Language gives form to our experience, providing through narrative a sense of closure and providing through abstraction an illusion of transcendence. (Susan Stewart, On Longing, 13)
Deleuze on writing (creatively): in his introduction to Deleuze's 'Essays Critical and Clinical', Daniel Smith quotes Deleuze as writing: "We have to see creation [for writers] as tracing a path between impossibilities...A creator who isn't grabbed by the throat by a set of impossibilities is no creator. A creator's someone who creates their own possibilities, and thereby creates impossibilities...Without impossibilities you won't have a line of flight, the exit that is creation, the power of falsity that is truth." (xlviii)
And it is this 'path' between that I am most interested in. I see it offering a possibility of finding other ways to interpret (and write about) the objects which fascinate me (with the source of this fascination in what Deleuze refers to as the 'minor' as a "revolutionary condition" (xlix).
Linguistics can be thought of as a 'homogeneous' or a 'standard system'--a constant--or alternatively to be in 'continuous variation' and thus in 'perpetual disequilibrium or bifurcation'. The former being a 'major' treatment of language and the latter, a 'minor' one.
I started to think about this in terms of the 'performative' when considering Louise Bourgeois' performance works about which I have yet to find commentaries specific to this aspect.
[I also sense it also may be a consideration of the poetic in language].
For Deleuze the 'minor' involves any linguistic variable (l) and can be achieve by making a language 'stutter'.
[This is also linked to D & G's reference to schizophrenia/schizoid, see my reference to the comparative use of 'crazy' below]
The noun, Quilt entered the English language in the 14th century from Anglo-French quilte, meaning 'a mattress with a soft lining', this was derived from Old French cuilte (12c), which came from Latin culcita, for a 'mattress'.
RALLI QUILTS: quilt with patchwork, applique, embroidery (or a combination) made in Sindh, Baluchistan, Punjab and Rajasthan
Etymology of the word, Quilt:
RALLI QUILTS: quilt with patchwork, applique, embroidery (or a combination) made in Sindh, Baluchistan, Punjab and Rajasthan
Ralli: quilts of the Indus region known by a number of spellings - ralli,relhi, rallee, rilly (Rajasthan), gindi (Cholistan and Baluchistan), dhadaki (Gujarat), comes from ralarnu to mix freely, to join or, to connect (Sindhi).
- Ajrak: traditional woodblock printed fabric
- Bandhani: tie-dye technique to produce patten of small dots, found in chundaris (form of woman's head cloth)
- Chand: fragments of cloth torn/cut into geometric shapes, esp. squares and triangles. Joined (chandr, pieced) by hand with a small needle to make quilt blocks, a larger needle is used to stitch (quilt) the layers of the ralli together
- Lungi: term used for traditional loosely woven cotton cloth made in Nasirpur, Thatta, Hydrabad and Karachi. Usually of plaid design. Same word as that used to describe men's clothing (see below)
- Nau tann: game similar to chess that may use a particular pattern of ralli as the board,
- Purr: upper and lower layer of the ralli. Lower purr made from worn charddar, dupatta, odhani, chundari (different types of women's head cloths) or a lungi (men's sarong, sash or turban)
- Quilt patterns: Farsh (any geometric pattern that could be a tiled floor) Karick (pattern of triangles where apex of one connects with the base of the next, 'flying birds' and similar to 'flying geese' pattern known in American quilting) Nanghar (small zig-zag pattern, 'snake'), Lharti/Laharan (large V-shape or zig-zag, 'waves'), Pero (squares circled by other squares, perhaps 'square-with-in-a-square?) tukri (checkerboard)
- Ralli/rilli/ralii: quilt or coverlet stuffed with old clothes, plural - rilii singular feminine nominative (Permanand Mewaram Sindhi-English (on-line) dictionary)
- Sindh: area of south Pakistan, known for its textile arts, considered the centre of the ralli-producing area. Populated by many different tribes, the characteristics and traditions of whom differ greatly (as do their ralli); many of these groups have related tribes in Baluchistan, Punjab, Rajasthan, and Gujarat that as a geographical region is considered to form the Ralli Region. Colour, design, stitching of a rilii can be used in identification the group
- Sindhi: spoken by 15.5% of the population of Pakistan (& also spoken in Rajasthan) , it has a rich literature, is taught in schools and is an Indo-Aryan language derived from Sanskrit and Arabic (Wikipedia)
- Stitches used to decorate quilt blocks and/or link layers of the quilt: as well as a straight stitching technique a number of embroidery/decorative stitches are used - Hoormutch (interlacing stitch), stepped squares, chain, cretan, cross, feather, herringbone (most not specific to Rallis, except 'hoormutch')
Kantha & Sujani:quilts from Bangladesh, Bengal and Bihar and included in South Asian Seams Exhibition.
