Exhibition piece: A History of the World in 100 Swatches
The patterns in this exhibition piece have been adapted from, or inspired by, all manner of historical sources. Patterns adapted from weaponry sit alongside others from delicate lace, Ancient Egyptians tomb patterns mix with fifties-inspired seed heads, and a modern Venetian paper-inspired design might be next to one adapted from a ninth century BC pendant. Some are just my own doodling. They are rendered into a medium that is mostly very different from where they started, and arranged into a grid, which aims to give them equal importance.
The title nods to the equally ironic (but somewhat more erudite) Neil McGregor, Director of the British Museum, whose Radio 4 series A History of the World in 100 Objects ‘told a history of two million years of humanity through the objects we have made…’
I am interested in pattern and ornament as democratic art forms and their place in societies in which they are both produced and consumed. All sectors of every society have used pattern to decorate and beautify the things around them and one reading of pattern might dismiss it as lightweight and trivial. However, pattern and symbol are also often used as identifiers – marks of belonging or exclusion. They can be bearers of meaning relating to the cultures in which there were created, and as they move through place and time, acquire different significations in cultures in which they are observed or used. Elaborate pattern and ornament has often been used as a mark of wealth and power; tartans denote clan; body art identifies tribe. Patterns become a visual language for cultural exchange. It is this dual nature of pattern and ornament that appeals to me – the fact it can be loaded with cultural significations, and/or simply be something visually appealing. I believe the latter is not unimportant.