06/10/2021
If you are interested in learning about Islamic Textiles, this will be held on Saturday, the 12th.
Sumru Belger Krody
Senior Curator, The Textile Museum Collection
at The George Washington University Museum and The Textile Museum
CO-SPONSORED BY
Textile Museum Associates of Southern California
Chicago Oriental Rug & Textile Society
Colorado Textile Group
Portland Area Rug Society
San Francisco Bay Area Rug Society
Seattle Textile and Rug Society
VIRTUAL ZOOM PROGRAM
*10* am PDT / 12 noon CDT, Saturday, June 12, 2021
Admission is free
Registration: https://tinyurl.com/PryrCptsCORTS
THE LOG-IN link will automatically be sent to you by Zoom when you Register for the program
Textiles in Islamic society fulfill far more than the functions normally expected of them. Among these textiles, prayer carpets hold a special place. They beautify spaces, while conveying metaphorical meanings for Muslim worshippers during their obligatory five-times daily prayer. Additionally, prayer carpets have been communicating the distinct aesthetic choices of the individual cultures who created and used them for centuries, while being recognizable as prayer carpets through their very specific design elements. This presentation will discuss the prayer carpet’s universality in terms of its use and certain design aesthetics, and will be followed by a brief discussion on how diverse Islamic cultures make this textile their own. Certain design elements and their meanings or symbolism are universal, and they point to a fluid iconography through time, place, religion, tradition, and culture.
Sumru Belger Krody joined The Textile Museum in 1994, after receiving her undergraduate and graduate degrees from Istanbul University and the University of Pennsylvania. She specializes in textiles from the late antique period and from the Islamic Lands. As senior curator, she leads the curatorial department of The Textile Museum collection and serves as editor-in-chief of The Textile Museum Journal. Sumru has curated or co-curated numerous exhibitions and is the author or the co-author of eight exhibition-related publications and many articles; the last two were Woven Interiors: Furnishing Early Medieval Egypt (2019), and A Nomad’s Art: Kilims of Anatolia (2018). She is also a guest lecturer for George Washington University on textile arts. She is currently working on an upcoming spring 2023 exhibition on prayer carpets titled Prayer and Transcendence at the George Washington University Museum and The Textile Museum.
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