textile design

Textile of Purple Hare in Foliage, 4th-5th Century C.E., Egypt (Brooklyn Museum Collection)

On passing the surface of an ancient textile (or even a contemporary one) through a scanner: one can see the details of the weave and inner life of color. I am very excited about textile prints nowadays. More interesting than pieces of art, or rare prints even, I think are mass produced prints. I want to catch up on the story of mass produced prints. I know the history of fabric might be deeply entangled with the colonial past, and that the present of the industry probably deals with the reality of non-environmental friendly dyes... but prints are beautiful all the same! I am tempted to leave the image below at the high resolution I found it: it captures surface nuance so seductively. The man's face is haunting as well-- his the missing eye... I've left it quite large (although you can magnify it further if you click on it so it can fill the entire screen.)

I would love to write about these images, but I just keep staring at them instead. Thinking about "nothing or something": have the missing portions gone missing, or do they still haunt the design, and what about the interface where the missing is missed by the present as can be seen in the lower right corner of the violet hare.

Drawing of a man, 6th-7th century (Coptic Museum in Cairo Collection)