"Boro: Threads of Life" Exhibition at Somerset House

Last Tuesday I went to London with Sara and Sam to see the exhibition of Boro at Somerset House.

We were somewhat delayed by having a wonderful time playing in the fountains in the sunshine but eventually made it to the East Wing Galleries.

Photography was permitted and Sam was given a postcard of one textile to try and find - good thinking.

You can see in this photograph how the textiles were displayed.

I delayed writing this post as at least one friend is visiting the exhibition this week.  I wanted them to be able to make up their own mind, unclouded by preconceptions from my report.  I have say I was disappointed with "Boro:  Threads of Life".  Not with the textiles themselves, but with the manner in which they were exhibited.

There were a few items that were exhibited in the way I expected, as the original garments were made and used in Japan.  (Apologies for the strange tint to the photographs, it seems to be a result of the exhibition lighting).

Most textiles, however, were exhibited like this.  As if the exhibition was an art gallery.  The pieces were all of similar shape and size.  Several pieces appeared to have been mounted on new fabric and all the pieces had been smoothed over stretcher frames or similar.

Sara and I were both astonished at how flat and thin the boro was, so much so that I took a photograph of the edge of a piece that wasn't mounted in this style.

Nowhere could I find any information about the boro, no origin, age, description, nor on the way they had been mounted for exhibition.  Each item had only a number alongside it.  The book accompanying the exhibition was simply a collection of photographs of the items.  I feel the textiles must have been reduced in many cases to their outer layer, they certainly appeared to have had the guts ripped out of them.

Moving closer gave some texture but the overall impression was of a flat, almost lifeless, sea of blue.  Am I being too harsh in my disappointment?  Maybe I should have been inspired by the innovation of the exhibitors.

"They carry with them the evocation of family members, the presence of ancestors" it states in the exhibition guide.  It was exactly this that I felt was missing.  These historical textiles had somehow been reduced to gallery exhibits (with enormous price tags I later discovered) and their life and soul, their very integrity, had been removed along with the creases, filling and lumps and bumps.

I must state that I am not opposed to using old textiles in new ways, nor to individual expression and creativity but this exhibition contradicted itself in using the traditional words to talk about the boro while treating them in a way that disparaged all those words.  It was sad and we were glad to get back out into the sunshine and the fountains!  For another perspective on the exhibition and more pictures, including some good interior views of the galleries, you might like to pop over to Susan Briscoe's blog post here.

Boro in London

http://www.somersethouse.org.uk/visual-arts/boro

"This April Somerset House will host an exhibition on the Japanese textile tradition of boro. Translated to ‘rags’ in English, boro is the collective name for items – usually clothing and bed covers – made by the poor, rural population of Japan who could not afford to buy new when need required and had to literally make ends meet by piecing and patching discarded cotton onto existing sets, forming something slightly different each time they did so. Generations of Japanese families repaired and recycled fishermen’s jackets to futon covers, handing them down to the next and weaving their own sagas and stories through the threads. 

"As such boros are seen to have significant sociohistorical status by providing an insight into the modest lives of those that made them and a snapshot of the country’s impoverished past, but they can also be viewed as articles of great artistic value. Consciously or otherwise, the once humble objects can be considered works of art with their unique arrangements of shapes and beautiful hues of blues and browns, reminiscent of the paintings of Paul Klee or the combines of Robert Rauschenberg. In this context, Boro will showcase 40 historic boro pieces in a new light within Somerset House’s East Wing Galleries from a collection never before displayed and compiled over six years by antiquarians Gordon Reece and Philippe Boudin."

Gordon Reece opened a gallery in Knareborough and another in Mayfair and promoted the appreciation of non-European crafts.  The galleries closed in 2007.
Philippe Boudin is the director of the Mingei Arts Gallery in Paris.

I am planning to see this exhibition and will, of course, report back.  In the meantime, pop over to Susan Briscoe's blog where she has shared some of her own collection of boromono and a lot of information about these evocative textiles.