Qatar 365 unveils unique textiles crafted from the silk of golden orb-weavers spiders and focuses on the centuries old art of carpet weaving.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00 You have these crafts that are handed down from the past that are still vital today and
00:06 then design pointing the way to the future.
00:08 The textiles which are on display are the only textiles in the whole world that are
00:13 made of the golden spider silk.
00:16 Each of these carpets will live so much more than us.
00:20 They will over live like many, many generations.
00:24 They are so unique and beautiful because the gold color is actually how it comes out from
00:30 the spider.
00:35 Hello and welcome to Qatar 365.
00:37 I'm Ado Haleem and on this episode we explore the textile industry.
00:42 Laila Humaira introduces us to the sacred rituals women weavers of Afghanistan have
00:47 practiced for generations.
00:49 But first we're at the Museum of Islamic Art for a new exhibition that explores the
00:53 remarkable world of golden spider silk.
00:57 I even got a chance to see a golden cape being showcased in the Middle East for the very
01:01 first time which took two years to produce and incorporates a silk of 1.2 million spiders.
01:12 This exhibition includes four golden textiles crafted from spider silk.
01:17 Yes, you heard that right.
01:19 Silk from golden orb weaver spiders, indigenous to Madagascar and famous for the color of
01:24 their webs.
01:26 One of the things about it is it produces this wonderful gold thread.
01:29 Just the fact that where you know it comes from is already a sort of magical thing because
01:35 it's hard to associate the web of a spider with actually, which is such an ephemeral
01:40 thing which can blow away in the wind and then imagine that as something permanent.
01:45 So and just how on earth do you do it?
01:47 How do you get from being that ephemeral thing to a permanent thing?
01:51 Answering that question has become a labor of love for Simon Peirce and Nicholas Godley
01:55 who spent two decades of trial and error producing spider silk strong enough to produce textiles.
02:01 So every day we have quite a number of people going out in the town with long bamboos just
02:07 catching spiders, putting them in a box, bringing them back to the place which we call the spidery
02:12 which is where we extract the silk and then in the afternoon put them back in the box
02:17 and they are released back into the wild.
02:20 So it's not in our interest at all to kill the spider, we want to keep the spider alive.
02:25 Interest in spider silk goes back centuries but these pieces are the only examples of
02:29 golden spider silk in the world.
02:32 Now if you're squeamish or scared of the creepy crawlers, just imagine the process of extracting
02:37 one ounce or 28 grams of golden spider silk requires the help of 23,000 spiders.
02:45 And a lot of silk was needed for the highlight of the exhibit.
02:49 This gold cape is from the silk of 1.2 million golden spiders which took more than two years
02:55 to produce and over 6,000 hours of embroidery.
02:59 I think you have to be incredibly passionate and maybe a little crazy to commit yourself
03:06 to a project like this.
03:07 It takes time, energy, resources.
03:10 You're surrounded by spiders in Madagascar but they can't be harvested the way that other
03:14 industries are harvested, right?
03:15 So you have to actually go into the wild, catch them, go through the process of removing
03:21 the spider silk and then releasing them back into nature, all the while trying not to get
03:27 bitten by the spider itself.
03:29 The exhibition space is part of the museum's last and final stage of a relaunch project
03:34 that opened before the World Cup in 2022.
03:37 The museum's director says the exhibition embraces sustainability by highlighting the
03:41 use of eco-friendly vegan silk in the final exhibit pieces.
03:46 They are so unique and beautiful because the gold color is actually how it comes out from
03:52 the spider.
03:53 It's natural color.
03:55 For me it's the first time I see such textiles that are not dyed shiny and gold from nature.
04:05 It's also a very sustainable way of producing silk from the spiders.
04:12 There are lots of research done to develop this technique.
04:18 So we have displayed some historical manuscripts and books for the visitors to get to know
04:25 more about it.
04:27 We hope the visitors will enjoy the exhibition and find it inspiring.
04:36 Now you're probably wondering, what does it take to preserve the rare priceless textiles
04:40 found here at the Museum of Islamic Art?
04:43 Whether they're ancient artifacts preserved for generations or relatively new works of
04:47 art like the golden spider silk pieces we just saw, clearly considerable care must be
04:52 taken.
04:53 I recently got a chance to go behind the scenes to see how conservator Dominika Kostelnikova
04:58 prepares the textiles before they're displayed to the public.
05:03 Dominika, there's a big focus on textiles here at the Museum of Islamic Art.
05:10 Can you walk us through the process of how you restore and preserve some of these items?
05:14 The work of textiles conservation includes many aspects.
05:21 For example, the first step when the textiles object reaches the conservation laboratory.
05:28 Usually me as a textile conservator, I need to prepare the condition check and photo documentation
05:36 of objects before any intervention.
