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"The Interweave of the
Near East and Chelsea"
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In 2016 this exhibition at the Hudson Guild
in New York City celebrated Chelsea’s
historic Near Eastern-American families in an Classic traditional
art form from the ancient
Near
East.
In 1969 Stanley Bulbach moved
onto West 15th Street in the west side Chelsea neighborhood in
lower
Manhattan
while working on his academic degrees at NYU in History of Religion
and Ancient Near Eastern Studies.
Of the 20 apartments in the
1886 "Old Law" tenement building into which he moved,
about half were homes to Lebanese and Syrian families. Most
of the families had economic roots in the local clothing, fashion
and
garment
industry that flourished here when West 14th Street included not
only Paterson Silks and Singer Sewing Machine’s main showrooms,
but also when Seventh Avenue was such a large garment center that
it was officially nicknamed “Fashion Avenue.”
Some of his Near Eastern-American
neighbors worked in the United Nations. Some were Sunni
or Shia Muslims and some were Orthodox Christians. Many
other neighbors were European Spanish and Sephardic Jews whose
families had worked in local shipping. Many were Greeks
who worked in the local food and furrier businesses. They
all lived and
worked together, making this shared neighborhood a richer
community and home for all.
Recently, "gentrification"
and "hyperdevelopment" have replaced almost
all of these families. What
little is left of this rich heritage includes a few remaining
local Maltese
and Yemeni groceries, the Spanish Benevolent Society on 14th
Street, and the Third Sephardic Cemetery
on West 21st Street whose gravestones
are slowly disappearing.
This is an art exhibition of some of the artist's
impressions of New York as reflected in the ancient art form
of those past
neighbors.
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All woven designs
and photos on this webpage are copyright protected by Stanley
Bulbach, All Rights Reserved.
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Above right: Third Sephardic
Cemetery, a carpet bed inspired by West 21st Street's historic
cemetery and gravestones from New York City's early Sephardic
Jewish community.
Above left: Nieuw Amsterdam, a
prayer carpet inspired by the City's Dutch founders, and today's
avenues and streets with their new luxury towers. |
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Above left: Sixth Avenue,
a prayer carpet for sunrise and sunset on the midtown glass tower-lined
avenue known to tourists as Avenue of the Americas.
Above right: Heat Lightning,
a carpet bed imparting an oppressively hot summer night on
a NYC avenue.
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Above left: Times Square,
a flying carpet for reflecting the traffic and bright lights
and windows all converging in this hectic crowded center of business,
theater, and tourism.
Above second left: September Passages,
another flying carpet tracking the monarch butterflies in their
metamorphic cycle of life and transfiguration as they migrate
south through New York City's canyons of glass and stone towers.
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The residential neighborhood of
Chelsea was historically related to the fashion and textile
industries. New York's famous Garment
Center, on Chelsea's northern border, is now slowly disappearing. Most
new residents are no longer familiar with the nature and importance
of the fibers and textiles in this neighborhood's history.
Similarly, most people are now unaware how modern
computer technology evolved from earlier loom and weaving technology.
For
example, IBM hole-punch cards of the 20th Century evolved from
the similar cards used by the 19th Century's Jacquard looms that
mechanically produced complex woven structures and designs; and the
modern digital image technology evolved from the photochemical
industries that arose in the 19th Century to develop synthetic
dyes to replace traditional vegetal dyes. |
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Detail: Art Director Jim Furlong (left)
and Stanley Bulbach |
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The Hudson Guild, founded in 1807, is a multi-service
community agency serving those who live, work, or go to school
in Chelsea,
with
a focus
on those in need.
The Hudson Guild’s mission is to create
and sustain a strong, effective community that acknowledges and
responds
to the potential, achievements and interdependence of its diverse
members. Rooted in and primarily focused on the Chelsea
neighborhood, the Hudson Guild seeks to empower all individuals
and families to achieve their
highest potential, while maintaining a priority focus on those
in economic need.
Chelsea is a neighborhood on the lower west side
of Manhattan between Greenwich Village to its south and Clinton or
Hell's Kitchen to its north. Originally, the area was the farm
of Clement Moore, the purported author of "T'was the Night Before
Christmas".
The neighborhood's economic
activity was also linked to shipping on the Hudson River on Chelsea's
western boundary. |
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The above prayer carpet, The Hudson,
celebrates both the Hudson Guild and Chelsea's connections to
the Hudson River,
and was created specially for the Hudson Guild's exhibition.
The woven stripes draw attention to the great
river's rippled surface, as well as to the reflections on it
of the skyline's tall buildings, and holiday fireworks and/or
the sun. And the woven design includes references to the
river's wildlife including eels, fish, and turtles which were
esteemed by some of the Lenapi clans who summered, fished and
farmed at Sapokanikan, which is where West 15th Street meets
the Hudson's
shoreline.
“Arts at Hudson Guild” is supported
in part by public funds from the National Endowment of the Arts,
New York State Council of the Arts, New York City Department
of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council. Additional
support provided by The Beacon Group, Milton and Sally Avery
Foundation, Susan & Tony Gilroy, Emily Meschter & Jolie
Stahl.
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