© march 2017
tapestries altered with rust, tea, wine, agua de Jamaica, & stitching
mounted on reversed artist panel
cotton, hemp, linen, nettle, rayon
36” x 12” x 1.5”
What makes time valuable? Tangible?
Time in the desert is a paradox of sorts, either passing so quickly that one can barely grasp it, as when spring suddenly is summer, or slowing down to the point that one cannot perceive it, such as the growth of saguaros. How much time must pass in this dry land before discarded scraps of ferrous detritus rust so completely they are almost disintegrated? Rusty bits found on walks near my home were left undisturbed long enough in open desert undestroyed by pavement or high-density subdivision to have become almost unrecognizable, yet still held enough substance to change freshly woven crisp tapestries into seeming artifacts softly worn and marked by the passage of time. During the creation of these pieces, I found myself submerged in “flow” identified & described by Mihaly Csikszentmihaly as the state of becoming so involved in an activity that nothing else matters. Time passes unnoticed. This work is a physical record of the time I spent walking looking weaving touching creating. Yet the phenomenon of flow also occurs when one is in front of a device screen lost in the labyrinth of internet and social media, activities which usually manifest as subjective, not objective. How much time are we losing by trading tangible for virtual reality? By staring endlessly at screens versus feeling with all of our senses?
tapestries altered with rust, tea, wine, agua de Jamaica, & stitching
mounted on reversed artist panel
cotton, hemp, linen, nettle, rayon
36” x 12” x 1.5”
What makes time valuable? Tangible?
Time in the desert is a paradox of sorts, either passing so quickly that one can barely grasp it, as when spring suddenly is summer, or slowing down to the point that one cannot perceive it, such as the growth of saguaros. How much time must pass in this dry land before discarded scraps of ferrous detritus rust so completely they are almost disintegrated? Rusty bits found on walks near my home were left undisturbed long enough in open desert undestroyed by pavement or high-density subdivision to have become almost unrecognizable, yet still held enough substance to change freshly woven crisp tapestries into seeming artifacts softly worn and marked by the passage of time. During the creation of these pieces, I found myself submerged in “flow” identified & described by Mihaly Csikszentmihaly as the state of becoming so involved in an activity that nothing else matters. Time passes unnoticed. This work is a physical record of the time I spent walking looking weaving touching creating. Yet the phenomenon of flow also occurs when one is in front of a device screen lost in the labyrinth of internet and social media, activities which usually manifest as subjective, not objective. How much time are we losing by trading tangible for virtual reality? By staring endlessly at screens versus feeling with all of our senses?
This work by lyn hart is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.