A take on Timothy Morton's theory of the Mesh.
The collation of images above has one thing in common. A pattern; a recurring theme; a common motif in several different contexts of my *vernacular life.
The pattern can be described as an overlapping criss-cross form that is repeated until it reaches the edge of its boundary, only to be joined again by the continuation of my next encounter of it.
Variations of this pattern are found in different objects, textiles, backdrops and paintings as seen above. Thus, the pattern itself resides in two-dimensional textiles and prints for an added aesthtic value as well as extends as a functional structure.
I ask myself, is this recurring mesh-like shape a cultural motif in my life? It's lurked silently from the day I was brought into the world and reappeared like a ghost to this present day even though I have migrated miles away from my first experience of it. I cannot escape its presence and there is something so comforting about its familiarity. I see it in gates of small shop-owners, I see it in patterns of bedsheets, the very structure of our laundry basket basks this pattern, I see its pattern weaving its way on our old sofa, on curtains and blankets.
The accordion-like structure of the mesh, its collapsable quality found in folding gates, mesmerises me. It is only in retrospect that I have noticed this pattern so severely. Little did I know as a seven-year-old, would I know that motif would be foreshadowing to this day's recollection.
Perhaps it's symbolic for something inevitable; the value of interconnectivity?
While the pattern is constricted within the border of its textile or structure, it is infinitely connected. It surpasses time, has extended beyond the past, resides in my present and projects itself into the future.
Hence, while the borders of the mesh pattern may be limited and cut off from its counterparts, it weaves its own variation into another observed mesh pattern thus sustaining its interconnection beyond time beyond a physical connection, whilst maintaining separate contexts. Like an infinite patchwork blanket, the patterns are woven together, each carrying a roughly familiar quality of the mesh pattern - some more deconstructed than others, some more functional, some structural, some having an aesthetical quality.
Like parts of a whole, although at first glance the criss-cross pattern may appear similar. On second glance each pattern offers a different perspective in its variation.
Could the mesh offer cultural and philosophical theory in my practice?
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