Vintage Mola Textile, un-framed
Stylised rendition of a King Vulture, native to South America and Panama, whose famous concentric circles of the eye, bold head and matching yellow and orange of the neck colours are used to striking graphic effect.
The king vulture is one of the most common species of birds represented in the Mayan histories. It is easily distinguishable by the knob on the vulture's beak and by the concentric circles that form it's eyes. Sometimes it's portrayed as a god with a human body and a bird head, who would, according to Maya mythology, carry messages between the Gods and humans.
The Mola, or Molas, is a hand-made textile that forms part of the traditional women's clothing of the Kuna People of Panama. Mola textiles originate from a long tradition of body painting and it was only after colonisation by the Spanish that the Kuna began to transfer their traditional geometric designs onto fabric. It is not known for certain when this technique was first used, but it is assumed that the oldest molas are from the 19th Century. Designs have tended to depict realistic and abstractions of flowers, sea animals, birds or popular culture