Garmasis Art
The making of the Garmasis is both research and reflection, a dialogue between memory, materiality, and cultural continuity. Making the tapestry on a loom frame with wool fibers transforms the cloth into a corporeal form fibers that suggest a body in their tactility, density, and presence. As a woven structure, the loom becomes not only a tool of construction but also an instrument of cultural translation, mediating between ancestral traditions and contemporary artistic interpretation.
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(1) The Garmasis, Tapestry 75X55cm.
The Garmasis is apprehended not only visually but through the full spectrum of sensory experience: its silky surface invites touch, its saturated colors command sight, its presence evokes the smell of Bakhour, the resonance of Ganaya voices and drums, and the taste of traditional cookies and Sharbout drinks. This sensory register situates the Garmasis within lived ritual environments, where it exists alongside Kosha ornaments, the Bambar, and the Angareeb, immersed in a chromatic field of red, black, blue, yellow, and gold. As a material artifact, the Garmasis operates simultaneously as textile, symbol, and vessel of memory—an embodiment of Sudanese culture, heritage, and belonging.
(2) Red Garmasis
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(3) Yellow Garmasis
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(4) Blue Garmasis
The weaving of Garmasis has largely ceased due to industrialization, a process that has disrupted many forms of traditional craft. Today, the garment is mass produced in factories in India, severed from the local contexts of making and the embodied knowledge of Sudanese artisans. While the cloth endures as a cultural symbol, this displacement raises questions of authorship, authenticity, and the preservation of intangible heritage within the global textile industry.
Research Questions:
"If the Garmasis were understood as a cultural voice, what would it reflect about Sudanese heritage, resilience, and the ongoing realities of war, diaspora and famine?"
"Why is the Garmasis, a textile deeply rooted in Sudanese ritual and cultural identity, now produced in foreign factories rather than by Sudanese hands, and what does this shift reveal about the relationship between heritage, authenticity, and contemporary modes of production?"
Keywords: Garmasis; Firka; Garmasis Tapestry; Authenticity; Cultural Voice.