After Unexpected Rain

by Maria Rova

Original - Sold

Price

Not Specified

Dimensions

50.000 x 50.000 cm.

Title

After Unexpected Rain

Artist

Maria Rova

Medium

Painting - Dyes And Resist On Silk

Description

Traditional mats woven from sun-dried pandanus leaves are a constant feature of my life as a member of a Fijian household. Starting with the layers of large, brightly-fringed mats piled up as ceremonial gifts at our wedding feast years ago, our Fijian mats are part of the rhythm of life here, coming and going as valued cultural symbols, presented, received, treasured, and passed on again at a never ending cycle of funerals, births, marriages, home-comings, and other celebrations that connect our extended families. Each mat is a labour of love, representing hours and hours of work by the patient, creative hands of grandmothers, aunts, and sisters. The woman who has many such finely woven mats in her home is considered wealthy and blessed.

Our mats are used for the mundane as well as the ceremonial � we eat on them, sleep on them, use them for picnics, for sunning out bedding, for the baby to play on� The mats that cover our living room floor are laid out in the hot morning sun as a part of daily house cleaning. For most of the year, we wake up to bright, tropical sun each morning. However, come the rainy season, billowing grey thunder clouds can roll in unexpectedly! �Rain on its way!�, the women cry, and rush out to haul in mats and washing before the downpour begins.

In this painting, my imagination wanders around such everyday occurrences: Here, the rain beat me to it, soaking my mat with steamy, fertile torrents. And everything starts to sprout � a medley of life, colour, music, and pungent smells bursting forth irreverently from the straight, orderly symmetry of my traditional Fijian mat!

Uploaded

January 31st, 2011

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