batik

The Akan civilization believed that each child came from God, and so each baby was born with a special blessing. This traditional belief initiated the Ghanaian day naming system, which gives a unique name to a child born on a particular day of the week, signaling their spiritual traits. Motivated by this custom, artist Emmanuel Atiemoh Yeboah puts his talent into practice and creates this cotton batik wall art, whose stars, moon details and classic motifs in purple, yellow and red hues represent the souls born on Monday, the day of those who connect with peace.

Traditional yellow kawung and red parang motifs decorate this set of four ornaments from Java. Celebrating Indonesian handicrafts, Gunadi presents these ornaments, carved from wadang wood in the shape of hearts. The designs are applied using the batik method; a wax resist is applied before colorful dyes are added. Afterward, the wax is boiled away.