| Tana Bana:
From Tana Bana: The Woven Soul of Pakistan exhibition Drawing upon private textile collections in Pakistan and Wisconsin, Tana Bana will feature more than 60 textiles and costumes from various cultures and regions of Pakistan. The exhibition is co-curated by Noorjehan Bilgrami, a textile historian and artist from Karachi, Pakistan, and Mary Ann Fitzgerald, curator of the University of Wisconsin's Helen Louise Allen Textile Collection. This exhibition focuses on textile and costume traditions of the regions of Sindh, Punjab, the North-West Frontier Province and Baluchistan. The province of Sindh in southeastern Pakistan has a rich heritage of textile embroidery, dyeing, block printing and weaving. Consequently the largest representation of textiles in the exhibition comes from Sindh. Many of the traditional block-printing, dyeing and weaving centers of Sindh are located near the Indus River, which supplies the water for washing, rinsing, and dyeing yarns and cloth. The three types of textile production in the Punjab region highlighted in this exhibition include: silk weaving, phulkari embroidery and bandhani tie-dyeing. Tie-dyed cotton textiles called bandhani are produced for local markets in the Cholistan Desert region. The most distinguished embroidery from the Punjab is phulkari, which refers to both the embroidery technique and the textiles produced using this technique. The North-West Frontier Province borders on Afghanistan and has been influenced by trade with Turkistan and China. Textile production in this area reflects the trade routes as well as the political strife created with the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. Textiles are a mix of Afghani and Pakistani tradition with a focus on phulkari and other embroidery. Baluchistan is the largest province in Pakistan and the least populated. Inhabited by four major nomadic and semi-nomadic ethnic groups, the textiles reflect their lifestyle of few [though intricately woven] possessions. The exhibition includes examples of bags, rugs and camel trappings, as well as clothing worn by the men and women of this region. Many of the textile traditions represented in the exhibition extend to people and cultures beyond contemporary political boundaries. With the partition of India in 1947, the eastern boundary of Pakistan divided the Punjab and the regions of Jammu and Kashmir, and created a border through the Thar Desert of the Sindh, separating not only geographical areas but also common languages and cultural ties. The movement of people during partition also greatly impacted regional textile traditions. The western boundary of Pakistan, set during the 19th century, was determined by the struggle between Russia and Britain to establish geopolitical spheres of influence. The forces that shaped the current boundaries of Pakistan, therefore, do not necessarily reflect local traditions and history. Pakistan must be appreciated as a tremendous mingling of cultures and traditions, representing the diversity of South and Central Asia. This exhibition is generously sponsored by the Pakistan Arts Council of Pacific Asia Museum and the Textile Group of Los Angeles/TGLA Inc.
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