Embroidered Raffia Pile Cloth

Among the Kuba peoples of Central Africa, men wove cloth from raffia palm fiber and women embroidered it. This square is embroidered with lines of dark raffia that turn and turn again, building a maze of angled bands, diamonds and nested squares. The pattern never quite repeats. Kuba designers valued the unexpected break, the place where a line shifts direction or a shape doesn’t match its neighbor, and those changes keep the eye moving. Squares like this were made in great numbers and were treasured as wealth, given as gifts and worn on important occasions. Following one line through the maze is a quiet kind of journey.

Look closely

1. Pick a dark line and follow it as far as you can.
2. Find a place where the pattern suddenly changes. Why might it change there?
3. Look at the edges. Are they straight, or do they wander?

While you sit

A maze with no wrong turns. Let your eye wander through it.

Your seat in the galleries: a bench of woven palm-colored cord on a dark walnut frame.