Married Woman's Bògòlanfini Wrapper

Textiles

1988

Designed and executed by Djowari Suko (active 1980s)
Bamana
Mali, Kili

This woman’s wrapper, worn tied around the waist as a skirt, was formed from eight strips of plain weave cotton that were dyed and sewn together. The term bògòlanfini means “mud cloth” in Bambara, a language spoken in Mali. Completing a single garment is a multistep process, with men weaving the cloth strips on narrow horizontal looms while women paint the background around the motifs using fermented mud. Bògòlanfini is used for both women’s, and men’s garments and specific geometric designs provide the wearer with protection and signify their status.

Status: Currently Off View
Department: Textiles

Artist: Djowari Suko
Title: Married Woman's Bògòlanfini Wrapper
Place: Kili (Object made in)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: Made 1988
Medium: Cotton, eight narrow strips of plain weave; pieced; resist painted and printed
Dimensions: 125.7 × 102.9 cm (49 1/2 × 40 1/2 in.); Approximate strip: W.: 12.7 cm (5 in.)
Credit Line: Purchased with funds provided by the Textile Society
Reference Number: 1989.546

Kathleen Bickford and Cherise Smith, “Art of the Western Sudan” in African Art at the Art Institute of Chicago, Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies 23, 2 (1997): 116, cat. 16 (ill.)

Art Institute of Chicago, Department of Africa, Oceania, and Americas, Oct. 5, 1993– Jan. 6, 1994.
Art Institute of Chicago, Elizabeth F. Cheney and Agnes Allerton Textile Galleries, Twenty Years of Textile Society Collecting (1978–1998), Dec. 20, 1997–Mar. 22, 1998.
Art Institute of Chicago, Elizabeth F. Cheney and Agnes Allerton Textile Galleries, Fabricating Fashion, Aug. 20, 2022–Jan. 2, 2023, no. cat.

Commissioned by Sarah Brett-Smith, Mali, and Highland Park, NJ, July 1988 [according to personal communication from S. Brett-Smith, textile was commissioned through Fatmata Traorde, Mali; invoice #1989-1, Apr. 19, 1989; incoming permanent receipt RX17928, Aug. 24, 1989; copy in curatorial object file]; sold to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1989.

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