You have a rare opportunity. The exhibition, Order and Disorder: Alighiero Boetti by Afghan Women closes this weekend at the Fowler Museum of Art at UCLA. Coinciding with the recent opening of the Boetti retrospective at MoMA, the Fowler show offers an especially rare look at this work. These incredible embroideries are exhibited side-by-side with the equally absorbing story of not just how they were made -but how their production was documented.
Randi Malkin Steinberger, an American photographer, met Alighiero Boetti in the mid eighties when she was living in Italy. Her book, Boetti by Afghan People, tells how she met Boetti, began collaborating with him, and then found herself traveling to Peshawar, Pakistan at his request to photograph women who were embroidering his works (Boetti was prevented such contact, due to religious custom). Adding to the barriers: hundreds of these women were being held as prisoners of war during the Russian invasion of Afghanistan. Randi was being sent on a mission that could prove dangerous for an American, and would require some stealthiness. She had no idea if she would be allowed access inside the camp, or for how long.
photo : Randi Malkin Steinberger
The entire story of Boetti's embroidered works and Randi's determination to gain entrance into the camps runs so deep, is so dense, so fascinating, that it's only been by repeat visits to the exhibition, reading the back story, listening to Randi talk at the exhibition and through private discussions with her that I gained an enriched perspective on Boetti's embroideries and how he felt about these works. Understanding it takes you far beyond presumptive responses: that these craftspeople were simply exploited, that the viewer should be shielded from the unseemly process of "making art", that a museum should not be showing these photographs at all, least of all in the same room with the art itself.
While it's generally not the position of a contemporary art museum to explain an artist's process to its audience, The Fowler Museum of art at UCLA, as part of a larger, educational institution has a unique role. Their stated mission is to "explore global arts and cultures...featuring the work of international contemporary artists presented within the complex frameworks of politics, culture and social action...through informative and thought-provoking exhibitions and events for the UCLA community and the people of greater Los Angeles and beyond." Moreover, Boetti desired these photographs to be shown.
Boetti viewing embroidered "mappa" being unpacked
photo : Randi Malkin Steinberger
Randi said that Boetti often signed these embroideries "Boetti by Afghan People" as acknowledgement of their work. "He really viewed these embroideries as a collaboration" Randi says. They often made their own choices while working, with unusual results: pink or purple oceans, or bits of poetry in their own language integrated into the wordplay Boetti had originally laid out for them to embroider.
Boetti saw these changes as an integral part of the work and the wordplay he loved so much. Similarly, Randi's photographs become not just a record, but an extension of the work itself.
In this era of cameras-are-everywhere and easy, digital photography, Randi's photos, caught in a mere 2-3 hour window under uncertain and unpredictable circumstances are rare glimpses into a cloistered world we may never have seen. Like his "Lampada Annuale", Boetti ensured that the illumination, however brief, is a fact, and not a mere deception.
photo : Randi Malkin Steinberger
I sincerely urge you to visit this exhibition before it closes. You can further read about this work and Randi's incredible story from her book and the museum's catalog:
Boetti by Afghan People - Randi Malkin Steinberger
Boetti by Afghan Women - Christopher G. Bennett (museum catalog)
Order and Disorder: Alighiero Boetti by Afghan People at Fowler Museum UCLA - February 26 - July 29, 2012
Alighiero Boetti: Game Plan at MoMA - July 1 - October 1, 2012
related entries on this blog:
Order and Disorder at Fowler Museum
Needlework Revolution
Concept to Collaboration: Artists Involving Others
Concept to Collaboration: Hommage to Bruno Schulz
Randi Malkin Steinberger - Pt. 1
