Peter ten Hoopen presents Timor: Totems and Tokens at Museu do Oriente, Lisbon
TIMOR: TOTEMS & TOKENS
December 12, 2019 — March 15, 2020
From 12 December 2019 until 15 March 2020, Museu do Oriente in Lisbon, Portugal will exhibit an important group of ikat textiles from West and East Timor under the title ‘Timor: Totems and Tokens’. Shown will be 70 examples from across the island which showcase its great regional diversity. The majority come from Peter ten Hoopen's 'Pusaka Collection', along with a few examples from the Fundação Oriente and the Georges Breguet collection.
The exhibition will present a number of rare and beautiful examples of the island's extraordinarily rich ikat culture. The exhibiton will include numerous early weavings, mostly from the early 20th century, with a few still older. The relatively advanced age of these examples allows us a deep retrospective glance through time – back to a period when ikat textiles were typically made with an internal movitation, for local and largely ceremonial use, with its important aspects of identification and ostentation.
Included in the exhibition are 20 ikat textiles from Timor-Leste, a former colony with which Portugal still maintains close ties. The long period of political unrest in East Timor during World War II and again after the departure of the Portuguese in 1974 caused the majority of its textile heritage to be destroyed and prevented collection, so that now the chance to see a substantial group of older specimens represents a rare opportunity. Some of the more stellar pieces from East Timor are recent acquisitions of rare old textiles from Suai-Loro that became available when the local ruler needed funds to renew his adat house, the family's place for ritual. Paradoxically, a few heirlooms were sacrificed so that local traditions could the better be maintained. They now enrich what we know about the ikat culture of this part of East Timor.
The exhibition will live on through the publication of a 176 page catalogue Timor: Totems and Tokens, edited by Peter ten Hoopen with contributions by Jill Forshee, Pierre Dugard, Georges Breguet and Linda S. McIntosh. Jill Forshee builds on her earlier scholarly work on Indonesian culture, in particular her recent collaboration with Roy Hamilton and Joanna Barrkman in Textiles of Timor, and relates touching personal stories of weavers in Timor-Leste. Pierre Dugard shares his highly valuable insights with regard to Timorese motifs that he acquired during his years of collecting and documenting textiles on the island, often living with weaving families.
Collector and scholar Georges Breguet introduces us to the beautiful and rare horse blankets of the Timorese nobility, known from only a few examples. Linda McIntosh comments on the ikat textiles in the exhibition from the perspective of a Southeast Asia generalist, using her experience in presenting the Tilleke & Gibbins Textile Collection. To the editor befalls the task of introducing the island – which he aims to do in a reflection on aspects of the island that appear insufficiently lit – and describing the textiles in the catalogue section.
Peter ten Hoopen
Steven G. Alpert gives a celebratory presentation at the “Ikat Textiles of the Indonesian Archipelago from the Peter ten Hoopen Collection” book launch at the Rijksmuseum on October 13th, 2018. Photograph by Dexter ten Hoopen.