Saturday, June 20, 2009

Wrapper / Discovery

As I commented back to Lynne, watching Kenneth Clark's "Civilisation", it dawned on me that in the Western World the only famous "wrapper" is the Shroud of Turin. Today I read Cally's tweet, "I just learned that the v first translations of the Bible into English were smuggled into the country in... bales of CLOTH." Other than these, I'm aware of "cloth" being mentioned when it's around mummies and other ancient bodies. I'd be so interested to learn of others, though.

In Japan, occasionally, in historical museums (as opposed to art museums and galleries), particularly in relation to the imperial treasures, I remember wrappers being mentioned. For example, a porcelain or carved ivory work may have been brought back from China or beyond wrapped in (usually) silk cloth, with some explanation/speculation on the motif and/or dye, and the probably origin of the cloth and/or the article, or the path it/they traveled. And I've been thinking for a while that here is an idea for a weaving exhibition, surely!

Yesterday afternoon, after drawing, I thought I lost my house keys, so I stuck around town waiting for Ben to finish work. Walking around town, I knew with an amazing clarity that there and then was my moment of discovering the earth is not flat but round, and I "saw" these ancient maps and globes and astronomical instruments and a smoky, blokey study with scrolls and quills. Sounds so grandiose, and I wish I could remember what triggered it, but I can't.

The house keys were in a different part of my back, as I "discovered" later last night; I'm such a lame armchair explorer!

2 comments:

  1. Oh, 'wrapped in silk'. Sounds luxury.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Though, of course, I might use other stuff, you know... rough cotton, rough cotton-looking silk, strings, linen... wire? twigs? ceramic fragments?

    ReplyDelete

I love comments. Thank you for taking the time to leave one. But do be sure to leave your real or blog name.