History and Art are Woven Together in Textiles Exhibition at STL

Posted on November 27, 2017 in Art Media Releases

A collection of West African textiles and performance art is part of a new exhibition at St. Louis Lambert International Airport titled, Wrapped in Knowledge: West African Textiles from St. Louis Collection. The exhibit features pieces curated by Jacquelyn Lewis-Harris, Ph.D, an Associate Professor at the University of Missouri, and transmedial artist Yvonne Osei who is also showing some original works.  The unique exhibition is on display in the Terminal 1 baggage claim through May 2018. 

The exhibition gives viewers a brief history of West and Central African textiles, their production, and the assimilation of these fabrics into the global trade market and mainstream fashion industries.  Featuring early costume pieces and specialty items no longer manufactured, this collection by Lewis-Harris shows styles and weaving techniques dating back to the 1700’s.   

Osei’s works, titled Africa Clothe Me Bare, compliments the collection and examines a contemporary view of the textiles. An ongoing series of performances characterized by redefining outdoor female sculptures in Western countries, Osei’s art is birthed not through a product but through the process of dressing and undressing female monuments. She utilizes derivative and reinterpreted West African fabrics purchased in Western fabric shops to foreground issues relating to global trade, colonialism, and gender inequality. Osei finds a humorous yet critical way of highlighting the ‘global image’ of West African textiles in our present-day world.    

Lewis-Harris, who is also an independent curator and former curator for the Saint Louis Art Museum, lived in Libera for three years in the 1970s.  There she helped to establish the first textile cooperative in the country.  During this time she built her personal collection of older woven pieces from West Africa, outstanding modern pieces purchased directly from the artists, and textiles from Senegal, Ghana, and Liberia in subsequent visits.  She continues to advise and work with textile collectors in the St. Louis Region.

Osei, originally from Ghana, is a 2016-2017 Romare Bearden Fellow at the Saint Louis Art Museum and coordinated programs such as, If It Wasn’t for Women: The Body, Fashion and Art. She is also the inaugural Curator-in-Residence at the Center of Creative Arts (COCA) and an Adjunct Professor at Webster University.  Osei completed her MFA in Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis and is currently pursuing an MS in Fashion Business and Entrepreneurship at Lindenwood University.  A transmedial artist whose creative practice dissects beauty and colorism, the politics of dress, and the complexities associated with colonialism and globalization in post-colonial Sub-Saharan cultures, her solo exhibition Tailored Landscapes is currently on view until March 2018 at Laumeier Sculpture Park as part of the Kranzberg Exhibition Series.

Wrapped in Knowledge was commissioned by the Lambert Art & Culture Program with support from the St. Louis Regional Arts Commission.  It was selected to display as part of the Lambert Art & Culture Program by the Airport Art Advisory Committee.  The Committee is a seven-member panel appointed by the mayor of St. Louis to provide guidance and help select exhibitions for the Lambert Art & Culture Program at STL. The Committee is currently represented by Lisa Cakmak, Associate Curator of Ancient Art, Saint Louis Art Museum; Ellen Gale, Executive Director, Clayton Chamber of Commerce; Shelley Hagen, Director & Curator, Corporate Art Collection & Resources, Wells Fargo Advisors; Leslie Markle, Curator for Public Art, Washington University in St. Louis; Kiku Obata, President & CEO, Kiku Obata & Company; Roseann Weiss, Director of Artist & Community Initiatives, Regional Arts Commission; and Carlos Zamora, Creative Director, Express Scripts.