 |
Unknown Artist
- Title
- headcloth
- Place of origin
-
Sumatra →
Indonesia
- Cultural origin
- Batak people
- Year
- 20th century
- Media category
- Textile
- Materials used
- handspun cotton, natural dyes; twill weave with supplementary weft design at centre and at ends
- Dimensions
-
42.2 x 206.3cm [weft x woven warp]; 220.0cm [warp and tassle]
- Signature & date
- Not signed. Not dated.
- Credit
- Bequest of Alex Biancardi 2000
- Accession number
- 242.2000
- Copyright
- © Copyright reserved
- Location
- Not on display
- Further information
This headcloth is most likely to be associated with fertility. Woven in earth tones and heightened with blue, the geometric design on the end panels incorporates an elongated triangular motif symbolising the male principle, whilst the diamond design in the central section of this cloth represents the female principle. Textiles bearing this male-female design are used in rites by peasant farmers to secure an abundant harvest.
Asian Art Department, AGNSW, August 2000
- Bibliography (3)
-
Robyn Maxwell (Australia) (Author), Textiles of Southeast Asia : tradition, trade and transformation, Canberra, 1990, 139.
Mattiebelle Gittinger (United States of America) (Author), Splendid symbols: textiles and tradition in Indonesia, Singapore, 1990.
Mary Hunt Kahlenberg (United States of America) (Author), Textile traditions of Indonesia, Los Angeles, 1977.
