Mottled Geometries: The Lure and Allure of the Pattern in the Carpet

Mottled Geometries considers ambiguities of perception as afforded by the textured matter of carpet patterning. The carpet is subjected to the intricacies and intimacies of close, textural looking in which encounters with patterned carpets are conceived as affecting patterns of perception and consciousness as they dissemble, dissolve and disappear. The carpet that hangs behind Sigmund Freud's couch is considered, with the ‘unstable subject’ of Freudian psychoanalysis figuring as a carpet-in-the-making on the loom, with the uneven patterns of the surface revealing the knots and fibres whereby both subject and carpet are formed.

Keywords: abrash ; Alfred Gell ; amazement ; camouflaging of consciousness ; couch ; figure-ground relationship ; Laura U.Marks ; perception ; Qashqai rug ; Sigmund Freud ; textile ; the enchantment of technology