Ethiopian fine art history consists entirely of religious art. Any non-religious art is the result of very recent modern-day art training and art schools.
But, there is an equally strong folk art history of textiles. I think, at its peak, textile/folk art reached the level of art. This is especially visible in the embroidery of dresses and shawls.
The word for embroidery is "tilet". For art it is "tibeb" – Fine Art being "Sine Tibeb". These borders go both by "tilet" and "tibeb". Somehow, the designers have found a term that would describe these borders both as a folk art (tilet) and as an intermediary between folk and fine art (tibeb). This is a clever nomenclature. I think English terminology could make more use of this.
Now for the embroidery. These borders have found a receptacle for art to permeate into the wider society. The primary shape that contained these colors is the diamond.
Here is the example of the border. I will try to analyze it briefly.
First -
There are four diamond shaped colors as part of the overall theme: purple, yellow, red and green.
The first and second rows are the same colors, but flipped. Purple is substituted for yellow, red for green.
These two rows are then repeated for the rest of the design.
In color terms, purple and yellow are opposites, red and green are opposites. So at the very initial design stage in choosing the colors, the designer made a clear aesthetic decision.
Second –
Vertically, the colors have been juxtaposed with their opposing partner – purple with yellow, red with green.
But, to make the design more interesting, each vertical combination was flipped, and joined in rows. Purple-yellow-red-green links with Yellow-purple-green-red.
As complicated as even these four color combinations manage to be, it is in the initial step, where the individual colors were chosen and placed, where this more complicated design becomes possible.
Third –
The eye starts to pick up pockets of color where the diamonds have joined making larger diamonds.
So there is a horizontal, vertical and shape-influenced reading of the design.
Fourth –
The perennial cross shape is clearly decipherable within the design.
Fifth -
How do the viewers/wearers interact with this "tibeb"?
Well, as mentioned above, they pick up on the various shapes and juxtapositions – vertical and horizontal lines, and diamond and cross shapes.
Also, the shawls are not worn in one position. Draping the cloth and the embroidery across the shoulders and around the back allows for the embroidery to be viewed straight across, at an angle, and moving with the person’s body.
Thus it would seem that the shapes, colors and lines are always fluctuating.
So this diamond shape seen at one angle can look quite different at other angles.
Most importantly, the colors which are doing all this enunciation of shape line and direction also play a separate and independent part.
Yellow is pulled brightly forward, green is more subdued and stays in the background, red is less forceful than yellow, and purple isn't as passive as green.
Interacting the "viewer" with the art has gone a step further with this embroidered shawl.
Since the piece is not static, motion, direction of wear, even body size and shape, will all influence the viewer. The initial color choices, with their clever use of color dynamics and juxtapositions act as the important base for the work. The rest is completed by the human body and the human eye.