[Refererce: Patricia Ormsby Stoddard, Ralli Quilts: Traditional Texiles from Pakistan and India, Schiffer Publishing Ltd, 2003 & Sindhi-English On-line Dictionary]
TIVAEVAE: distinctive quilts made by the women of the Cook Islands, which play a central role in various rituals associated in births, deaths, marriages and first hair-cutting ceremonies.
From vaivai, "to make up of pieces", "to mend", or "to patch" (Richards, 2012 & Herda, 2011).
From vaivai, "to make up of pieces", "to mend", or "to patch" (Richards, 2012 & Herda, 2011).
- Azlin: particular type of cotton used in the making of tivaevae, thick form of cotton cloth
- Oora: presentation of gifts at a wedding by the bride to her husband, or gifts presented to both, including tivaevae sewn by the bride, friends, and/or family especially for the occasion
- Ta'unga: woman known for her expertise in making art of any kind
- Tivaevae manu: applique quilts made from two whole pieces of cloth
- Tivaevae taorei: pieced from very small squares, diamonds (also known as tivaevae euati), triangles or hexagons (also known as tivaevae paka'onu)
- Tivaevae tatura:include both applique and embroidery, and cloth of three or more colours. Embroidered using variegated perle thread and a combination of stitches (feather stitch, fly stitch, stem stitch, long and short stitch, padded satin stitch, seed stitch, oyster stitch and others)
- Tivaevae tuitui tatura: of embroidered squares of material that are crocheted together (in Manihiki the squares are sewn together with lace)
- Va'inetini: women's quiltmaking group
TAPA CLOTH:is a bark cloth made in the islands of the Pacific Ocean, primarily in Tonga, Samoa and Fiji, but as far afield as Niue, Cook Islands, Futuna, Solomon Islands, Java, New Zealand, Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea (particularly in Oro Province around Tufi) and Hawaiʻi (where it is called kapa). In French Polynesia it has nearly disappeared, except for some villages in the Marquesas.
The cloth is known by a number of local names although the term tapa is international and understood throughout the islands that use the cloth. The word tapa is from Tahiti and the Cook Islands, where Captain Cook was the first European to collect it and introduce it to the rest of the world. In Tonga, tapa is known as ngatu, and here it is of great social importance to the islanders, often being given as gifts. In Samoa, the same cloth is called siapo, and in Niue it is hiapo. In Hawaiʻi, it is known as kapa. In Rotuma, a Polynesian island in the Fiji group, it is called ‘uha and in other Fiji islands it is called masi. In the Pitcairn islands it was called ahu. It is also known as tapia. Made by the women of the islands. (Wikipedia)
I have included these details on Tapa cloth as it is possible (even probable) that Tivaevae have replaced Tapa and its uses in cultural customs. Tapa is now not often seen in the Cook Islands (anecdotal evidence) except on specific occasions (I was told a story about a particularly deep grave, where tapa was used to lower the body into that grave instead of the usual tivaevae).
The cloth is known by a number of local names although the term tapa is international and understood throughout the islands that use the cloth. The word tapa is from Tahiti and the Cook Islands, where Captain Cook was the first European to collect it and introduce it to the rest of the world. In Tonga, tapa is known as ngatu, and here it is of great social importance to the islanders, often being given as gifts. In Samoa, the same cloth is called siapo, and in Niue it is hiapo. In Hawaiʻi, it is known as kapa. In Rotuma, a Polynesian island in the Fiji group, it is called ‘uha and in other Fiji islands it is called masi. In the Pitcairn islands it was called ahu. It is also known as tapia. Made by the women of the islands. (Wikipedia)
I have included these details on Tapa cloth as it is possible (even probable) that Tivaevae have replaced Tapa and its uses in cultural customs. Tapa is now not often seen in the Cook Islands (anecdotal evidence) except on specific occasions (I was told a story about a particularly deep grave, where tapa was used to lower the body into that grave instead of the usual tivaevae).
