"Five Centuries of Indonesian
Textiles:
Selections from the Mary Hunt Kahlenberg Collection"
with
Sandra Sardjono
Assistant Curator of Costume and
Textiles, LACMA
Please join Sandra Sardjono, Assistant Curator of Costume and Textiles, for an
in-depth look at the current exhibition Five Centuries of Indonesian
Textiles: Selections from the Mary Hunt Kahlenberg Collection. Indonesia’s
rich and diverse textile traditions are highlighted in this exhibition featuring
forty-six pieces dating from fifteenth through twentieth centuries. The
cultural origins and influences of the varied ethnic, linguistic, and religious
groups inhabiting the many islands of Indonesia are seen in a dazzling array of
abstract, figurative, and geometric design motifs produced by such techniques as
wax-resist dyeing (batik), warp- to weft-resist dyeing (ikat), beading, and gold
patterning. An introductory lecture about the historical aspects of these
artistic expressions will be followed by a private gallery tour.
Sandra Sardjono graduated from New York University with Masters degrees in art
history and conservation. From 2001- 2006 she worked as a textile conservator at
the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, Smithsonian Institution in New York.
She moved to Los Angeles to assume her current position as Assistant Curator of
Costume and Textiles in September 2006. Her research interests range from
technical structure of velvets from Italy to the Islamic world, and to Indian
trade cloths and Indonesian textiles. In the fall of 2009, she will begin a PhD
program in the History of South and Southeast Asian Art at UC Berkeley with a
proposed dissertation on early Indonesian textile and their relationship to
India. TMA/SC is very excited for Sandra, but will be extremely sorry to lose
her at LACMA, as she has been such a good friend of our rug & textile society.