Art Speaks • Kasuri: A Japanese Textile Tradition in Global Context with Lee Talbot

Event Details:

Join curator and textile scholar Lee Talbot for a behind-the-scenes exploration of the exhibition Irresistible: The Global Patterns of Ikat, on view at The George Washington University Museum and The Textile Museum in Washington, D.C., and the artistic and cultural legacy of ikat, a resist-dyeing technique known in Japan as kasuri (?). Colorfully illustrated with examples from the exhibition and The Textile Museum collection, this lecture will trace kasuri’s origins and historical development while highlighting the rich variety of this textile’s traditions in Japan.

Lee will explore how kasuri dyers and weavers have achieved global recognition for their meticulous planning and execution, ongoing technical experimentation, and mastery of materials including cotton, silk, and various bast fibers. Technical and stylistic innovations have helped maintain kasuri’s relevance and economic viability over several centuries, and time-consuming methods of hand weaving and dyeing continue alongside mechanized factory production in present-day Japan.

Monday, Nov 4, 2024
12 – 1 pm CT
Virtual, on Zoom
Pricing: Sliding scale Free-$20

Artist Bio:

Lee Talbot (he/him) is Curator of Textile Museum Collections at The George Washington University Museum and The Textile Museum in Washington, D.C. He joined The Textile Museum in 2007, specializing in the history of East Asian textiles. Lee has curated and co-curated almost twenty exhibitions at the museum, most recently Irresistible: The Global Patterns of Ikat (2024) and Korean Fashion: From Royal Court to Runway (2022). His recent publications include the chapter “Ikat in Japan” in Global Ikat: Roots and Routes of a Textile Technique (2023) and the chapter “Scholarly Discourses on Fashion Change in Late Joseon” in Dress History of Korea: Critical Perspectives on Primary Sources (2023). Lee was previously curator at the Chung Young Yang Embroidery Museum at Sookmyung Women’s University in Seoul, South Korea. He has a B.A. from Rhodes College, an M.B.A. from the Thunderbird School of Global Management, and an M.A. and M.Phil. from Bard Graduate Center.