Ruth Thomas

utu/concept

U N T A N G L I N G T H E U N K N O W N

One day's unknown words

This small work was created as a contribution to Jordan Cunliffe's amazing Data Advent Calendar 2024 (Instagram @artisan_embroidery). The given prompt of 'my' day was ‘Words’ and here’s my interpretation of this theme:

I live in a country where a language other than mine is spoken. My husband's language is yet another, as is that of my children. I’m at home in all these languages, and still I keep stumbling over words I don’t understand, even in my own language (and let alone in the additional language I’m currently learning).

For a whole day I was collecting the unknown words I came across. I wrote them down, looked up their translation and, if needed, definition.

Then I arranged the collected words in alphabetical order and assigned a colour to each language. In the knitwork, each coloured stitch corresponds to one letter of the respective word, while neutral grey serves as background. The longest word determines the width of the work and the number of words its height.

The result is a surface knitted from previously unknown words, the meaning of which now no longer holds any secrets for me.

(Knitted acrylic wool, 13 x 8 cm, 2024)

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