Desire is a concept that is so present in history. Almost everything relates back to it. The desire to succeed, desire for sex, desire for money, desire for love, desire for power - these are the common forms of desire we see in history and mythology. What’s interesting (and unsurprising) is that it’s often linked to sex and sin. Many religions urge its followers to renounce earthly desires in order to achieve enlightenment/better give themselves to their faith. Was it not Eve’s desires that damned all of humanity and pretty much created sin?
On the other end of the scale, there’s desire as the motivator, desire as passion and drive. This end is roughly where DeLeuze and Guattari fit into things with their thoughts on desire as a force that creates its own objects and systems.
Rather than attempting to capture desire or try to explain it, the work I have created aims to invoke it and invites you to give into temptation. I wanted it to be something that captured that socially manifested feeling of guilt that comes with desire- you really want it: sex, money, power- but feel that this desire makes you ‘dirty’ or power hungry.
This textile installation teeters on destruction and hesitance. The audience acknowledges how much time and energy has gone into making the pieces, however, are tempted by the invitation of destruction without consequence. Desire and Guilt. It plays with desire as a source for temptation. By not casting off the pieces of knitting, they’re vulnerable to destruction, inviting the audience to grapple with their desires to pull the knitting into a single thread and the guilt of destroying someone else’s work.
The composition and style of the work aims to explore the nature of desire in the individual and poses challenging questions about guilt and destruction. Does the red square invoke more anger? Does the fact that this piece has holes and wonky edges make you feel less guilty about destroying it? Do you feel guilty at all? Is there pleasure in the act of destroying? Just to name a few.
This work was inspired by my love of textiles, and my enthusiasm for art that engages its audience/only exists because of them and the textile work of Rania Hassan, specifically ‘The Red Thread’ (2015) which is a beautiful collaboration of painting and textile work. Hassan “…combines knitting and painting to weave sculptural stories about our connections to time, place, and circumstance.”
Originally I wanted to create ‘desire kits’ which would have been a little package of things that invited you to indulge in common desires, however I couldn’t figure out how to make that work/ what else to put in it besides pieces of unfinished knitting. With the help, I was able to locate my work within other fields, such as mythology and science. I was told of the significance of thread in the myth of The Labyrinth of Crete: The Myth Of The Minotaur, which can be interpreted as a metaphor for finding our way through the creative process, and the story of Penelope, the wife of Odysseus. This prompted me to do more research into the symbolism of the thread, and I found an article that discussed the symbolism of thread in different cultures: “Taoists often associate thread with the backward and forward motion of the shuttle across the loom: life and death, evolution and involution of manifestation. The Rig-Veda sees weaving as the symbol of the rhythm of life and its endless alternation. Thread is one of the meanings of the word sûtra denoting the Buddhist scriptures.” (http://library.acropolis.org/the-symbolism-of-the-thread/)
I think it’s interesting to note that these definitions mostly have something to do with life, whereas my work may be seen as a contrast to this, as an invitation for destruction, (depending on whether or not the viewer sees desire as productive.)
This concept has played on my mind since we were posed with the research questions at the beginning of the semester and I’m really interested to see if it will actually work. The piece as a whole is an experiment that I’m excited to see the results of!
http://library.acropolis.org/the-symbolism-of-the-thread/
http://www.creativitypost.com/arts/myth_and_creativity_ariadnes_thread_and_a_path_through_the_labyrinth
https://www.fonsvitae.com/OnlineStore/tabid/58/pid/352/The-Thread-Spirit-The-Symbolism-of-Knotting-and-the-Fiber-Arts.aspx
http://www.explorecrete.com/history/labyrinth-minotaur.htm
http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/therm/entrop.html
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