June 2019
The exhibition and studio will be opened by Dr Jane Lomax Smith AM, Chair of the South Australian Museum Board and a Director of Adelaide's iconic Jam Factory Centre for Contemporary Craft and Design on Thursday 16th May 2019
We are celebrating our move with a follow up to our 2005 exhibition Suzani: Splendid silks with Textiles of the Old Silk Road celebrating textiles and other artefacts found in the Central Asian countries that were once an integral part of the trade of the Old Silk Road. The exhibition will include Suzani embroidered wall hangings and cushions, handcrafted silk, velvet and cotton ikat cushions, robes and antique handcrafted bowls.
In the study of textiles, we can see the influence of the silk road in the sharing of design, materials, and techniques of manufacture and cultural importance. Not least is the use of silk as the preferred fibre for high quality and culturally significant textiles across the vast region of its influence.
The Silk Road was an ancient network of trade routes that connected the East and West extending from China in the East to Turkey and further into Southern Europe in the West. It was central to cultural interaction between nations for many centuries. The Silk Road derives its name from the lucrative trade in silk. Trade on the Road opened long-distance political and economic relations between the civilizations along its route. Though silk was the major trade item exported from China, many other goods were traded as well as ideas, technology, religions, and science. In addition to economic trade, the Silk Road was a route for cultural trade among the civilizations along its routes.