Repetition as inspiration, meditation and practice
“…Our lives are held together by it. That is the magic of repetition. ”
a sound
a word
a line
a shape
an action
We all have different daily patterns and routines, certain things we all do like brushing our teeth, but we all do it with slight variation each time. I am contemplating why I always choose to work with repetition in one way or the other. Why does repeated surfaces excite me and awaken my curiosity? Why does it never cease to interest me?
What is repetition?
We exist in a formal arrangement of repeated elements that exist in daily routines, in memory, in behavior, and in movement. We repeat actions, we repeat words, and we visit thoughts that we have been thinking before. We walk on roads we walked before, we repeat without knowing that we actually are repeating. We inherit actions, gestures and customs from our parents and we repeat traditions. We are supported by these repetitions; it is the cycle of life.
The first repetition we encounter is our mother’s heartbeat, a steady rhythm that we hear during nine months. We are not aware of it, we do not reflect on it, but it is there as a security that we grow to rely on.
We learn everything through repetition. A baby tries to walk over and over again, until it finally succeeds. We practiced our multiplication tables over and over again at school and finally we knew them all. Most skills are mastered by repetition. I just started to learn to dance tango - and again, it is all about repetition; steps that my brain must repeat until they are inscribed as a code that I will click into automatically.
Repetition is visually apparent in both natural and man-made structures and surfaces. Just look around you. If you pay attention the whole world seem to be constructed of repetition in one way or the other. Set yourself the task one day to document repetition. I promise that your notebook will be full by the end of the day and your camera loaded with interesting surfaces.
A singular motif can be beautiful in it self. If it is repeated it over and over again it seems to gives a double pleasure. A repeated pattern or surface provides us with a feeling of security and belonging. It gives a satisfaction - a relief of tension - both visually and emotionally. Repetition is like something beautiful that has been given to you plentifully. That is the essence of repetition. It plays on one’s emotion and evokes a structure that is comfortable to be immersed in. That is what I would like to call the magic of repetition?
Repetition is a widespread component in music, poetry, dance, architecture, design visual art. Repetition is, and has been, used as a tool within visual art practice and can be seen through history in serial painting of the 18th century and vast multiple bronze casts in the 19th century. In the 1960s many artist including Victor Vasarely, Andy Warhol and Bridget Riley used repetition as means of conveying particular messages through their images. Artists that have especially inspired me with their repetition are Eva Hess and Agnes Martin.
In our days installation work often consists of succession of repeated element or object that is placed in the room. Poetry often has sections that repeat, it might be a word or a rhythm, or a repeat of a whole line or verse. Religious chanting is another comforting repetition, or the repetition of a chorus of a song.
Repetitions in relation to textile practice
In textile terms repetition appears when an object, form or figure is multiplied and the resulting images are placed beside each other. One motif multiplied over a surface generates a pattern. We call it in visual terms “a repeat”. A repeat is in this context is the horizontal or vertical distance between identical elements. The surface that is created is a pattern – or a design.
In textiles techniques repetition is absolutely central, not just in the visual appearance, but also in the act of making. This action of repetition is for me both soothing and gratifying. It calms my mind like meditation, an escape away from the fast pace of life. It brings me back to my self, brings my mind back home in the midst of the busyness of living. It is about daring to be still. In many ways the act of textile making supports meditation, because of its many aspects of repetition. Weaving, stitching, knitting and embroidery can all be seen as some kind of meditation that takes place through the endless reoccurrence of the movement of the hand. Women used to withdraw into themselves in front of the fire at the end of a busy day to tend to handiworks, being it mending of socks or making something new. This was a resting place, a harbor away from the hectic day where the mind could rest and recharge. Today we don't have that natural cycle of stillness when the dark appears. We have to create that stillness; make ourselves stay with the repetition and slowness that “making” entails.
When you weave the pattern is directed by the sequence of the warp-thread’s positions in conjunction with the weft threads, it determines the texture and the pattern of the cloth. The sound from the loom is rhythmic; a constant beat from the boom pounding the warp in to place and there is a whirling sound when the spool goes from side to side.
There is a parallel to life; we subconsciously create patterns in our lives all the time. Our brain wants to create patterns. That is how we humans are programmed.
Patternicity is a theory first presented in 2008 by Michael Shermer. It deals with humans wanting and searching for meaningful patterns psychologically, physically and visually in world of “noise”.
Repetition and memory
I am concerned with two topics; repetition and memory. I believe that they are very closely linked. They both overlap and interconnect. The Danish philosopher Sören
Kierkegaard suggests in his essay REPETITION, from 1843, that life itself is repetition, but he also links it to recollection ( memory ).
He writes on the first page :
“Repetition and Recollection are in the same movement, just in opposite directions, because what is recollected has already been and is therefore repeated back words, whereas genuine repetition is recollected forwards. Repetition, if it is possible, therefore makes a person happy, while recollection makes him unhappy….”
A few pages later he continues:
“The dialectic of repetition is easy, because that which is repeated has been, otherwise it could not be repeated, but precisely this, that it has been, makes repetition something new.”
