Among the objects included in the twentieth installment in Cooper Hewitt's Selects series, curated by Nigerian-British designer Duro Olowu, there is a war rug from Afghanistan. Dating between 1990 and 2000, the piece features lines of grenades, landmines, cars and helicopters.
The rug is part of the Cooper Hewitt's collection of political and propaganda textiles, and Olowu very aptly picked it in the tumultous times we're living in to be part of the Cooper Hewitt's Selects display dedicated to the themes of pattern and repetition.
For the event, Olowu selected a wide range of items from the 17th to the 21st century, made with the most disparate techniques, from the artisanal to the industrial.
Patterns are employed to preserve heritage, express ideas, create visually striking motifs and construct objects and Olowu made striking selections, creating a visually intriguing cabinet of curiosities for pattern lovers and establishing connections between the different pieces.
A crocheted silk and metal threads miser's purse (an oblong pouch mainly made with a net and used to carry coins in the 1800s), for example, finds a correspondence in a chaguar fiber crocheted dress.
Designed and woven by Lydia Novillo in a women's cooperative in Formosa, Argentina, the dress incorporates variations of the traditional diamond pattern of the rattlesnake. The design took the weaver one month to make, but the process of making the fiber is even more time-consuming as the leaves are picked, mashed to retrieve the fiber that is then dried and twisted together to make a yarn.
This dress is a synthesis of the traditional weaving practices of an indigenous people of South America, the Wichi, with a modern silhouette, just like the knotted chair designed by Marcel Wanders in 1996 for Dutch cooperative Droog Design and produced by Cappellini S.p.A., uses an ancient technique (macramé) with high-tech fibers (made from braided aramid fibers wrapped around a carbon core and impregnated with epoxy) to create an iconic furniture form.
Olowu jumps from one medium to the next: a drawing of an earring from the 1880s seems to find correspondences in an intricate braided linen tassel from the 17th century.
The designer also tries to show how one technique such as beadwork can inspire different patterns: a necklace from the late 19th-early 20th century features a beaded pattern traditionally worn by Zulu and Xhosa women and men to indicate status and rites of passage, while a beaded sampler from Mexico shows a Biblical story and an unfinished knitted bead bag dating from the 19th century gives us a hint about the creative process and the skills of its maker.
Speaking about makers, in some cases we do know who made the design on display and also the fabric used to make it: a silk tunic by Mariano Fortuny (dated ca. 1925) decorated with ceramic beads was made with a fabric with Maria Monaci Gallenga's trademark hand-printed metallic motifs.
Yet most of the pieces on display were made by an "Unidentified Maker", anonymous artisans whose identity went unrecorded and unacknowledged, even though their works remain remarkable.
The ample selection made by Olowu means that the exhibition features something for everybody: music fans will discover the cover for Sun Ra's album "Sun Song", designed by Laini Abernathy, the first Black female designer of a jazz record cover, and the jazz album "Provocative Percussion Vol. III" (1961) with a cover designed by Josef Albers. The Bauhaus teacher and artist created for the album a pattern conceived as a visual metaphor for the tempos and rhythms of the instruments featured on the tracks.
Visitors passionate about architecture and interior design will discover instead furniture mounts, decorative tiles and a linen panel designed by textile artist Sheila Hicks and architect Warren Platner.
Platner was responsible for the interior of the Ford Foundation Headquarters, completed in 1967, and designed by Kevin Roche John Dinkeloo and Associates. The wall panels for the boardroom and auditorium – conceived not as decorative elements but as complimentary to the construction materials and therefore integral to the architectural space – feature a medallion-like embroidered motif.
"Patterns are somewhat of a hidden dialogue, a means of understanding how cultural shifts occur across time and place," Olowu states about the event in a press release. "They open a window to how knowledge and aesthetics are shared across the globe. When we look at pattern, we don't just see stripes, polka dots, or other geometrical layering, we see each other."
Previous to this event, Olowu curated critically acclaimed contemporary art exhibitions, including "Making and Unmaking" (2016) at Camden Arts Centre in London and "Duro Olowu: Seeing Chicago" (2020) at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago. This is the first time he works on a show in which most of the pieces on display are not contemporary art, yet, while curating the selection, the designer showed he has a discerning eye and the ability to pick a variety of intriguing objects from all over the world, also thanks to a genuine passion for art and a great sensitivity. If Olowu decides to quit fashion, the industry will lose a designer, but the art world will definitely gain a gifted curator.
"Duro Olowu Selects: Works From the Permanent Collection" is on view until August 28 2022.