Finding a Textile Community
As an emerging scholar, the Textile Society of America virtual symposium Shifts and Strands was an incredible event that allowed me both to connect with the larger textile community and to refine my scholarship on Jacquard woven images as a transnational phenomenon. I presented during my second year in the master’s program at the Bard Graduate Center (BGC) in New York City. I am grateful for the Student/New Professional Award to help make my participation financially feasible.
My first foray into textiles took place on my own, making my need for a textile-related community even greater. A family friend gave me a Schacht Baby Wolf loom from the 80’s and I taught myself how to warp and weave on it. Later, I stumbled upon the phenomenon of Jacquard woven images from the interwar years from Hangzhou; I then spent a year on my own in the library delving into political history and silk industrialization in China.
I understand the medium of Jacquard woven images as a transnational phenomenon at the intersection of industrialization and nationalism. I wrote my first qualifying paper on the topic and I have returned to it again and again. This iteration incorporated a photograph of a display of Jacquard woven presidential portraits that includes a couple weavings from Hangzhou. I was thrilled to find an example of these weavings in practical use, as I have mostly encountered them in museum collections or as eBay listings. As Chiang Kai-Shek had a strong alliance with America (even before the Second Sino-Japanese War and WWII as Allied powers), the Chinese woven portraits of presidents made some sense. It is complicated because Generalissimo Chian Kai-Shek’s regime was democratic in name only. After the recent US election, it felt particularly timely to incorporate the history of American alliances with a Fascist regime. This was the perfect time and venue to discuss the original research that I frequently return to and expand on.
While I prepared for this symposium I was also applying for PhD programs, so I began thinking about future research. As I prepared my presentation, I was also writing a statement of purpose about Jacquard woven images, and writing a term paper on German Jacquard woven portraits in the MET collection. This confluence of research subjects was extraordinarily helpful as I began to better understand the scope of Jacquard woven image production, as well as trends across place and time. Many, many weavers in several countries resisted the arrival of Jacquard power looms, yet industrialists viewed the transition as inevitable.
All of these concurrent forms of inquiry made me brainstorm the various avenues of research I could take. Going forward, I am eager to delve into loom technologies, the value of labor, the silk industry, and the relationship between industrialization and nationalism. With the advent of AI and our current political climate, mechanized weaving (arguably the first digital art) and artificial intelligence prompt many questions on the value of skillful labor and how makers respond to changing technologies.
I made valuable connections during this symposium. PhD candidates at the Bard Graduate Center were the first to congratulate me and comment on my presentation. I was happy to learn from their contributions to the symposium as well. I am grateful for their guidance, support, and camaraderie as I navigate academia and textile scholarship. Through the support sessions leading up to the symposium, I expanded my professional network to include scholars interested in the intersection of politics and textiles. This support made my research feel important and exciting; an incredibly rewarding feeling. Afterwards, through the Whova messenger, a collections manager and a curator both reached out to share support and knowledge of other Jacquard woven portraits. One, a crazy quilt at the Newberry Library, is now a topic for my term paper this spring. Because of this symposium, I feel more connected to the greater textile community that will help me grow as a scholar and museum professional. Everyone has been so welcoming and generous as I prepare for a career as a textile scholar. Thank you!
Brielle Pizzala is a Master’s student at Bard Graduate Center. In 2020, she triple majored in Art, Art History, and History at the University of Minnesota -Twin Cities. In 2023, she earned her Master’s Degree in Art History and Museum Studies Certificate from the University of St.Thomas. She studied Chinese porcelain, intermateriality, and trade in the Early Modern World; her interest in intercultural exchange in the Qing dynasty shifted to focus on the dissemination and acculturation of modernity in the Republican China (1912-1949) and the reception of Chinese objects in late nineteenth and early twentieth century Britain.
