Tuesday, August 31, 2010

What Will The Future Find

The photos in the post are of poor quality.  Given the circumstances under which they were snapped, you should not be surprised.  Through a display, via cell camera and poor editing skills.  But you'll forgive me.  I have a point to make.


"Woven textile.  Late 4th century AD
From a well in the fortlet at Huntcliff, Saltburn, Cleveland.

These two discoloured fragments are part of one of the largest surviving pieces of woollen cloth from Roman Britain.  When found it covered a surface area of at least 900 sq. cm.  The weave is an idosyncratic version of a 2-over-2 twill with weft chevron pattern."

Old stuff!  Wool that survived centuries and centuries.  This is, to me, quite humbling.  Simple cloth - hand work of the past - right there for me to see and wonder over.
(I've already apologized for photo quality.  But I am still sorry that you can't see what I saw)

This is one of the bits of cloth.  All these centuries later, hauled up from the bottom of a well, and still individual threads of wool can be studied.  

What will the future find when my works are uncovered?  Will that UFO from last year rise up from a landfill and be put on display in some museum that exists post-Maya doom?

On one level, the thought of my handwork surviving the ages and being admired (?) by the future is energizing.

One another level, I hope that some of the stuff stays buried under tons of non-decaying plastic and foam so that no one ever puts a microscope to the mistakes.

No comments:

Post a Comment