From
Our Living Hands:
Portraits of Tibetan Women Artisans and Their Work
The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) China has worked successfully
for three years to implement the Integrated Artisan Development Project
(IADP) in Tibet. The program systemically addresses poverty alleviation
and the preservation of Tibetan cultural heritage and traditions through
a coordinated effort to bring business management and entrepreneurial
skills as well as product quality control measures to Tibetan women artists.
The result of three years of investment into this community rich in traditional
arts has yielded high quality, sophisticated wool scarves, wraps, stoles
and garments that have been sold in Paris, Milan and the United States.
Contemporary fashion often spotlights the sculpted, perfected bodies of
runway models, or famous individuals behind well-known brands: Giorgio
Armani for the Armani label, Miuccia Prada for Prada, Tom Ford for Gucci
and Ralph Lauren for Ralph Lauren. As consumers, appreciation rarely extends
beyond the brand, price, aesthetic, style or fantasy promoted by commercial
images. The producers of the fashions themselves—the women who work
to weave the fabric, dye the cloth, spin the wool or sew the garments—remain
silent and invisible in the forefront of glamour, advertisements and editorials.
From Our Living Hands seeks to shift the perspective away from the fantasy
and chic to the place of simple origin. This reorientation raises questions
related to our material culture and lifestyle choices: What is the impact
of fashion on lives outside our consumer vision? What happens when our
association of beautiful garments draws away from models and designers
and extends instead to weavers, spinners and yarn dyers—to the fabricators
of the products? These products are born of an artisan’s living
hands, and by acknowledging their labor the appreciation for an object's
beauty grows deeper. In our current manufacturing cycle that focuses on
mass production, these pathways are often disconnected, or simply neglected.
This project brings together artisans and their works in a series of photographic
portraits—living images that show the faces, works, environments
and dignity of production. In short, this series aims to draw open the
curtain behind the glamorous catwalk. It is an acknowledgement and an
ovation to the actual production that creates these chic and sophisticated
garments; it concedes to the process instead of the product. The results
will bring forth and showcase in exhibitions in Lhasa, Beijing and several
other cities to give the invisible, the silent and the hitherto faceless
a well-deserved portrait—to give the voice to the voiceless.
Project Sponsored by: All China Women's Federation of Lhasa and the China Association of NGO Cooperation (CANGO)/UNDP
Exhibited by: 5 Colors Earth; Lhasa Women's Federation and the United Nations Development Program's Integrated Artistan Development Project