Woman's Skirt c. 18th century

This raffia fiber skirt was created by an artist from the Kuba Kingdom. The ochre textile is densely worked, and the pattern is at once ordered and visually disruptive. Arranged in a grid are geometric shapes, squares, and circles, each filled with delicate repeated lines. The texture of the raffia adds a tactile dimension to the piece, contrasting with the rigidity of the design. Look at the ways in which the artist explores repetition and variation. The skirt’s design elements engage with structuralist ideas, in which meaning arises from underlying systems of relationships and differences. The weaving, for instance, can be understood as a play of binary oppositions like figure and ground. Consider how this artwork challenges fixed meanings through the interplay of material and pattern. Kuba textiles destabilize Western notions of art versus craft. It invites ongoing interpretation about the skirt, its relationship to cultural identity, and its place within broader artistic traditions.