What do you see?

When confronted with new objects, our minds cannot ‘help’ but single out some specific features. So, with this cloth, what is the first thing that your mind wants you to focus on? The colors? The form? The fabric? The techniques used? The appliques?

In front of us we see a museum piece that entered the ethnographic collection of the National Museum of World Cultures in 1964. It is a rectangular piece of cloth (155 cm x 74 cm). Dr. Ger van Wengen, who later led the education team in the museum, brought this piece from Suriname to Holland in 1962, following his in situ research on the Javanese community in Suriname.

This cloth is a thing that talks as a whole, but, as with any complex object, every element that makes up this thing as a whole has its own story to tell; from the weft and the coloring, to the stitches. So, back to the question: what is the first thing that you are drawn to?

For me, the answer would be: the white symbols.