A Weaving of a Painting of a Rug
Long ago, I see some cup coasters on the coffee table of a relative. There are photos of Navaho rugs printed on the coasters. Being a weaver myself, something about these little thumbnail coasters bothers me.
The little designs depict thumbnail condensations of a process that originally took many weeks or months for the weaver of the rugs to complete: First there is a sheep. Take loving care of the sheep, every day, and once a year or so, shear them. Carefully wash the raw fleece. Comb out the dirty bits. Spin the pre-spin fiber; next the second spin…Dye the yarn, often with hand gathered herbs from around the land. Construct or set up the loom. Warp the loom; warping is a long process. Then actual weaving of the rug; takes weeks or more.
Finally, the rug is ready to photograph for the coaster.
Wait! Is this its purpose in life, to be a tiny photograph of so much effort? A rug is for warming your feet, or wrapping around your body, if it is a blanket. How very strange it is, to reduce all of this work to a coffee table coaster, to match your Southwest decor theme!
Thus, it happens that the coaster becomes, for me, the inspiration: to weave, with real wool, on a real loom, a yarn painting, mounted on a frame, for hanging on the wall, a small version of a blanket or rug. I call it, “A Weaving of a Painting of a Rug”.
Full circle. The rug has now gone from weaving to weaving. Over the years, this phrase, “a weaving of a painting of a rug” comes to mean, to those of us in the know, a shorthand, for this process of reducing a real thing to a sort trivialized and hollowed out version of its original essence.
There is an artist who weaves traditional Persian rugs, Faig Ahmed, who wonders one day what the rug would look like if it somehow partially melted onto the floor below where it was hanging on the wall. It is a sensation, they call it avant garde.
The resulting melting rugs are a huge hit. He now has a large staff who cranks out his designs. The wall to floor to rug art is now hanging all over the world.
Is it art? Is it home furnishings? Is it conceptual art?
It is about to be:
The newest iteration has arrived. When I first see the large woven portrait of a face hanging on the wall of the gallery in the photo, with its colors dripping down from it, puddling on the gallery floor, I think, wow, this is a tapestry artist who is taking this concept the a new level. Indeed they attribute their inspiration to the Persian rug artist.
But then, like the tapestry in the picture, my face falls. Reading the fine print below, I realize they are saying that the picture is an A.I. generated depiction of what it “would look like if” this this face were a woven rug that was made like the Persian artist’s ones.
A weaving of a painting of a rug.
A photo of a concept of an idea.
It is a joke on me.
Recently a small person I know grew out of their baby bouncer, a devastating loss for them. I suggest a hammock chair, with a spring added, to replace it. A quick perusal of the interwebscape comes up with something even better. It is a colorful line of dinosaur and dragon mouth hanging hammock chairs. They are truly amazing to behold; you sit on pillowed tongue surrounded by great armrest teeth. Wow! I click on the picture and they are only $39.95, seven to ten days delivery, free shipping if you buy two! They will take PayPal, or your credit card, etc.
I send pictures of the site to their parental unit, as a joke, really.
Indeed it was another joke on me alright!
Isn’t it amazing what A.I. comes up with, they reply.
Duh.
I scrutinize the background of the photo.
There are object-ish items on the shelf in the room, and toy-ish things in the playroom.
Take a look.
Once upon a time, you had to have at least one actual physical example of the product you were selling to run a scam like this.
We have entered a new pseudo reality zone.
When I first start playing with A.I. generated art simulator programs, I get nightmares with strange mutilated body parts. I learn to count fingers, and look at background details.
(Above: count fingers)
This phase won’t last long though. Soon you won’t be able to tell. Soon this type of image will be MOST of what we see online.
I wonder what we are going into.
