tribaltextiles.info

Hi all....

You might have read about this posting in the 'book" thread but maybe this thread will be more suitable.

In any case, I have recently purchased two Iban kain bidang which I attached the pictures below. I have read the article written by one of our forum members in the magazine "Arts of Asia" and noticed that the borders are different. As you can see, my examples are multicoloured while the examples in the article are mainly brown/red in colour.

Can anyone identify why is there a difference? What about the motifs? Is there any meaning to it?

I know that the talismanic Pua is filled with meaning but the kain bidang is less symbolic than the Pua. However, the motifs are quite similar.

Thanks!

Dear Edwinooi,

I saw with pleasure the two bidang you posted. According to the literature Iban women use the same motives for bidang (or kain) as for the pua. The difference is just that bidang have not the religious meanings, nor the ritual functions as pua.
Unfortunately I can’t identify the pattern of your skirts.
Regarding the border stripes I share your interrogation. Literature is not so precise and it is not clear to me if the borders are a kind of signature of the weaver. On the first book by Traude Gavin, we can notice than, on some photos the pua display for the Gavai festival, side to side (so we can guess, belonging to the same family) have the same borders. May be John who is the specialist of Iban textiles on the forum knows about.
Whatever, I post a bidang my wife offered to me for Xmas. It comes from the Batang area, near Kalimantan frontier. The weaving is very tight and ikat strangely looks like Sumba Hinggi!
Gérard

Hi Gerard;

Thank you very much for your information. It is great to meet another collecter of Dayak textiles although I would fairly new in this field.

I have not bought any books related to Dayak textiles yet and would certainly plan to do so in order to appreciate and investigate more about what I have bought.

It would be great to know whether the borders are of any importance or whether it a signature of a family or weaver? Based on what I have understood, borders of the kind I have shown is usually from the mid 20th century unlike earlier examples which would have borders like you have attached below or from examples in the arts of asia articles. Do you agree?

In any case, it would be great to get some more input from another expert like John or yourself on this kain bidang.

Thanks.

_________________
Pamela

http://www.tribaltextiles.info
on-line tribal textiles resource

Hi all,

Much work and few health kept me away from the forum and I am just reading by now all this exchange.
It such a pleasure to share the passion for Iban fabrics with you and, also to read John’s clever comments. I would like first to react to john wish to emphasis the esthetical approach. I do agree. It’s a condition to recognize Iban weavers as artists. With the Pua from Saratok area I formerly post on the forum, I modestly try to point out the esthetical quality (in my sens) of this pua despite of some “heterodox” characteristics. Specially I was interested in the stripes that I read as an abstract painting: an exercise of equilibrium and rhythm to respond to the problem of how to “finish” or how to pass from the motif to the void.
Stripes or borders are certainly an area discharged from ritual concerns (except in the way suggested by Traude Gavin that borders keep closed the powerful motif of the centre) and thus are space more for esthetical concerns and pleasure. Of course with a greater freedom for the bidang. For this reason, I would think that colourful stripes could be a question of fashion and pleasure. We can find example at the Hmongs for instance of such a taste for fluorescent colour threads.
I promise to you, John, that in a next post I’ll try to develop my own guesses about the “deeper strike on heart” of Iban ikat. But I would be glad to read yours!

Another interesting note by John is about difference between pua and bidang. Indeed it would be very interesting to make a wide comparison of patterns use or not for both. It is something I never read mentioned in the literature. I would also note that we sometime can observe an asymmetry or a false symmetry of the stripes in bidang that I never met on pua. Obviously it can be explained by the way bidang are worn.

I am presently reading Traude Gavin recent book and I want to thank Pamela who formerly called my attention on it. It is the most extensive and precise I read on the subject and I find answer where usually I remained with questions. But, like Pamela, I’ll have to read it more than once!

To be continued...
Gérard