Threads of Time: Tradition and Change in Indigenous American Textiles

Browse Items (25 total)

  • Collection: Modern Panama

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The modern and contemporary women of the north coast and offshore islands of Panamá, the Guna (previously Cuna or Kuna), incorporated the European scissors and machine-made cloth in the 19th century to make a remarkable new “traditional”…

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Writing is incorporated into this contemporary cut-and-sewn dulemola made by the Guna people from the northern coast and Caribbean islands off Panamá. In the top center a version of the letters “IHS” can be seen, the monogram abbreviated from…

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Guna aesthetic masterfully balances maze-like linear designs with figuration. The image of a mother feeding her baby bird is barely distinguishable from the spiraling black and red forms. However, larger areas of black for the birds' heads and the…

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This blouse panel represents the all-important coral reef that used to thrive in the San Blas Islands where the Guna live, but is now endangered. The piece renders coral as an abstract pattern of branching, pointed elements. It aptly communicates…

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Some images of the coral reef may be as illusionistic as this, showing how the same subject has many interpretations by different artists. Gracefully swimming fish, a seahorse, and a hermit crab appear very lifelike. The artist has even foreshortened…

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The Guna free dive down as far as eighty feet to catch the Caribbean spiny lobster (Panulirus argus), or rock lobster, shown in the blouse panel. Spiny lobsters resemble "true" lobsters and are edible, except they have very long antennae and only…

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The fantastical multi-headed snakes take their place among the many subjects of Guna dulemolaguna that relate to Nature, but not in direct imitation. The undulating and interlocking lines of orange and red create a sense of snake bodies without…

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The dulemola at left celebrates the famed Panama Canal that joined Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, allowing ships and cargo to move much more efficiently around the planet. The canal actually rejoined the oceans that had long ago been one body of…

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The dulemola panel features two churches, a subject that is obviously not “traditional” since the Guna religion was and continues to be shamanic and nature-based. Yet, according to dulemola artists, equal-armed cross shapes stand for the top…
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