Islamic and Asian Textiles at the Ashmolean’s Jameel Centre
The Ashmolean’s Jousef Jameel Centre for Islamic and Asian Art has a splendid online database of textiles. One of the collection’s superstars is this radiant sun, blazing at the centre of a 19th century Rajput royal flag. The colour is so full of muscle, it knocks you off your chair, and the simplicity of the composition will knock your socks off.
So, there you are sprawling sockless in front of your Mac. Restore your dignity now, by researching some of the ancient textile fragments in the collection. You will see motifs that have been seminal in textile design for over two millenia all around the globe. It is an eye-opening experience for connoisseurs of Indonesian textiles. Many of the most coveted traditional Indonesian textile designs were inspired by Indian examples, many centuries ago. And that’s not surprising, when you consider the beauty of ancient Indian textiles, like this 13th-14th century Gujarati block print (above). Do you see a geringsing at all?
Images © Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
Four-Hour Queue to Enter Paradise: Bali Airport Goes Kafkaesque
Due to convoluted immigration and security procedures, passengers arriving at Bali’s airport are now forced to queue for up to four hours before they are finally released from its insalubrious underbelly. Ours is now surely the worst airport in the world in terms of user satisfaction. Only the Russian communists during their heyday, or the Chinese during the Cultural Revolution, ever orchestrated queues like this. I think I heard someone say, “It’s like waiting to buy meat in Minsk back in the bad old days.”