|
In the remote Tarim basin, near the
Peacock River, 4000 years ago, lived a woman who has come to be named
The Beauty of Loulan.
When she was buried,
she wore a middy skirt, fur boots, a woven woolen cloak decorated with
long loops, and a felt and wool hood topped with a decorative feather.
Beside her was a
basket containing grains of wheat – a winnowing tray covered her. This well-preserved mummy is part
of a
series of mummies discovered in the far western desert in
present-day China (Xinjiang), which date from 2000 BCE to 200 CE.
Their costumes, and especially
textiles, may indicate a common origin with Indo-European Neolithic
clothing techniques. Textile expert Elizabeth Wayland Barber, who
examined the tartan-style cloth, marked similarities between it and
fragments recovered from salt mines associated with the Hallstatt
culture.
She especially noted
the plaids and twills used by the early Tarim peoples.
So, since she
can no longer tell her whole story, we must imagine one for her.
This piece is inspired
by the complex weaving strategies of the ancient people of the
Taklamakan Desert – the elaborate long-hop twills, the weft looping, the
tablet tapestries.
The reader, using a
touch screen, can follow the weft through the warp of centuries to
recover the fabric of the life of The Beauty of Loulan. Drawn from the work of Elizabeth Wayland
Barber Marco Polo,
The Travels Music:
Altan Urag Folk Rock
Band of Mongolia
|