Jan. 25, 2008

Media Contact: Derek Ferrar
Media Relations Specialist
Phone: (808) 944-7204
Email: ferrard@EastWestCenter.org

February 10-March 30, 2008
East-West Center Gallery, Honolulu
Presented by the East-West Center Arts Program and the Fowler Museum at the University of California-Los Angeles

In a world now awash in a global trade of industrially produced cottons and synthetic fabrics, it is easy to forget that all of the cloth needed in any community once had to be woven by hand, and that much of it was made from bast or leaf fibers. Today even the word bast, which refers to a layer of fibers found in the stems of plants, is unfamiliar to most people.

This exhibition, originally developed by the Fowler Museum at UCLA and modified by East-West Center Gallery staff, features a diverse selection of bast and leaf fiber fabrics from the Asia-Pacific region and illustrates how weavers have overcome the notorious challenges of processing and dying these materials to create textiles of subtle, natural beauty and sophisticated design.“

What makes this exhibition so exciting is the way it enables us to see how these materials are used differently by each culture in ways that really express their unique identity,” says East-West Center Gallery Curator Michael Schuster. “It’s literally the fabric of societies.”

“Material Choices” introduces gallery visitors to bast and leaf fibers such as hemp, ramie, abaca and other banana fibers, pi