In West Africa, cloth is made of wool, cotton or silk, or combinations of these materials. Woven on narrow strip looms, they are then hand or machine-sewn together to create large wrappers, cloths or blankets with patterns dyed or woven into the fabric.
This man's silk wrapper features complete coverage of the warp with various geometric patterns. This complete coverage is called adwenenasa, which means "I am exhausted." It was woven using two pairs of heddles so that the weft-faced areas are reduced to very narrow bands, allowing the artist to fill the intervening spaces with an astonishing myriad of forms by using supplementary weft floats.
Description:
Man's silk and synthetic dye wrapper composed of blocks of geometric shapes, primarily triangles, zigzags and squares, in yellow, red and green, which sometimes overlap to create darker colors.
Provenance:
Venice and Alastair Lamb, England, collected in Bonwire, Ghana, -- to 1983-1985
Exhibition History:
African Gold: Selections from the Glassell Collection, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, May 26-November 26, 2006
Published References:
Picton, John. 1992. "Tradition, Technology, and Lurex: Some Comments on Textile History and Design in West Africa." History, Design, and Craft in West African Strip-Woven Cloth: Papers Presented at a Symposium Organized by the National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, February 18-19, 1988. Washington, D.C.: National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, pp. 39-41, 108, no. 10, pl. 4.
Content Statement:
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Image Requests:
High resolution digital images are not available for some objects. For publication quality photography and permissions, please contact the Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives at https://africa.si.edu/research/eliot-elisofon-photographic-archives/
National Museum of African Art, National Museum of Natural History, purchased with funds provided by the Smithsonian Collections Acquisition Program, 1983-85, EJ10560
