Bark cloth, or siapo
Artist:
Samoa
Date: 1892-93, if Ormsbee
Medium: Paper mulberry bark
Classification: Materials
Credit Line: Ormsbee Collection
Object number: 1994.17.38
DescriptionIntermittantly very thin tapa divided into five sections by design; pattern of alternating sections. Long strip divided by strips of "net" motif into 5 sections. Each containing five designs of a filled-in circle encased in dots or a filled-in circle (sometimes with a hole in the center) with six to eight dotted legs. Both suggested by Kooijman to be sun symbols (p. 242 & 245). Two short edges bordered with triangle design. Long edges bordered in thin black strip painted over brown strip. All other designs done in jet black. Handpainted.