Ceremonial textile (pua)

This finely executed pua enjoys a particularly deep color saturation with a complex series of animated motifs that create a series of lively designs that are highlighted in a distinctive grey-blue color. Interlocking designs within the main panel outline layered series of commanding ancestral figures each with large implacable eyes, each figure’s individual features and limbs neatly ending in curling tendrils and skillfully executed scrolls that animate the design and end in a dramatic lower border that features a double-layer of chevrons (embellished with individual notches on the interior and a decorative border picked out in white against the deep red color). The piece is constructed from two similarly constructed ikat patterned panels, seamed along two selvages to form a large rectangle. The designs in the center and paired-patterned side stripes are created by black, white and red warp ikat with natural dyes. These areas are flanked and separated by groups of narrow stripes (in varying widths) in red, black, yellow and white.
The culture and spirituality of the Iban people is interwoven with the natural environment of Borneo, an island the Iban have inhabited for many generations. The genre of pua is the woven textile most readily associated with the Iban. The dyeing and preparation of textiles is highly ritualized in Iban society and the finished textiles–with their figurative motifs–are used to convey cultural and spiritual teachings. In this respect, both the process and the finished cloth are among the Iban’s most cherished cultural practices.