ENTANGLED

In the Rings of Saturn, WG Sebald writes “That weavers in particular, together with scholars and writers with whom they had much in common, tended to suffer from melancholy and all the evils associated with it, is understandable given the nature of their work, which forced them to sit bent over, day after day, straining to keep their eye on the complex patterns they created. It is difficult to imagine the depths of despair into which those can be driven who, even after the end of the working day, are engrossed in their intricate designs and who are pursued, into their dreams, by the feeling that they have got hold of the wrong thread.”

The life of a weaver is that of half a life spent in a stage of half-life, mimicking the movements of the tying threads of human connection that we sacrifice for our craft through our materials, through exhaustive hours spent in solitary isolation. This method of existence is becoming more and more intertwined through society as the clutches of labor in isolation sweeps across the globe, threatening to snap the ties that bind our communities.

There are threads that we find throughout our lives that we weave together, constructing the fiber of our beings and the fabric of our universe. From quantum entanglement; the phenomenon of two particles remaining linked regardless of the distance between them, to  unbreakable relationships that exist across the world, the premise of a “loose end” is a practical fallacy when we examine the context of each part of ourselves.

The particles found in quantum mechanics are mimicked in human behavior, we can never fully separate from those with whom we have been intertwined. We may break ties, but the impression left upon us never fully fades. There may be endless space between us, but the link remains, ultimately removing us from ever fully becoming a solitary entity.

Entangled  is a collection of my connecting threads; literal, metaphorical and metaphysical, meditating the intersection between the life and the lifeless through scientific data, intimate relationships and emotional connection - A visual representation of the human experience, from separating tangled yarn through making sense of complex emotional entanglement, unraveling the fibers of my being and fabric of my universe to truly see the parts of my greater sum and reflect on the threads that work invisibly, weaving us all together. 

work for sale via online inquiry. please contact lauren.stichweh@gmail.com