Cloth
Creating a Unique & Personal style: Wear your heart on your sleeve.
Conveying status and image through what we wear is a very familiar way of identifying ourselves. Students in this section will complete wearable art projects reflecting the study of Inca weaving and materials. Research and interpretation of symbols from Inca garments can yield clues and give inspiration for student designs. Students would be responsible for modeling their creations or designating an alternative for presentation of their projects.
The Inca people, famous for their textiles and magnificent stonework, originated in the mountainous regions of Peru. Sustaining one of the world's most compelling and well-organized cultures at altitudes above 10,000 feet in the Andes was no small task. The Inca were a remarkable people and enjoyed a decent way of life, despite harsh environmental conditions, that would be a marvel by today's standards. Fresh stores of seafood, giant strawberries, potatoes, squash, beans, tomatillos, chilies, cacao, and the highly adaptable maize in surpluses in their cultivated areas, were available to all through a network of distribution and storage facilities. Complete plant protein sources were derived by the invention of adding wood ash to soaking maize and serving the maize product with cultivated beans. Animal protein in the new world consisted of a diet of guinea pig and occasionally llama. A secure and nutritious food source engineered by the leadership of the ruling Inca meant that the populations' energies could be spent on crafting and building exceptional stone buildings and monuments in tribute of the ruling elite. The Inca tradition of weaving denotes the same quality and precision of craft and surviving historic samples have been called, "among the finest fabrics ever produced." (Murra, 1962: 710). Weaving in the tradition of the Inca was traditionally done by the women in the population and was woven on ingenious backstrap looms using the wool of the domesticated llama, a creature of the highlands, and the cultivated cotton of the lowlands. The combination of fiber sources indicated a cooperative union of the Inca people and provided each area with quality clothing, in the same manner of the engineered food cooperative model. Woven clothing, also stored in surplus, was considered more valuable than the stunning hammered and cast gold body decorations worn by the ruling class. Inca weavers used sophisticated loom techniques that rendered complex and dynamic patterning. Local dyes were of superior quality and can be seen in still vivid examples today. Clothing for the Inca constituted wealth as mentioned above, but also told an observer about the person wearing it. Identity could be indicated through specific woven patterns, specialty dyes and the actual fibers themselves. Coarse woolen fibers were for the lower classes while the garments made from the softer fibers of the vicuña llama and even woven feathers were reserved for the ruling Inca. Cloth remained the preferred gift among all peoples and could make a suitable sacrificial object (Murra, 1962: 712). Perhaps the greatest tribute of the woven practice of the Inca, after the clothing of the ruler, was the provision of fine textiles for the veneration of the dead. Delicate patterns and bold dyes in multiple layers formed the wrapping of the mummified dead, which were routinely kept and paraded as function and ceremony dictated. The deceased royal Inca maintained in death, all of their living treasures, which was almost completely their identifying and specially woven garments.
In the studio section of this module, students will construct a wearable art project inspired by the presented information and their own creative additions. Themes of family and personal references will be included in the final "garment." A section of the final work will be required as a direct interpretation of the weaving techniques observed in examples and can contain experimental use of materials and the artistic elements of design to include color, texture and pattern. Students can start the process by rendering sketches of their intended outfits to meet the intended objectives and coordinate their drawings into paper patterns. Following these steps will allow for teacher and student collaboration on materials and techniques, limiting potential setbacks. A variety of materials could be used with success, covering all media. Students should present their projects in a fashion show format, where they are themselves a model and where their explanations of design choices will add to the meaning of the pieces for their classmates.
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