Unknown Artist
- Title
- Geringsing
- Place of origin
-
Tenganan →
Bali →
Indonesia
- Year
- circa 1850
- Media category
- Textile
- Materials used
- handspun cotton, natural dyes; double ikat technique with embroidery
- Dimensions
-
49.0 x 217.0cm [weft x warp]
- Credit
- Asian Collection Benefactors' Fund 2003
- Accession number
- 112.2003
- Location
- Not on display
- Further information
This spectacular 'geringsing' was made for the Raja of Amlapura in eastern Bali. It replicates the flower and trellis pattern of patolas to bold effect. What is unusual about these cloths, however, is the embroidered decoration on the two ends of the textile, the threads of which were once couched in gold, suggesting the importance and value ascribed to them. In the traditional context 'geringsings' were significant as sacred cloths and were worn as breast wrappers or shoulder cloths during religious ceremonies. The sacred value of these cloths is suggested by the rituals and rites associated with each step of their manufacture which ensured the purity of these cloths.
Asian Art Department, AGNSW, June 2003.
- Exhibition history (1)
-
Symbols and Ceremonies: Indonesian Textile Traditions, Art Gallery of New South Wales, 13 Apr 2006–28 May 2006.
