Rhythm & Rhyme

​Size:    150cm wide x 12cm high
Materials:    string
Techniques:   dweaving
Price:   SOLD

Made for the Cork Textiles Network "Rhythm & Rhyme" exhibition at the Cork School of Music, November 2010, this piece of the same name is woven in polypropylene and cotton string. It is unadulterated energy conversion! The weaving is based on the sound form of my recorded reading of "the Tide Rises, The Tide Falls" by American poet , Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, the poem being itself about the natural rhythms of season and tide.

Interestingly, the piece continues to move to the seasons. Cotton responds markedly to humidity compared to the synthetic fibre, so that the changing weather causes the woven lines to ripple minutely over time.


Below the photo of the weaving is the sound form for the first of the 3 stanzas (i.e. the left hand third of the weaving)

The Tide Rises, the Tide Falls
BY HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW

The tide rises, the tide falls,
The twilight darkens, the curlew calls;
Along the sea-sands damp and brown
The traveller hastens toward the town,
      And the tide rises, the tide falls.

Darkness settles on roofs and walls,
But the sea, the sea in the darkness calls;
The little waves, with their soft, white hands,
Efface the footprints in the sands,
      And the tide rises, the tide falls.

The morning breaks; the steeds in their stalls
Stamp and neigh, as the hostler calls;
The day returns, but nevermore
Returns the traveller to the shore,
      And the tide rises, the tide falls.

Thanks to the Poetry Foundation for making this available