Arts and Crafts of Mexico Chloe Sayer

Bio

B.A. (Honors) TSM English Literature/French: Trinity College, Dublin

Chloë Sayer is an independent scholar and curator, specializing in Mexican art and culture. Based in London, she is a Fellow of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain. She lectures extensively, leads cultural tours to Mexico, and has made ethnographic collections in Mexico and Belize for the British Museum.

In 1991 she co-curated the exhibition The Skeleton at the Feast: The Day of the Dead in Mexico at the Museum of Mankind in London. She has curated Mexican exhibitions at The Institute of Contemporary Arts, London (1977), The Horniman Museum, London (1977-78), Trinity College, Dublin (1998), The University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield (1999), and Queen's University, Belfast (2004). In 2007 she curated a travelling Mexican exhibition for Lancashire County Museum Services, and in 2008 she collaborated with curator Diane Wolfe on Harvest of Memories: Mexican Days of the Dead at the Gardiner Museum in Toronto. She has coordinated residencies by Mexican artists at numerous venues including the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Ideal Home Show in London, the Royal Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh, the Gallery of Modern Art in Glasgow, and the British Museum.

In 2010 and 2014, as the Veronika Gervers Research Fellow in Textiles and Costume History, Chloë Sayer studied the ROM's extensive collection of Mexican textiles. Working with Dr. Alexandra Palmer (the Nora E. Vaughan Senior Curator of Textiles and Costume), she is guest-curator of the exhibition ¡Viva México! Clothing & Culture (May 2015-May 2016).

Chloë Sayer has also worked on numerous television documentaries. These include Of Gods and Men, a six-part series about Mexican civilizations (1979, BBC); Guitarra, an eight-part series about the history of the guitar with Julian Bream (1984, Channel 4); Lucha Libre: Tales of Wrestling, Politics and Religion (1990, Channel 4); Full Circle (filmed in 1996 with Michael Palin for the BBC), and Children of the Sun (filmed with the Huichol in 1997 for World of Geo/Sky TV).

Sayer uses her extensive photographic archive to illustrate her books, exhibitions and lectures. From 1992 to 2000, she was a visiting tutor in the Department of Cultural Studies at Central Saint Martins (now part of the University of the Arts, London). In 2002-03 she was a Gallery Educator at the Royal Academy during the exhibition Aztecs. She currently lectures in the UK and Europe for NADFAS (National Association of Decorative & Fine Arts Societies); U3A (University of the Third Age); the Guild of Spinners, Weavers and Dyers; and the Embroiderers' Guild. She has also lectured in Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand and Mexico.

Exhibitions & Galleries

¡Viva México! Clothing & Culture (exhibition May 2015-May 2016); Patricia Harris Gallery of Textiles & Costume

Publications

2015 Mexico: Clothing & Culture, with contributions by Alexandra Palmer. Toronto: Royal Ontario Museum

2012 "Textiles from Mexico" and "Textiles from the Andes" in World Textiles: A Sourcebook (ed. Chloë Sayer) pp. 252-279; 280-305. London: The British Museum Press.

2010 "Overview of Mexico" in Berg Encyclopedia of World Dress and ashion (Vol. 2): Latin American and the Caribbean pp. 23-33. Oxford and New York: Berg Publishers.

2010 Chloë Sayer with Penny Bateman "Latin America", 5000 Years of Textiles pp. 273-285. London: The British Museum Press.

2009 Fiesta: Days of the Dead and other Mexican Festivals. London: The British Museum Press.

2007 ¡ Viva Mexico! Lancaster: The Lancashire Museums Service and Green Close Studios

2005 "Frida Kahlo: Painted Lady" pp 64-65 in Selvedge (issue 6). London.

2004 "A lover of clay' and "Lives Spun on Teotitlán Looms" in The Crafts of Mexico pp 150-165; 276-289. Washington: Smithsonian Books with Artes de México

2002 Textiles from Mexico (Series: Fabric Folios). London: The British Museum Press

2000 "The Mexican Days of the Dead" in Heaven and Hell - and Other Worlds of the Dead pp 144-145. Edinburgh: National Museum of Scotland Publishing Limited.

1998 The Incas (series: The Ancient World). London: Wayland.

1996 "Indumentaria de Veracruz y la Huasteca" in Indumentaria Prehispánica pp. 42-47. México D.F.: Revista Arqueología Mexicana (Vol. III, No. 17

1996 "Trama ancestral - vidas hiladas en Teotitlán' in Textiles de Oaxaca pp 70-77. México D.F.: Artes de México (No. 35)

1995 "Arcilla viva - un amante del barro: Chloë Sayer entrevista a Tiburcio Soteno" in Metepec y su Arte en Barro pp. 54-65. México D.F.: Artes de México (No. 30)

1995 Focus on Aztecs and Incas. London: Franklin Watts Books.

1994 "Colores y Formas del Rebozo" in Rebozos de la Colección de Robert Everts (Series: Uso y Estilo) pp 41-46. México D.F.: Museo Franz Mayer y Artes de México.

1994 Chloë Sayer with Ruth D. Lechuga, Mask Arts of Mexico. London: Thames and Hudson.

1994 Mexican Day of the Dead: An Anthology (ed). Boulder, CO: Shambhala Publications

1993 Chloë Sayer with Mariana Yampolsky, Traditional Mexican Architecture. London: Thames and Hudson

1991 Chloë Sayer with Elizabeth Carmichael, The Skeleton at the Feast: The Day of the Dead in Mexico London: The British Museum Press

1990 Mexican Patterns: A Design Sourcebook. London: Studio Editions Ltd.

1990 Arts and Crafts of Mexico. London: Thames & Hudson.

1990 Mexican Textiles. London: British Museum Publications

1990 Mexico: The Day of the Dead: An Anthology (ed). London: Redstone Press,

1988 Mexican Textile Techniques. Princes Risborough: Shire Publications Ltd.

1985 Costumes of Mexico. Austin: University of Texas Press. (Published in the UK as Mexican Costume. London: British Museum Publications)

1980 Chloë Sayer with Anna Benson Gyles, Of Gods and Men: Mexico and the Mexican Indian. London: BBC Publications.

1977 Crafts of Mexico. London: Aldus Books, UK

Arts and Crafts of Mexico Chloe Sayer

Source: https://www.rom.on.ca/en/collections-research/rom-staff/chloe-sayer

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