Woman's bag c. mid 20th century

This bag was made by an Akha woman, and we don't know when. It combines different types of labor: weaving the body of the bag, embroidering the panels, and attaching the rows of colorful pompoms and beaded fringe. All these different textures and colors add up to more than mere decoration. The Akha people live in the mountains of Southeast Asia, and this bag, like all their traditional clothing, would have been made within their own communities using locally sourced materials. The designs are symbolic, with specific meanings. Consider how much skill went into this object, and the cultural knowledge embedded in it. This kind of work has often been devalued as simply "craft," but that's a mistake. When we really look at the material intelligence of objects like this bag, we can understand them as complex works of art.