"Kuba Kloth" is a wall piece about patience. Every raffia palm fiber in it was dyed, woven, and embroidered by hand by the Kuba tribe of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, in a textile tradition prized since the nineteenth century, when these cloths served in dowries and the largest were worn as festive dress at funerals.
The tradition has admirers in high places. Kuba cloths appeared in the early African art exhibitions in Paris, and Henri Matisse kept several in his personal collection, hanging panels of them across his studio walls. His letters describe looking at them for long periods, waiting for something to come to him, and their geometry echoes through the paper cutouts of his final years.
Framed and lightweight, this piece hangs easily in a contemporary or traditional home. It was made entirely with hand tools, and no two cloths are alike.
