Threads of Time: Tradition and Change in Indigenous American Textiles
Modern Panama
Title
Modern Panama
Collection Items
Dulemola (Women's Blouse Panel) with Paliwiduru (Eagle Spirits)
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 IHΣΟΥΣ,…
Dulemola (Blouse Panel) with Women in European Skirts
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” blouse. It…
Girl’s Blouse with Geometric Patterns
A tiny Guna girl wore this blouse with its vivid front and back dulemola panels of orange and blue. The geometric patterns and two colors make these dulemolaguna traditional, the type called “grandmother” to show it is an older idea (versus those…
Dulemola (Blouse Panel) with Spiral Patterns (Biru-birut)
This contemporary dulemola features multiple small pieces of cloth sandwiched between the black top cloth and the orange base one, maximizing the number of colors of the twenty-eight spiral patterns. They are subtly subdivided by the clever way the…
Dulemola (Blouse Panel) with Mother Bird Feeding Chick
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…
Dulemola (Blouse Panel) with Hummingbirds and Flowers
This blouse panel combines the long-practiced technique of cut, folded, and sewn patterning with actual appliqué, the sewing of additional shapes on top. The lozenge shapes are made in the traditional way, cutting through and folding back to reveal…
Dulemola (Blouse Panel) with Abstract Coral Patterns
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 the…
Dulemola (Blouse Panel) with Fish Among Coral Reef
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…
Dulemola (Blouse Panel) with Caribbean Spiny Lobster
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…