tribaltextiles.info

Dear Textile Lovers,

When I first visited Sumba in 1987, almost 30 years ago, I was so excited to be able to still see people weaving beautiful textiles on back-strap looms using natural dyes.

Unfortunately, because of two big economic crises in 1997 and 2008 plus the Bali bombings in 2002, tourism and textile trade in Sumba was badly affected.

This and the increasing costs of production have resulted in the lost of many traditional designs and colors. To gain more popularity among the regular tourists, textiles at cheaper prices and with more dramatic and eye catching pictorial patterns using brighter chemical dyes have emerged. These can be found in tourist shops of Bali and Jakarta and many hotels and villas use them as curtains, bedspreads or even table cloths.

After years of collecting and dealing I have found I still prefer and love the old natural colors and patterns of Sumba cloths be it in new or old pieces. However, now-a-days they are extremely difficult to find. Fortunately four months ago I was able to acquire some beautiful old pre-war pieces from a long-time Dutch collection.

This group and other pieces from my gallery's collection, which I have carefully selected over the years, all pieces dyed with beautiful natural colors and possessing a soul of their own, forms the collection for our exhibition: Dynamic Expressions. Through this exhibition I hope to show to all my friends and textile lovers the beautiful textile heritage of Sumba.

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John Ang
Director of Samyama
service@samyama.co
http://www.facebook.com/samyamaco