[Reference: Herda, Phyllis: Tivaevae, Women's Quilting in the Cook Islands, Uncoverings,(2011) 32, 55-76 &, Rongokea, Lynnsay: The Art of the Tivaevae, 2001, University of Hawaii Press, Richards, Bree: Tivaevae, Vibrant island threads, in "Threads: Contemporary Textiles and the Social Fabric", Queensland Art Gallery/Gallery of Modern Art, 2012]
Deleuze & Guattari on Nomads and Nomad Art:
The nomad has a territory; he follows customary paths; he goes from one point to another; he is not ignorant of points (water points, dwelling points, assembly points etc.). But the question is what in nomad life is a principle and what is a consequence. To begin with, although the points determine paths, they are strictly subordinated to the paths they determine, the reverse of what happens with the sedentary. The water point is only reached to be left behind;every point is a relay and exists as a relay. A path is between two points, but the inbetween has taken on all the consistency and enjoys both an autonomy of its own. The life of the nomad is the intermezzo. Even the elements of his dwelling are conceived in terms of the trajectory that is forever mobilizing them. (TP p419)
Several notions, both practical and theoretical, are suitable for defining nomad art...First, "close-range" vision, as distinguished from long-distance vision; second,"tactile" , or rather "haptic" space as distinguished from optical space. "Haptic" is a better word than "tactile" since it does not establish an opposition between two sense organs but rather invites the assumption that the eye itself may fulfill this nonoptical function...It seems to us that the Smooth is both the object of close vision par excellence and the element of a haptic space (which may be as much visual or auditory as tactile). The Striated, on the contrary, relates to a more distant vision, and a more optical space--although the eye in turn is not the only organ to have this capacity. (TP p 543 - 544, my emphasis)
Quilting Terms & Their Equivalents:
This page will also be used to make lists of quilting terms and their meanings and compare these with the meaning in general usage, as well as in terms of Deleuzian theory.
I am also interested in how meaning shifts between Australian-English and American-English.
This is a work-in-progress and words will be added as I work on the four blogs.
Each word will be followed first by the (abbreviated!) dictionary definition (OED) , the quiltmaking term, and reference(s) to that word (or similar concept) in A Thousand Plateaus.
Nevertheless, I am finding the attempt to define (pin down) any one of Deleuze & Guartarri's ideas may represent a lost cause, as Massumi points out in his introduction to Thousand Plateaus:
"Rather than analyzing the world into discrete components, reducing their manyness to the One of identity, and ordering them by rank, it sums up a set of disparate circumstances in a shattering blow. It synthesizes a multiplicity of elements without effacing their heterogeneity or hindering their potential for future rearranging (to the contrary)". (pxii)
I will also attempt to clarify where possible by reference to Elizabeth Grosz's writings on each concept.
Apply: have relevance make use of as relevant or suitable, administer; applique: shapes sewn onto background fabric
Arboreal/arborescent (schema): living in or connected with trees; counterpoint to the 'rhizome', a hierarchical rendering from the superior to the subordinate resulting in a closed system, example: classification of living organisms
Assemblage: act or an instance of gathering together, ...a structure and its parts; process of arranging then stitching together blocks to make a quilt, together with 'becoming' and 'difference' this is of particular significance to D & G: "Matter itself was no longer a chaos to subjugate and organize but but rather the moving matter of continuous variation..the assemblages thus placed matter in a new relation: matter ceased to be a matter of content, becoming instead a matter of expression, and form ceased to be a code subduing the forces of chaos, becoming a force itself, the sum of the forces of the earth" (p375).
Becoming: a key theme for D & G and I believe to be of relevance to any project interested in process, as this is. It is the movement between particular events, a 'dynamism' of change and unique to that change, ...(this needs much more work!)
