HEMP IMPRESSIONS – AN EXHIBITION AT THE CORVALLIS MUSEUM (OREGON) Guest Post by Caroline Hatton

Hemp textile artworks. Left: mulch by Lucas Mazurik, et al. right: Orchid's Keeper's Bag by Sandra Starkey.

My friend Caroline Hatton, a children’s writer and frequent contributor to this blog, took these photos in May 2025, at the Corvallis location of the Benton County Museums in Oregon.

Hemp Impressions, a fiber and fashion exhibition in Corvallis, Oregon.

Hemp Impressions– Sustainable Fiber and Fashion Reimagined, a temporary exhibition at the Benton County Museum in Corvallis, Oregon, “explores the creative potential of industrial hemp to create contemporary fiber art. This juried exhibition called for garments created using fabric that was at least 50% hemp fiber*. Submissions were judged on four criteria: concept, construction, use of hemp, and overall design.”

*Hemp fiber is obtained from the stem of the hemp plant (Cannabis sativa L.), best known because its dried form is marijuana. An important difference is that hemp grown for fiber contains low levels of the psychoactive product, whereas hemp grown for marijuana contains higher levels.

Detail of Orchid Keeper's Bag by Sandra Starkey.

The photo at the top of this post shows the most astonishing aspect of this exhibition for me, which is the boundless range of style allowed by hemp-containing fabrics: from the rustic outfit on the left, designed to go harvesting (the artwork title is mülch: redefining what it means to be an outdoor brand: through dirt, through soil, through mülch by Lucas Mazurik, Jack White & Zoë Reece, Colleen Pokorny & Marianne Dickson, Advisors) to the utterly refined Orchid’s Keeper’s Bag by Sandra Starkey on the right, designed to have no function except for evoking a mystical time.

The hemp abaya by Yessenia Chavez.

Detail of the hemp abaya by Yessenia Chavez.

The Hemp Abaya by Yessenia Chavez features botanical printing. The creator collected bamboo and other plants in her community, then used black fabric paint to print them on the fabric.

Detail of Green Jacket by Susan T. Avila.

While making Green Jacket, Susan T. Avila took advantage of the fact that 100% hemp fabric frays easily, to create fringes and roll them to form a fluffy collar.

Detail of Soft Scales by Sibei Xia.

Although hemp fibers are long-lasting, they are vulnerable to breakage when spun into yarn. Sibei Xia addressed this challenge, while knitting a dress called Soft Scales, by using the float jacquard technique because it decreases the proportion of yarn loops.

Flora Louisienne by Casey R. Stannard.

Say Yes to Hemp by Colleen Moretz.

The Purification of Hemp by Mary Elliott.

The above photos show that any fabric artwork one can dream up, one can make out of hemp-containing material. Beyond the practical aspects mentioned here, the works reflected deep beliefs in the hearts and souls of their creators.

This exhibition is in Corvallis, Oregon, about an hour-and-a-half drive south of Portland, and it ends on June 1, 2025.

FASHION AS ART: Guo Pei Couture Dresses at the Legion of Honor, San Francisco, CA

 

Guo Pei: Couture Fantasy at the Legion of Honor, San Francisco, CA

The Guo Pei fashion/art show at the Legion of Honor art museum in San Francisco is amazing--more like sculpture and costumes than real clothes. And it is not just the clothes--it is the shoes, hats, hair, jewelry--all designed to go together. Part of the show is downstairs in the special exhibition gallery. Upstairs the models are placed next to pieces in the permanent collection. 

Painting by Peter Paul Rubens. Portrait of Rogier Clarisse, ca. 1621

The figures are very cleverly positioned --like a model wearing a dress with a ruffled skirt next to a 17th century portrait of a man with a ruffed collar, or a patterned dress placed in front of a tapestry. One of my favorites is a figure with a large helmet shaped headpiece standing under a large domed ceiling—like a pair of nesting eggs.

Ensemble (dress and hood) from the Legends collection, Spring/Summer 2017. Silk embroidered with synthetic fiber, embellished with synthetic opals and Swarovski crystals and rhinestones.

The Guo Pei exhibit opened in April and has been extended to November 27, 2022, due to popular demand. For more information and to reserve tickets, go to the Legion of Honor website.

Each room in the exhibition gallery is devoted to a particular collection, each with a theme. The exhibit in the opening room, called “Inheritance” displays two traditional embroidered Chinese robes and explains how opulent embroidery, inspired by this ancient art, is a signature of Guo Pei’s work.
(Throughout the exhibit information panels, in both English and Chinese, provide information about the dresses and about where they fit in Guo Pei’s career.)

As a young girl growing up during the Cultural Revolution, Guo Pei found solace and inspiration in her maternal grandmother whose stories of elaborately embroidered robes enthralled the future couturier. As a young designer working for brand-name companies, Guo Pei longed to design embroidered clothing. However, richly embellished clothing, forbidden during the Cultural Revolution, had not yet regained popularity as fashionable dress.

