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a small one

2022-07-28

2 minute read

Sometimes you don't do much

It was a quiet day, I didn't get a whole lot done. I had my final work farewell last night, part of their midwinter christmas event. It was such a quiet day, in fact, that I'm writing this the day after.

But something's not nothing

I finished the two books about Anny Albers I was reading, took notes and some photos. There was one that was all essays which I liked the most; I really enjoy essays, so digestible and succinct. The other one I didn't finish completely, it started being about her biography and life details which I didn't care for as much.

It's intimidating, I feel so far from where I'd like to be artistically (in general, not only weaving). But it's also inspiring. Better to focus on the positive one. You can get to anywhere from anywhere.

I've got some good quotes and some good images, so here we go

"the idea of a textile that should not block the light but be itself reflective was generative, producing numerous different permutations that can be seen in dozens of small samples"

"In Alber's hands, weaving became an exemplary modern form of artitic participation in life and a means to make work in which new ways of living could be articulated"

"Again, we are here led away from pronounced lineation and contours toward a surface active only through the slight optical vibration of intersecting raised and lowered threads-shiny and dull, lighter and darker, tan and white. This material will be quiet yet alive ..."

"The aim of art is to gratify our lasting needs and it absorbs and passes beyond the imprints that temporal influences may have on them. It transcends the merely personal in our desires. And though most art can be classified as belonging to a specific time and place and though it often has the stamp of a definite author, still, great art is in essence unaffected by subjectiveness, by period and location and does not pass through the cycle of rise and fall ... Layer after layer of civilised life seems to have veiled our directness of seeing. We often look for underlying meaning of things while the thing itself is the meaning ... The reality of art is concluded in itself. It sets up its own laws as completion of vision. Art is constant, and it is complete."

"there is a romantic overestimation of handwork in contrast to machine work and a belief in artificial preservation of a market that is no longer of vital importance"

How do we choose our specific material, our means of communication? "Accidentally." Something speaks to us, a sound, touch, hardness or softness, it catches us and asks us to be formed. We are finding our language, and as we go along we learn to obey their rules and their limits.... Students worry about choosing their way. I always tell them, "You can go anywhere from anywhere" - Anni Albers, from the panel "The Art/Craft connection: Material as a Metaphor"

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