judy dominic
mud cloth
Bogolanfini = Mud Clothbogo = clay, mud
lan = result of
fini = cloth
Bogolanfini is a technique historically used by the Bamana women in Mali, West Africa, to dye cloth for important life occasions. The cloth is locally grown, spun and woven cotton - the dyestuff is mud collected from the Niger River - the tannin is from the leaves or bark of several trees. The finished product is a white symbolic design on a black background.
There are a whole slew of variables that make the process work in Mali. Those same variables make it difficult to follow the process exactly anywhere else.
Soooooo, my modified version of bogolanfini produces mud cloth that is similar but not the same.
There is a whole debate about the use of the terms 'bogolanfini' vs. 'mud cloth' - who should use them and when and why. I'll list a bibliography and some links in the future for you to research the discussion.
In the meantime, enjoy the work that I currently have posted! (The first two photos below show original Mali work.)
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More finished mud cloth work. Some experimentation results.
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Judy Dominic © 2002-2008