Cotsen Textile Traces Study Center

We are delighted to announce that an exhibition of new work, entitled “Let Me Hear Your Voice”, by Cotsen Studio Artist-in-Residence Ghiora Aharoni is on view at The George Washington University Museum and The Textile Museum, in Washington DC.

This body of work is a response to the peripheral Jewish edict that women’s voices should not be heard, because they are too seductive. Aharoni presents an alternative perspective, one of equality where women’s voices are celebrated rather than suppressed. Its title, “Let Me Hear Your Voice”, comes from The Song of Solomon.

The Cotsen Studio is a year-long program that invites artists and designers to visit the museum and research the Cotsen Textile Traces Study Collection. It includes an on-site research residency and an exhibition in dialogue with the collection, in addition to academic and public programming. New York based artist Ghiora Aharoni mines cultural artifacts and sacred texts, recontextualizing these words and symbols in order to question their significance, and the power they exert over our contemporary culture. He is the inaugural Cotsen Studio Artist-in-Residence.

You are welcome to come and explore the artist’s re-contextualization of stunning Yemeni headdresses in dialogue with objects from the Cotsen Textile Traces Study Collection. The installation is open through May 8, 2022.

Video and images: ©Ghiora Aharoni Studio

Cotsen Textile Traces Student Colloquium. April 17.

Meet Lexie Allen from The George Washington University will present her research on “Greco-Roman Influence on Late Antique Egyptian Textiles” on April 17 in Panel 4: “Coptic textiles” on April 17 during the first all-day Cotsen Textile Traces Student Colloquium.

To learn more about the colloquium, please check out our website at museum.gwu.edu/cotsen-textile-traces-student-colloquium

She will also engage in critical discussion about her findings with Elise Friedland, associate professor of classics and art history, George Washington University.

The colloquium features the scholarship of 11 students--from George Washington University and American University in Washington D.C., University of California in Los Angeles, and Arc School of Conservation-Restoration, University of Applied Sciences Western Switzerland--who have selected fragments from the CTTSC for their research projects.

Image: Egypt, 7th century. Cotsen Textile Traces Study Collection T-0214a.

Cotsen Textile Traces Student Colloquium. April 17.

Meet Léa Girardin from Arc School of Conservation-Restoration, University of Applied Sciences Western Switzerland, will present her research on “Soviet Textiles as Message Carriers: an Example with a Textile Designed by Sergei Burylin and Manufactured by Ivanovo-Voznesensk Factories” on April 17 in Panel 1: “European Textiles: Late 19th to Early 20th Century” on April 17 during the first all-day Cotsen Textile Traces Student Colloquium.

To learn more about the colloquium, please check out our website at http://museum.gwu.edu/cotsen-textile-traces-student-colloquium

She will also engage in critical discussion about her findings with Marie-Eve Celio-Scheurer, academic head of CTTSC and guest professor of art history, Arc School of Conservation-Restoration, University of Applied Sciences Western Switzerland.

The colloquium features the scholarship of 11 students--from George Washington University and American University in Washington D.C., University of California in Los Angeles, and Arc School of Conservation-Restoration, University of Applied Sciences Western Switzerland--who have selected fragments from the CTTSC for their research projects.

Image: Russia, Ivanovo, Sergei Burylin (1876-1942), “Tractors”. Cotsen Textile Traces Study Collection T-2102.041.