841 B - Fine Pedan Pidan Tie Dye Silk Ikat Temple Banner Wall Art from Cambodia
A finely woven silk Ikat artwork from Cambodia
Such artworks are offered in worship and hung up as banners.
In the olden days these were much long rectangles while this one is almost a square.
Acquired in 2008 or 2009 from one of the groups that are engaged in the revival effort outside Siem Reap.
Of all the ikats that I have seen, antique Cambodian ikats are the finest and though this is a revival textile (not antique), the finesse is comparable to that of the pidans made in the 1800s.
Why do I say that? In creating ikat, the design is planned first, then the threads are laid out parallel to each other and dyed according to the design intended. At the time of dyeing, the threads are free floating and not attached to each other. It is only after the unattached threads are dyed in the many colors needed, that they are woven in together. And naturally some misalignment creeps in during weaving and gives rise to a rough look on each motif at the color-change edges. In places like Pochampally, the designs are large, and each color on a thread occupies a few centimeters or even a few inches and the misalignment can be seen over a few millimeters at the edge of every color. (The error must necessarily be a small fraction of the total otherwise the intended design would not be evident at all and would appear as a messy hodgepodge of colors.) On the other hand, in antique Pidans from Cambodia the color changes every few millimeters. So, the scope for misalignment is much much less. The time consumed and the attention required to produce motifs that are precise to a millimeter is enormous. And that is why old ikats from Cambodia are the finest among the ones I've seen.
123 x 112cm
Brown Silk Borders attached around the Ikat artwork.
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This item has spent a lifetime being used for the purpose of its creation with the original artist/user. Signs of this life lived heartily may be present on the piece in the form of stains, thread loss, loose threads, holes, tears, color run and other imperfections. Therefore the condition must be assumed to be “not” perfect. More photos of such imperfections will be provided on request.
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