05:39 Usually after that, we need to photograph.
05:42 The textile conservator research the objects, I mean different textile techniques or composition
05:50 of textile fibers.
05:52 And there is a lot of questions which we need to answer for them.
06:00 So here at MIA you have textiles from all over the world, from Africa, Asia, and Europe
06:06 particularly.
06:07 Is there a big difference when you're working with pieces from different locations, different
06:12 time periods?
06:13 Yes, the textiles which we have in MIA collection includes different textile techniques.
06:20 For example, the people in the past, they used different techniques for decorating of
06:29 textiles in Europe and in Central or East Asia.
06:34 The same with woven of fabrics or textiles.
06:39 The luxurious textiles were representative gifts in the past and usually it was the trade
06:49 between Europe and Asia.
06:51 So Dominika, what are we looking at here?
06:54 Now we have here the Mongolian brocade rope, silk rope from the 14th century.
07:00 It's a very beautiful rope but in poor condition because it's an archaeological textiles.
07:07 And now I start with humidification and flattening of creases and folds which we can see here
07:16 in this place.
07:19 It's very specific brocade rope because brocade is very specific shuttle woven fabric where
07:27 the people used metal threads.
07:31 It means usually gold or silver threads.
07:35 And in this case, especially because brocade textiles are very specific and looks very
07:44 luxurious and in the past were very expensive.
07:49 So it's the most beautiful textile for me.
07:58 The intricate work behind creating a piece of textile makes it more than just a skill.
08:02 In some communities, the art of weaving has been passed down through generations.
08:07 At Design Doha, Qatar Museum's new Biennale, a special exhibition is putting an innovative
08:12 spin on an ancient craft and Laila Humaira got an inside look.
08:20 From the mountains of central Afghanistan to a contemporary art space in Qatar, designer
08:26 Mariam Omar skillfully weaves an ancient handicraft tradition with modernity to create a powerful
08:34 presentation at the M7 Museum.
08:37 I wanted to celebrate the carpet weavers actually that are carrying this centuries old tradition
08:46 of carpet weaving in Afghanistan.
08:48 Mariam spent 10 months closely interacting with the carpet weavers who went on to help
08:54 her create the rugs on display.
08:56 I wanted my inspiration to be the person who is weaving.
09:02 What is it about them, about their weaving hands, about their sounds, their voices, their
09:08 environment, their stories, their personalities, their colors.
09:12 Mariam Omar's weaving poem exhibition transforms this space in the M7 Museum into a world of
09:19 women weavers from Afghanistan's Bamiyan region, welcoming visitors into a sacred space where
09:25 creativity comes alive.
09:28 Weaving Poems was curated by Turquoise Mountain, a non-profit organization founded by King
09:33 Charles in 2006 to revive, preserve and support thousands of families in Afghanistan.
09:41 So Turquoise Mountain supports artisans and we support artisans where their traditions
09:45 and often they are under threat and we do it in any way we need to to make sure that
09:50 they can thrive and that they can pass it on to the next generation.
09:54 The foundation has since expanded to more countries where traditional handicrafts and
09:59 cultural heritage are at risk of disappearing.
10:02 We work in Myanmar, we work in the Levant with Syrians, Jordanians and Palestinians
10:07 from Jordan and from West Bank and we work in Saudi Arabia and so that is so many different
10:13 traditions probably almost a hundred different traditions across those countries.
10:18 Using textiles as a medium of visual arts may be less common but Design Doha believes
10:24 that doesn't mean it can't be as impactful.
10:27 When we think about textiles of course that sits within this larger topic which is craft
10:32 and its relation to design because certainly you can't make great textiles without having
10:36 a lot of knowledge about looms or other textile techniques that go back centuries here in
10:41 the region.
10:42 So what's very interesting is that you have these crafts that are handed down from the
10:45 past that are still vital today and then design pointing the way to the future.
10:50 For Mariam, working with textiles isn't just a thread that connects her to her people,
10:56 country and culture, it's also an art she hopes will transcend borders and time.
11:03 My hope is that the visitors will look at these carpets and they will understand the
11:09 value that carpet weaving, this extremely old tradition of handmade woven carpets still
11:18 carry in today's design scene, in today's interior.
11:22 That each of these carpets will live so much more than us.
11:25 They will over live like many, many generations.
11:29 They will still be alive.
11:31 This value that these people create with their hands, I always say, are not at the time.
11:40 From Madagascan spiders spawning gold silk to Afghanistan's rich carpet weaving tradition,
11:45 we hope you enjoyed this episode.
11:47 Now that's all the time we have for now.
11:49 For more, check out Euronews.com and connect with us through our hashtag.
11:52 Thanks for watching and we'll see you next time on Cut There 365.
11:56 (upbeat music)
11:58 [BLANK_AUDIO]