It's all in the fist...
Posted by Matilda McQuaid, Deputy Curatorial Director and Head of Textiles, Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum
Make a fist. Pound your hand. Chances are, this was how the
paisley pattern started—according to Indian textile designer Umang Hutheesing,
who happens to know a lot about the history of Indian textiles. On a recent
visit to New York City, I asked Hutheesing for his opinion on the derivation of
the paisley pattern. The most popular story says that the form is derived from
the shoot of a date palm, which symbolizes the tree of life. Hutheesing held up
his fist to me and explained that, initially, the pounding of the fist was to
create food, which then led to cave decoration and later to what we now know as
the paisley pattern. He also mentioned the mango as a third source for the
paisley form, since the pattern usually has at least two concentric outlines that
relate to the flesh and seed of the mango.
When we look at Maharam’s paisley, we see it all on a massive scale. The repeat is 48 inches vertically, but it feels even larger as the swooping form of the teardrop stands out against a solid black background, giving the pattern a crisp and contemporary flair. When we collect new works for the collection we are always searching for that new interpretation (or reinterpretation) of something historical, like the mid-19th-century Kashmir shawls in the collection. Massive Paisley does just this—it is a contemporary reflection of a traditional design.
