LONDON: Raja Permaisuri Agong Tunku Hajah Azizah Aminah Maimunah Iskandariah will be heading a delegation to promote and exhibit the woven textiles of Tenun Pahang Diraja in the London Craft Week (LCW) in May.
"This is the first time they (the textiles) are going out of Malaysia to be part of the London Craft Week," said Tunku Azizah during a brief respite from working in preparation for the annual exhibition recently, which celebrates outstanding British and international creativity.
During the week-long festival, around 250 established and emerging makers, designers, brands and galleries from around the world will converge to showcase their products.
This year, the festival will be held from May 9 to May 16 at various venues around London.
The Tenun Pahang DiRaja exhibition, showcasing textile pieces made by prisoners from Penor and Bentong Prisons, will be held at the Malaysian High Commission building in Belgrave Square.
Her Majesty, who is the patron of the Yayasan Tenun Pahang DiRaja, said she was excited at the prospect of showcasing the centuries-old Pahang weaving tradition, which she described as "bringing penjara Penor and penjara Bentong to London".
During a recent breakfast meeting with the Malaysian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom Ambassador, Zakri Jaafar, Tunku Azizah said the delegation in May would include a former prisoner who would be demonstrating the art of weaving tenun Pahang.
"I am just bringing tenun from the prisons because I want the world to know about the work that we do.
"We train them to prepare them for when they are released, for their sustainability.
"This is part of our preparations for the Perkampungan Sultan Abdullah which will be built in Pekan — a centre where all ex-prisoners can come.
"We provide workshops to help them sell their goods.
"We will be bringing our wardens here (to the exhibition), wardens who have never had any art training in their life and now they are teaching the prisoners, how to weave," said Tunku Azizah.
She added that the best tenun pieces were products of hard work in the prisons of Penor and Bentong.
"The highest quality and the most beautiful designs are woven by the male prisoners there," she said.
Taking pride of place and a centrepiece at the exhibition is the outfit that Tunku Azizah wore during the installation ceremony as queen of Malaysia, which was woven by the prisoners.
"I am very proud of them," she added.
Visitors to the exhibition will also be able to feast their eyes on old pieces of textiles from Pahang, as well as pieces that had been designed from sketches to the final product by Tunku Azizah herself.
"This is so that people can see how far we have come from the past 15 years since I took over from 2005, when I took over Tenun Pahang and gave it a new name.
"At that time we had less than 15 weavers left. Now, there are about 300 and we have our training institute. We have come a long way," she said.
It was during the royal visit to London last October that Tunku Azizah visited the London Craft Week and met its founder and chairman, Guy Salter.
"We are honoured to be invited to participate. I would like it (the exhibition) to be international, not just for Malaysians but for the whole world to see.
"I want them to see our cottage industry. It has been in Pekan for more than 300 years.
"I want the world to know how we have progressed." - NST
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