Binding: substance/agreement that fastens or holds together; finishing edge, often a strip of fabric, that holds the different layers together; (boundaries) warn us not to entirely reject organising boundaries--to do so is to risk the complete rejection of subjectivity
Block: solid hewn piece of hard material, large building subdivided (into flats, units/apartments), compact mass of buildings bounded by streets, length of such an area, obstruction, a large area of land/building allotment, set of sheets of paper used for writing; subdivision of quilt into large squares ('blocks') containing a pieced pattern, often repeated and classified by grid on which block is based,
Cover/cover-all/cover-up: thing that obscures, a hiding place, bedclothes; quilts and bed covers are synonymous and interchangeable;
Crazy: insane or mad, foolish; type of patchwork in which irregularly shaped panels are outlined by embroidery in contrasting colours; (schizophrenia) D & G blur distinctions between normal/pathological and all the negative connotations this model infers, their term 'schizoanalysis' is an analytic process rather than a mental condition. Furthermore they point out that madness is a potential risk of attempts to break away from signifying systems, (see boundaries)
Fibre: 1. any of the threads or filaments forming animal or vegetable tissue and textile substances....4. the structure, grain, or character of something
a quilt is defined as: a layered stitched textile consisting of at least two distinct layers held together by stitches throughout the piece
Fibre: 1. any of the threads or filaments forming animal or vegetable tissue and textile substances....4. the structure, grain, or character of something
a quilt is defined as: a layered stitched textile consisting of at least two distinct layers held together by stitches throughout the piece
Filling: material used to fill something; placed between the two fabric layers to provide warmth, may be unwoven wool/cotton, blanket, recycled clothing (also: batting, wadding) (in-between)
Layered: strata lying one upon the other, consisting of different levels or meanings; by definition a quilt consists of two or more layers of fabric held together by stitching or tied with threads, thus potential reversible; (stratification) proposed as a new way of thinking about the way language forms an image of reality, (layered) organised as well as organising principle through which subjectivity is only provisional
Material: concerned with matter not the form of reasoning, of matter, corporeal; cloth/fabric of which quilt is made; (Body without Organs)
Patch/patched-up: piece of cloth/metal etc used to mend hole, repair rift in relationship/make-up after argument; patchwork is a panel made up of many patches (eg hexagons);
Piece: limited portion or quantity, put together, form into a whole; process of joining fragments of cloth/blocks to make a quilt;
Quilt: (n) 1 a bed-covering made of padding enclosed between layers of cloth etc and kept in place by lines of stitching (v) 1 cover or line with padded material 4 compile (a literary work) out of extracts or borrowed ideas (Middle English via Old French from Latin, cuilte mattress, cushion) predominantly fibre (to which other materials may be added) and consists of two distinct layers bound together by stitches throughout [NSW Quilters' Guild] Patchwork: an amorphous collection of juxtaposed pieces that can be joined together in an infinite number of ways...a quilt comprises two layers of fabric stitched together, often with a filler in between. Thus it is possible for there to be no top or bottom...[history from whole cloth to scrap quilts during migration of settlers from Europe to New World]...It is though a smooth space emanated, sprung from a a striated space, but not without correlation between the two, a recapitulation of one in the other, a furtherance of one through the other...in conformity with nomadism...becomes inseparable from speed or movement in an open space (p526)
Art quilt/studio quilt: alternative terms for a quilt made for display the wall rather than use on a bed. 'Art' invites comment on art/craft debate/distinctions, 'studio' avoids these and seems to be in increasing use in American reviews
Rhizome/rhizomal: underground rootlike stem bearing both roots and shoots (biology: vegetative means of propagation); connections between the most disparate and most similar of objects, places and people, a moving matrix, composed of organic and non-organic parts forming symbiotic and a parallel connections, allowing linkages to be configured through quite different forms of knowledge, a process which overcomes and transforms rigid structures of thought/knowledge, an assemblage-machine for new ideas, indeed a process akin to the making of a quilt
Site: ground chosen/used for building/town, place where an activity is/has been, address on the internet, location/place; (see block)
Stitch/stitched-up: sudden acute pain in side of body, complete; process of using needle and thread to piece together two pieces of cloth, end result being quilt top which, in turn, connected to other layers by same process
Strip: deprive of covering, make bare/naked; narrow piece of cloth, can be used in formation of specific blocks (eg Log Cabin) or, in forming borders /binding
Thread: that which runs through the course of something, connecting successive parts, sequence of events in narrative; fine cord of cotton/other fibre used to connect pieces/edges of cloth by stitching
Tear: drop of liquid falling from eye, to pull/pluck by force, to rent or divide; separate cloth by pulling apart and leaving an irregular edge, used to effect in 'seminole' patchworks and contemporary quiltmaking;
Yarn: n1. any spun thread esp. fro weaving, knitting, rope making etc. 2. a: a talk, b: a long or rambling talk or discourse v1. tell yarns 2. talk, have a chat
Yarn: n1. any spun thread esp. fro weaving, knitting, rope making etc. 2. a: a talk, b: a long or rambling talk or discourse v1. tell yarns 2. talk, have a chat
It is in our use of language that we can explore where form, function and everyday experience converge. The use of a word in one context sets up resonances within the language centres of the brain, where one meaning bleeds into another, with the potential of becoming altogether more complex in meaning.
Sources: Oxford Concise Dictionary, A Thousand Plateaus (Deleuze and Guarttari, trans, Massumi) The Deleuze Dictionary (ed. Adrian Parr), Elizabeth Grosz, Space. Time and Perversion; Gilles Deleuze, Essays Critical and Clinical
Additions made: September 2013
Additions made: September 2013
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