Ewe Strip-Woven Cloth

Narrow strips on a horizontal loom. Many of them, sewn side by side, until they become a cloth.

Ewe weavers in Ghana made this one in the 20th century, and traditionally such cloths were wrapped around the body. The strips are woven in small rectangular blocks that make a lively checkerboard across the surface. A deep red ground is threaded with stripes in pink, orange, yellow, green, gray and black, and the pattern shifts subtly from block to block.

Over nine feet long, five wide. Hung on a wall it reads almost like a painting. Almost.