Today, Guo Pei’s studio employs 450 craftspeople, of which 300 are embroiderers. Guo Pei and her team have developed their own interpretation of traditional needlework, creating a style that combines techniques from Chinese embroidery with Indian, Russian, and European stitches.(Notes from an exhibition panel.)

Guo Pei: Couture Fantasy celebrates the extraordinary designs of Guo Pei—hailed as China's first couturier—and includes more than 80 works from the past two decades highlighting her most important collections shown on Beijing and Paris runways.

The dresses in the exhibit range from elegant to whimsical to bizarre to almost impossible to wear. (You can go online to view fashion shows of Guo Pei’s designs, with models actually walking down the runway.)

This gown is a puppet theater, complete with puppet dolls dangling on strings! A monkey puppeteer on the bodice controls the dolls with a string.

Each Guo Pei dress is unique.   

The skirt on this dress, made of metal strips, weighs 20 pounds and is attached to a belt that sits on the model's hips.

It was impossible to resist taking photos. Here are just a few of my favorites.

Playful birds perch on this model's pigtails. Collection: Alternate Universe, Fall/Winter 2019-2020.

This model appears ready to take flight.

Like a giant wearable playing card, this elaborate dress features a long train. Collection: Himalaya, Spring/Summer 2020.

In her Fall/Winter 2019-2020 collection, Alternate Universe, Guo Pei envisioned an afterlife in which animals preside over humanity.

It is hard to believe that one could walk in these shoes.

The dress, made of pleated silk and embroidered with 24-karat gold metallic threads, is from the Collection of the Dragon, 2012.

These dresses are inspired by the typical blue and white designs on traditional Chinese ceramics.

“The culture of China is just like the blood that runs through my veins, it’s my life…China has more than 5,000 years of history, even longer culturally speaking. That history has greatly enriched my designs and is essentially a foundation of my work.” Guo Pei

ABORIGINAL FABRICS FROM AUSTRALIA a Feast for the Eyes at the Fowler Museum, Los Angeles, CA

Australian aboriginal fabrics and Lorrkkon (hollow log coffin)at Fowler Museum, UCLA.

If you like textiles and fabric art as much as I do, you will love the exhibit of Aboriginal Screen-Printed Textiles from Australia’s Top End now on view at the Fowler Museum on the UCLA campus in Los Angeles. 

Goose egg design (close-up). The interplay of overlapping colors is similar to that in an op-art painting.

Yards and yards of colorful fabrics are displayed, richly colored and featuring images from the natural world and from the lives of the people who made them. The designs are created by contemporary artists at five Aboriginal-owned art centers. As the introduction to the exhibit states, “The exhibition pays tribute to the resilience and beauty of Aboriginal Australia and reminds us of the enduring connections between peoples and their lands.“

Fabrics used in furniture design. Goose egg design in background.

Art and I went to see the exhibit on a Sunday afternoon, and although we had to show our vaccination card and wear a mask, few other people were there. We were particularly interested in this exhibit because of our trip to northern Australia in 2001 when we visited the Injalak Arts and Crafts Center, one of the centers with work on display. The other cooperatives represented in the exhibit are Tiwi Design, Jilamara Arts and Crafts Association,  Bábbarra Women’s Centre, and Merrepen Arts, Culture and Language Aboriginal Corporation

A kangaroo, snake, goose, fish and water lily design greets visitors at the entrance to the exhibit.

From the moment we entered the gallery we were struck by the rich colors and designs of the fabrics. Animals including fish, birds, crocodiles, bats, snakes, frogs and other creatures of the northern Australian landscape are depicted along with fish nets, baskets and other objects traditionally used in everyday life. Elements of the natural world–plants, water, landscape–also play a part in the designs.

Snakes and flying foxes (fruit bats).

In addition to the cloth, there are numerous videos demonstrating how the fabrics are made and explaining some of the cultural connections to the designs. You can view some of these videos online on the Fowler Museum website.

Video explaining the role of rock art images at Injalak.

Many of the screen printed fabrics are purchased by collectors. The fabric is also used for home furnishings and for creating high-end fashionable clothing. 

Prize winning outfit designed by Chloe Moa at the Melbourne Cup Carnival, 2013, using Marita Sambono’s Dagum (Fog dreaming) fabric.

Dressmaker dummies model dresses in another display of the exhibit. Lengths of fabric are available for sale in the Fowler Museum gift store--but are quite expensive.

Designs depicting fish nets, an emergency response to a hurricane, and water lilies.

Admission to the Fowler Museum is free. This exhibit is on view from December 5, 2021 to July 10, 2022. Other exhibits currently on view are Gosette Lubondo: Imaginary Trip; “How Do You See This World?” The Art of Almighty God; and Fowler in Focus: Communication Systems in a Global Context.The museum is open Wed-Sun from 12:00 to 5:00pm.  

Fowler Museum of Cultural History, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA