Textile
- Place of origin:
Nigeria (made)
- Date:
1960-1967 (made)
- Artist/Maker:
Unknown
- Materials and Techniques:
Indigo-dyed and starch-resist.
- Museum number:
CIRC.757-1967
- Gallery location:
In Storage
This is an example of adire, an indigo resist dyed cloth made by the Yoruba people of south-western Nigeria. Resist-dyeing involves treating certain areas of the cloth with a ‘resist’ to prevent them absorbing the dye. When starch is used as the resist these cloths are known as adire eleko. The base cloth has a pattern of green and white stripes which can be clearly seen in the areas where the starch has been applied.
This pattern is known as Olokun, ‘goddess of the sea’. The goddess is also associated with wealth. The cloth is divided into four rows of five squares with a series of smaller rectangles around the edge which are then filled in with a variety of patterns.
