Monday 23 April 2012

Dogon country, Mali, 2010

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Dogon weaver in the village of Aouguine, Mali, September 2010.

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Koro Guindo spinning cotton thread, Aouguine, Mali, September 2010.

Both photographs copyright Huib Blom. Please do not reproduce without permission from Huib who can be reached at his site www.dogon-lobi.ch where you can also order his remarkable book of photographs.

For an important discussion of the rather controversial topic of Dogon weaving see Bernhard Gardi’s recent contribution to the French exhibition catalogue Dogon by Hélène Leloup (Somogy, 2011).

Thursday 19 April 2012

Guinea Conakry Fashion 1900

All these images are by one of my favourite of the early African studio photographers, A.James, active in Conakry circa 1900-1910. As far as I am aware, and unlike many of his contemporaries, his life and work has as yet not been researched. They are superbly evocative images, combining poise, beauty, fashionable hairstyles, jewellery, locally woven and imported textiles ….

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Tuesday 17 April 2012

African Textiles in Hali magazine Spring 2012

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The latest issue of Hali magazine (#171, Spring 2012 – available from www.hali.com ) has two worthwhile articles on aspects of African textiles.

This beautiful and rare cloth, formerly owned by the celebrated Parisian couturier Paul Poiret and recently acquired by the MFA Boston, is the subject of an interesting and thought provoking “Masterpiece” appraisal by dealer Andres Moraga.  As he points out there is still considerable uncertainty in the identification of some of these more obscure styles of blue and white cloth, woven with often quite subtle variations over a wide area under the influence of the dispersal of Mande weavers of Malian origin over many centuries. This piece is tentatively attributed to Sierra Leone on the basis of comparison with two published cloths in the Lamb collection (Gilfoy 1987 numbers 8 & 12), but to my mind is far more likely to be from northwestern Ivory Coast along with the two related cloths in the Quai Branly. In fact I would suggest that the two cloths Gilfoy published are likely not to have been woven in Sierra Leone either (for what its worth my guess would be  Mali and northwestern Ivory Coast respectively.) In any event two things are clear. Firstly this is a fine and rare cloth with an exceptional provenance that deserves the consideration it is given in the article. Secondly we can note  how little is known about the cloths of this whole sub-region and how much further research is urgently required.

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Ros Weaver’s article Saharan Chic is a well researched introduction to the plant fibre and leather mats of the Tuareg and Maures of the Sahara, illustrated with some superb examples in the collection of Rafaelle Carrieri of the Altai Gallery, Milan.

Tuesday 10 April 2012

Some early Yoruba aso oke strips

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Yoruba aso oke strips, circa 1900. Indigo dyed hand spun cotton with magenta silk from the trans-Saharan caravans……