ART 'N' AB ART - Global Textiles at Blickling Hall

Karun Thakar's fabric collection must be absolutely huge. This is a man totally obsessed with design, pattern, the skills and techniques of fabric makers. And what we see here is only scratching the surface of what he holds in his personal collection. There are some truly stunning pieces of cloth just hung up in the entrance hall alone. What you find as you walk around the house, is that the Indian fabrics are where the strengths of this display are, but there are also some superb Japanese kimono, Africa and Russian cloth too.

It aught then to have been a feast for the eyes, to come away both awed and enriched. So why did it feel lacklustre, half asked even? Well, it came down to the way they chose to display the fabrics. It would have been much better had they displayed all the fabrics in a tighter sequence, and not have them sparsely spread out across many rooms. This diminished the impact of them. Also, draping them informally over sofas, across floors and bookcases, treated them far far too casually. You can't really get a sense for them as full patterned lengths of cloth. They end up appearing scrunched and scruffy like someone's put their laundry out to dry. Plus they are really hard to see in most of the rooms. This is not helped by the house light levels, which for the sake of conservation I know are kept low with the blinds down. And from behind a rope a stunningly embroidered fabric hung over a bookcase, well I could tell it was floral, but not much more from yards away. 

The attempt to link the fabrics to specific individuals from Blickling Hall felt trite, and a bit of a skimpy afterthought. It was on the level of, he worked in India around this time - so what? I would have found it much more interesting for the researchers to have gone into more specific detail on how Indian textile designers adapted to the Western market. How European textile manufacturers took over the production of popular Indian cloth designs. The influence it had on European aesthetics and fashion trends. Not to mention European protectionism of their own cloth making industries. Was there asset stripping of Indian cloth designs? What were the Calico Acts etc ? I suspect it was assembled on a very low budget, hence the poor level of display, or came together hurriedly in a short space of time. I'm afraid this was a missed opportunity, and hence disappointing as an exhibition overall. 

CARROT REVIEW - 3/8