Sensory Silhouettes
Introduction
Garments are meant to be worn and therefore felt. When they are presented behind glass in a museum, our experience is limited only to seeing them. In this collaboration between RISD’s Virtual Textiles Research Group (VTRG) and the RISD Museum’s Costume and Textiles Department, the textures, colors, and histories of South Asian textiles converge. Centering cultural associations, memories, and place-based details, we selected four garments in the museum’s collection for their distinctive sensory properties and richness of hand, as well as the stories of cultural exchange and collaboration embedded in their making. We encourage you to contemplate these historical textiles, consider the material modeling and garment simulation in the projected video, access audio narrations via the QR code, and gently touch the examples provided at the ends of the cases.
Kate Irvin, curator, Costume and Textiles, RISD Museum
Joy Ko, critic, Textiles and Industrial Design, RISD
with label texts by Yukti V. Agarwal, Brown / RISD Dual Degree 2024.5
Virtual Textiles Research Group (VTRG): Joy Ko; Caroline Silverman, critic, Textiles; Yukti V. Agarwal, Brown / RISD Dual Degree 2024.5, Psychology / Contemplative Studies / Textiles / THAD; Latika Balachander, RISD MFA 2024, Textiles; Dani Epstein, RISD MID 2024; Yutong Li, RISD MFA 2025, Textiles; Sarah Mann, RISD MID 2024; Yue Xu, RISD BFA 2024, Textiles
In collaboration with Catherine Andreozzi, professor, Apparel, RISD, and Sheela Lunkad, founder, DirectCreate
Touchable bandhani made by Studio Medium / Riddhi Jain in collaboration with Alexandra Soiseth, RISD MFA 2023, Textiles
CLO3D: Jim Simon, academic lead, US Design Team, and Lindsay Laffoon, specialist, 3-D design and implementation
RISD Museum is supported by a grant from the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts, through an appropriation by the Rhode Island General Assembly and a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, and with the generous partnership of the Rhode Island School of Design, its Board of Trustees, and Museum Governors.
