Sekomandi, Ceremonial Cloth

Galumpang Toraja, Sulawesi
19th or early 20th century
Cotton; warp ikat
92 x 53 in / 234 x 135 cm
SOLD

Ex Laurence Moss Collection

Sekomandi are large four panel cloths with a central body (bada) geometric pattern and extended borders know as feet (kaki) and were displayed at grand funerary events. The Carl Schuster interpretation that the pattern represents interlocking ancestors as a genealogical continuum seems reasonable in light of their ritual, however field informants have never confirmed this theory. Tragic few original cloths survived a mid 20^th Century civil war in the region, which explains their great rarity, though revivals started being made beginning in the late 1970s. From the collection of the famous anthropologist, Dr Laurence Moss.

Exhibited: Fabric Traditions of Indonesia, Museum of Art, Washington State University, Pullman, WA, Nov.- Dec. 1984; The Bellevue Art Museum, Bellevue, WA, USA, March-May, 1985.