Sophie Lee
M A K R A M I , 2013
UN - Two feet, clothed in a nice pair of boots, set off to the East.
It’s the 29th of May, 1762, and the young botanist Linnaeus travels upriver in Lappland, accompanied by a Saami guide. Disembarking, his guide upturns the boat and carries it on his head.
“Thus he scampered away over hills and valleys, so that the devil himself could not have come up with him.”
Deux - Two feet, clothed in a nice pair of brogues, face West. It’s Halloween in 1954 and the young philosopher Linus hates to go anywhere without his safety blanket.
trois - Two artists, clothed in nice pairs of trainers, ponder craft from the East and the West. It’s October in 2013 and it’s important to think about these things.
MACRAME / MAKRAMI - EXCESS / ECONOMY
...LUXURY vs. THE SINCERE
Objects are laden with good vibrations. Take the time to tune in. Let the repetition of ancient hand gestures carry you back -- knotting, weaving, kneading and carving -- an opportunity for time-travel!
Square knots cover the ship’s wheel, and bottles, and form belts and hammocks. You haul in the anchor to a mantra and a chant -- UN, deux, trois -- a call and response, a repetitive motif. Accents recur and fragments of history correlate in unexpected constellations. The Swedish word for ‘Lime tree’ names the father of taxonomy is repeated in Peanuts. A zig-zag scratched onto a Palaeolithic femur crops up on a peroxide bottle. The mutability of words allows them to cascade into almost-meaning. A solid and substantial BRIKKAlaj of good letters and a bouncing font.
My island --
luxury getaway --
Saami castaway --
HAUL-IN -- HAUL-OUT -- HAUL-BELAY!
