GATHERING MOONBEAMS

“Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”—The Red Queen to Alice in Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass

WHAT: Private reception to celebrate the opening and unveiling of the extraordinary Spider Silk exhibit at the American Museum of Natural History. Textile on loan from Simon Peers and Nicholas Godley.

WHERE: American Museum of Natural History, Grand Gallery (77th St. entrance)

WHEN: Wednesday, September 23, 2009 at 6:30 PM- 8:30 PM

WHO: Hosted by actress HEATHER GRAHAM with special guests Simon Peers and Nicholas Godley, visionaries behind the textile.

Music by Donna D’Cruz.

Expected attendees to date include Asim Abdullah, Jackie Astier, Phillip Bloch, Christine Cachot, Coralie Charriol, Cho Cheng, Alistair and Blair Clarke, Lydia Fenet, Douglas Hannant, Lucia Hwong-Gordon, Kimberly Guilfoyle Villency, Anisha Lakhani, Lindsey Lohan, Lara Meiland, Tinsley Mortimer, Maggie Rizer, Alexandra Lind Rose, Amanda Ross, Jacqueline Sackler, Susan Shin, Tracy Stern, Edward Tricomi, Joel Warren, Arden Wohl, etc.

ABOUT SPIDER SILK To imagine a textile woven from the gossamer threads of spiders has long been the stuff of dreams and fairy tale. Renowned textile artist Simon Peers and fashion entrepreneur Nicolas Godley have taken the impossible from the realm of myth and turned it into the warp and weft of a unique and fabulous cloth to touch and admire. Drawing inspiration from an eccentric history of attempts to use the silk of spiders in weaving, this unique textile took almost five years to make, using a painstaking technique and required teams of collectors, 'silkers,' throwers and weavers to produce. More than a million Golden Orb spiders from Madagascar were collected, “silked” (ultra fine, naturally golden-colored silk was carefully extracted by hand from the female spiders’ spinnerets) and released. The result was silk untrammelled, untouched and untreated which then was thrown and mounted on a loom to be woven as pure as the silk in a web. Imbued with metaphor and poetry, with nightmare and phobia, with tales and myths that resonate within us all, this spectacular textile encompasses an extraordinary history, embodying the diverse meanings and associations that inspire and fire the imagination. Few textiles can claim such a rich heritage.

GATHERING MOONBEAMS

“Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”—The Red Queen to Alice in Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass

WHAT: Private reception to celebrate the opening and unveiling of the extraordinary Spider Silk exhibit at the American Museum of Natural History. Textile on loan from Simon Peers and Nicholas Godley.

WHERE: American Museum of Natural History, Grand Gallery (77th St. entrance)

WHEN: Wednesday, September 23, 2009 at 6:30 PM- 8:30 PM

WHO: Hosted by actress HEATHER GRAHAM with special guests Simon Peers and Nicholas Godley, visionaries behind the textile.

Music by Donna D’Cruz.

Expected attendees to date include Asim Abdullah, Jackie Astier, Phillip Bloch, Christine Cachot, Coralie Charriol, Cho Cheng, Alistair and Blair Clarke, Lydia Fenet, Douglas Hannant, Lucia Hwong-Gordon, Kimberly Guilfoyle Villency, Anisha Lakhani, Lindsey Lohan, Lara Meiland, Tinsley Mortimer, Maggie Rizer, Alexandra Lind Rose, Amanda Ross, Jacqueline Sackler, Susan Shin, Tracy Stern, Edward Tricomi, Joel Warren, Arden Wohl, etc.

ABOUT SPIDER SILK To imagine a textile woven from the gossamer threads of spiders has long been the stuff of dreams and fairy tale. Renowned textile artist Simon Peers and fashion entrepreneur Nicolas Godley have taken the impossible from the realm of myth and turned it into the warp and weft of a unique and fabulous cloth to touch and admire. Drawing inspiration from an eccentric history of attempts to use the silk of spiders in weaving, this unique textile took almost five years to make, using a painstaking technique and required teams of collectors, 'silkers,' throwers and weavers to produce. More than a million Golden Orb spiders from Madagascar were collected, “silked” (ultra fine, naturally golden-colored silk was carefully extracted by hand from the female spiders’ spinnerets) and released. The result was silk untrammelled, untouched and untreated which then was thrown and mounted on a loom to be woven as pure as the silk in a web. Imbued with metaphor and poetry, with nightmare and phobia, with tales and myths that resonate within us all, this spectacular textile encompasses an extraordinary history, embodying the diverse meanings and associations that inspire and fire the imagination. Few textiles can claim such a rich heritage.