Woman's Àdìre Wrapper

YorubaWW-1925-114450

1925·Cotton, plain weave; resist dyed·199.4 × 172 cm (78 1/2 × 67 3/4 in.)

Àdìre wrappers—wound around the torso and tucked in or secured just under the arms—celebrate Yoruba women’s technical expertise. The Yoruban word àdìre translates as “tied and dyed” and the wrappers are made from large panels of hand-woven cloth that is resist-dyed with indigo. Here, the artist painted cassava starch paste directly onto the cloth by hand, protecting the areas that would remain dye-free. Indigo was a source of wealth and status, and is associated with purity and knowledge. For the Yoruba, a cloth deeply saturated in indigo (the result of multiple immersions into the dye vat) is most valuable.

Catalogue

Year: 1925
Medium: Cotton, plain weave; resist dyed
Dimensions: 199.4 × 172 cm (78 1/2 × 67 3/4 in.)
Collection: Art Institute of Chicago
Artist: Yoruba

Artist

Yoruba

Textile

Yoruba is an Atlantic–Congo language that is spoken in West Africa, primarily in South West Nigeria, Benin, and parts of Togo. It is spoken by the Yoruba people. Yoruba speakers number roughly 50 million, including around 2 million second-language or L2 speakers. As a pluricentric language, it is primarily spoken in a dialectal area spanning Nigeria, Benin, and Togo with smaller migrated communities in Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone and Gambia.

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