Category: Travel
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This week’s Spotify playlist
Each week a curated set of music on Spotify accompanies the blog. The pieces relate to the blog contents and you can listen via the player below or by clicking the 3 … on the bottom right of the player and then clicking “Play on Spotify”. If you have a paid subscription to Spotify you…
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Textiles of the Mbuti
Over in the northeastern rainforest, the Ituri, of the Democratic Republic of the Congo live the Mbuti people who make unique barkcloth. Pounded out by men and decoratively planted by women, these cloths are worn or used to hang inside huts. If they are worn for ceremonial purposes they are called Pongo. This example in…
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The Rugby
South Africa’s Cape Town Camerata perform a song for the Rugby World Cup and the All Blacks perform their haka before The Big Game kicked off today. Now, who to support…
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This week’s Spotify playlist
Each week a selection of music is compiled into a playlist on Spotify, the music streaming app. The mix is related to items on the blog and to current events, and you can listen to it by clicking the play button on the Spotify app below. This week the music selection is based on songs…
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The Nature of Textiles talk
The Nature of Textiles exhibition has ended with a talk on Friday. Twenty people attended the hour-long conversation about the show. The chat ranged over the materials used in the pieces on show, the history of some of the articles, and why they were added to the collection. There were some interesting questions along the…
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This week’s Spotify playlist
Each week a new playlist will be available for readers to listen to on Spotify. The music is selected because of its relevance to the blog or to the news. If you have a paid membership to the service you will hear the full length tracks and no advertisements. An unpaid membership plays advertisements every…
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Appropriation or appreciation – who makes the decisions?
The artist, Yinka Shonibare, has long employed art to explore and expose colonial attitudes, using cloth that originated in the Dutch colonies and that are now associated with Africa, to highlight the role of the textile industry in world trading relationships. It is a clear example of cultural appropriation. But sometimes the lines are blurry.…
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The amazing coelacanth
This week, the Royal Society of South Africa (RSSAf) held an online talk about coelacanths, the ancient fish that still live in the ocean. This fascinating creature has been the subject of myth ever since it came to the science world’s attention in 1939. Named after the finder of this first animal, and the river…
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Fantastic cardigans, Oz style
Just across the water something rather marvellous has been going on that those of us who like knitwear might just have fallen in love with. WAH-WAH Australia is a fabulous label that creates wearable art from music designs but that is not all. The designer, Kaylene Milner, works with bands to make outfits for stage…
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Music to read a blog by
This week sees the introduction of a new element for the blog: a Spotify playlist. To listen to the music that has been on the earphones this week, click on the play list link above. If you have a Spotify account or app you will be able to listen to the full tracks, otherwise you…