Macrame Pillow, 2015
I remember reading somewhere around the age of five that the Italian word for 'wizard' MAGO means "the one who makes knots" in some remote language. Farsi perhaps. Although I never investigated the truth in this, I somehow grew up believing in the relatedness between magic and knots.
The knotting process is repeptitive, mind-cleansing, self-perfecting - it's sculpting with the intangible.
In the atrocious heat of Milan's summer I taught myself the today nearly-forgotten ritual of Macrame. I found myself spending 5 days shirtless making the same pattern of knots non-stop - I stopped counting at 4000 knots about one-third into the fabric.
Macrame knots are disappear to turn themselves into the desired motif. The knots become pixels in the image. Macrame knots create texture, volume, lines.
Words, sounds and etymologies are my obsession.
The origin of the word MACRAME is disputed. Some talk about Arabic, some about Persian. In both language it means something very much related to the object in question, something like "knotting" in one and "curchief" in the other. Can't remember which one in which language. Excuse my sources.
Macrame is arguagbly the most anciant weaving technique, originated from fishing net making, evolved into decorative pattern making for the robes of the people of the Tigris and Euphrates, and exported across the Mediterranean. Today it survived in Liguria, Campania, Sicily and Apulia in Italy, and somewhere in Spain and the Middle-East.
What Dolce&Gabbana commercialise as macrame is actually simple embroidery.
The pillow is 32x30 cm. The back is lined with simple cotton canvas. The thread used for the front is wool and acrylic.
Photos taken by me.
