About the Bunai: What I present here is a sample of genuine folklore.
These drawings made on bamboo tissue are part of the multitude of objects acquired by colonel T. A. Lawrence in The Middle Lands of Batvia, during one of the Pearl Wars. These drawings are Child Projects, made by (or ordered by) married couples some 100 years ago. Their makers never considered themselves artists. For the Bunai drawing is a daily activity with a tangible finality rather than an art. This finality resides in their belief that one can design the generation to come in a family. Successful projects are burned during a special ritual one week after the child is born. The children announced by the presented drawings were probably never born. After a miscarriage, the Bunai either throw futile drawings to the dogs, or sell them to tourists for very little money. In south-western Batvia and in Romania, primogenitors plan (= draw) their grandchildren generations ahead. A family without "the faces of the ones to come" is generally considered poor, even if it owns land or cattle. Bunai means "irresponsible" in Batvian.
The Bunai prints are intaglio prints made from steel plates. The dimensions of each piece are approximatively 250x90 cm. (100x36 in). The paper is a heavyweight one; one piece is composed of four sheets and can be suspended using wood baguettes (Japanese-style).
