embroidered cloth, unknown maker from India or Pakistan

Exhibition Label: “Flowers, Dragons and Pine Trees: Asian Textiles in the Spencer Museum of Art,” Nov-2005, Mary Dusenbury There is one striking anomaly in the otherwise complex geometry of this distinctive textile. One of the surrounding medallions lacks the double white circle of connected crosses that characterizes the others, causing the whole medallion to blend into the red web of the ground. The ambiguity posed by the almost missing medallion, a crucial element within the dominant geometric scheme set up by the artist, creates a strange disquiet in the viewer. Was this deliberate? The motifs on this small household textile were made with the needle technique known as detached interlacing. Using a needle, the stitcher first sets up scaffolding warps on the surface of the ground fabric, and then darns wefts into the warps, creating separate layers of plain weave fabric that float over the surface of the ground fabric.