virgin, apart from negligible variations, imitates almost completely the iconographic scheme of the Madonna di Ripalta at Cerignola on the Italian side of the Adriatic, which has been dated to the early thirteenth century and whose provenance has been sought in the area between southern Italy (Campania) and Cyprus. Far more Byzantine is another Apulian icon, that of a fourteenth-century enthroned Virgin from the basilica of St. Nicholas at Bari with which the Benedictine Virgin from Zadar shares certain features such as the composition and posture of the figures, the depictionof donors and Christ’s costume. A similar scheme, which indicates a common source, can be seen on a series of icons of the enthroned Virgin from Tuscany. The icon of the Virgin and Child from Prijeko is very important for local Romanesque painting of the late thirteenth and early fourteenth century because it expands the oeuvre of the Master of the Benedictine Virgin. Anicon which is now at Toronto, in the University of Toronto Art Centre Malcove Collection, has also been attributed to this master. This small two-sided icon which might have been a diptych panel, as can be judged from its typology, depicts the Virgin with the Anapeson in the upper register while below is the scene from the martyrdom of St. Lawrence. The Virgin is flanked by the figures of saints: to the left is the figure of St. Francis while the saint on the right-hand side has been lost due to damage sustained to the icon. The busts of SS Peter and Paul are at the top.The physiognomies of the Virgin and Child correspond to those of the Benedictine Virgin and the Prijeko icon. The Anapeson, unlike the one at Dubrovnik, is wrapped in a rich, red cloak decorated with lumeggiature, which covers his entire body except the left fist and shin. On the basis of the upper register of this icon, it can be concluded that the Master of the Benedictine Virgin is equally adept at applying the repertoire and style of Byzantine and Western painting alike; the lower register of the icon with its descriptive depiction of the martyrdom of St.Lawrence is completely Byzantine in that it portrays the Roman emperor attending the saint’s torture as a crowned Byzantine ruler. Such unquestionable stylistic ambivalence – the presence of the elements from both Byzantine and Italian painting – can also be seen on the icons of theBenedictine and Prijeko Virgin and they point to a painter who works in a “combined style.” Perhaps he should be sought among the artists who are mentioned as pictores greci in Dubrovnik, Kotor and Zadar. The links between Dalmatian icons and Apulia and Tuscany have already been noted, but the analysis of these paintings should also contain the hitherto ignored segment of Sicilian and eastern Mediterranean Byzantinism, including Cyprus as the centre of Crusader Art. The question of the provenance of the Master of the Benedictine Virgin remains open although the icon of the Virgin and Child from Prijeko points to the possibility that he may have been active in Dalmatia.However, stylistic expressions of the two icons from Zadar and Dubrovnik, together with the one which is today at Toronto, clearly demonstrate the coalescing of cults and forms which arrived to the Adriatic shores fromfurther afield, well beyond the Adriatic, and which were influenced by the significant, hitherto unrecognized, role of the eastern Mediterranean.

The beautiful and intricate Kashmir embroidery known as ‘Kashidakari’ is recognized everywhere for its beauty of craftsmanship, motifs, colours, textures, etc. Kashida embroidery designs are the most popular commercial embroidery designs not only because these have retained its rich heritage but also have made necessary adoption according to the likes, choice and demand of the market. In contemporary society, embroidered textiles are used for interior decoration for a traditional and royal appearance. In the present study, traditional motifs of Kashidakari embroidery were collected by exploring secondary sources for the creation of innovative designs for home furnishings textile articles. Out of 200 motifs, thirty were screened and top-ranked ten motifs were selected for design development for home furnishing, as per preferences of experts. Thirty designs were developed using selected traditional Kashidakari embroidery motifs with the help of Corel DRAW X3 software. The study concluded that all the developed designs using traditional Kashidakari embroidery motifs were highly acceptable by experts for home furnishings.