Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art

About this Work

This siapo is decorated in a characteristic Samoan layout with the colors of black and brown. The black pigment, created from candlenut, leaves a distinctive sheen on the tapa. The composition, made up of twelve squares, is framed with a thick brown border, thicker than lines used elsewhere in the piece.

Tapa motifs in Samoa are generally abstracted forms that represent elements from nature. A named motif,  fa’a aveauor starfish, is represented in this piece by the pinwheel design. However, the history and meaning of many of these named motifs have not been documented.

According to Adrienne Kaeppler, who noted the relatively small size, the border that frames the twelve squares, and variations in the design, as well as incomplete motifs, indicate that this tapa was likely created as a gift or for a tourist market.