Having two languages, for me Swedish and English, can be helpful when trying to understand the meaning of a word. In Swedish : Repeat in Life : is “Upprepa”, and when you turn it back to front “repa upp” it means, when we translate it into English, “to unpick”. To visually repeat in Swedish is called “Rapportera”. “Rapportera” also means to report in terms of writing a document or for a journalist to report. In English repeat in life and to visually repeat is the same word. The title of Kierkegaard’s essay itself, REPETITION is a good Danish example. Gjentagelsen , is two words put together: “Gjen“ which means “begin” and “tagelse” which translates as to “take” . So really it means to take the beginning again.
Repetition is also a central topic today in our digital world, where the repetition of an image is very easy to achieve. The original has nearly lost its importance as we can use Photoshop to repeat, mirror and duplicate with a click of our computer mouse. The ease with which we can perform these operations can be problematic. I believe that repetition in this sense can turn out bad repetition. It is so quick and easy that our brain can no longer discern or register what is good and what is bad in visual repetition. We become lazy. Its scares me when I see so many bad repeats in where a drawing or photograph is mirrored, twisted and turned in endless variations and presented as textile design. I might be conservative, but I think there is much to say about the old-fashioned way of re-drawing and tracing, and that way letting the process sink in slowly and our brains evaluate the result with time.
Computers are great tools and I use them in my work, but I think that they at times are misused in the creative process.
Repetition with a variation; visually and philosophically
Visual variation of repetition excites me tremendously. I cannot stop being fascinated by how different one motif can look in different repetition structures.
Repetition as an art practice and a strategy differs from random repetition in that it carries with it the seeds of intentional transformation. When repetition reflects on itself as repetition, it establish a doubling back movement through which the subject (verbal, visual, musical) looks at itself, and therefore, modifies itself, only to duplicate in a slightly different way.
In repetition there is circularity, intensity and innovation. Repetition sets up expectations and then confounds and mystifies them at both regular and irregular intervals. It draws attention, not to the object (word, image or sound), but to what lies
between them. The space in between, negative space, is in visual repetition as important as the repetition itself.
Shadow is another repetition in that it is an echo of the object itself. I use this form of repetition in in my pieces with laser cut holes. The shadows add a transient layering and are important to the meaning of the work because they symbolise memory, so the viewer may experience the actual work, the concrete and the shadow-memory simultaneously in real time. Therefore, one has both the original experience and the memory, which is true to, but not completely identical to, the original experience.
Repetition outplays itself as repetition, and each repetition is never the same as the former.
Philosophical reflections
In order to understand repetition we must be brave enough to break repetition. This is hard for me who argues that repetition is the driving force for our existence!
I stumbled upon the musicologist Richard Middleton who states in his essay “ Over and Over” :
“The ceasing to repeat is to die: This is the truth for individual organisms, for genes and cultures and languages. Yet, a repetition without a renewal is also a kind of death.....“
Middleton has written a lot on the psychology of repetition in music. His thinking on repetition in music is so similar to my experience of visual repetition. I then started to think about what symbols exist for repetition. The only one that I could think of was the two dots at the end of a music score, to indicate that the music should be repeated.
In a recent radio interview Eleanor Flegg and myself had a conversation about repetition in my work). Eleanor asked; “Aren’t we to believe that repetition is something boring?” And I quickly answered; “ NO!!! Repetition is not boring! “ But I would like to add, that repetition without variation can become boring. Who wants to walk exactly the same way to work every single day for years, or eat the same dinner every day?
Middleton further on states: “Repetition without renewal is a kind of death.”
So I must agree with Middleton; Repetition with a variation is definitely more interesting then straightforward static repetition.
Negative repetition definitely exists. We need a structure, a pattern to follow, but if we cannot improvise in this routine, it can become a burden. We can also draw parallels to repetitive strain injury; a very negative consequence of repetition.
We cannot leave Freud out this topic. He proposes that we deal with unpleasant situations by repeating them in our minds. Children do it through play; they repeat and work with an experience through repetition….
“… they abreact the intensity of the experience and makes themselves so to speak the master of the situation.“
To end and conclude
So, my guided tour of repetition has come to an end.
I am drawn to both the structure of repetition in life (routine) as well as the structure of repetition in a woven, printed or stitched cloth, and the repetition of a drawn line or re-occurring brush stroke on a canvas.
The motif that re-appears over and over again becomes familiar to my eye and creates stability, a visual holding-place that goes back to the rhythm of our breath; a cycle and then a reoccurrence. It gives a feeling of rest in the same way that I rest in the familiar and repetitive movements of yoga or dance.
Our minds can rest in repetition because we take our attention out of the normal stream of thinking.
We learn by repetition. It’s about falling, getting up, falling down again, and learning by experience.
It is about repeating, repeating and repeating again….
Repetition makes me feel secure and I cannot resist it.
Repetition that from a distance seems identical might not be so exact from close up. The strength of the weaver’s hand might change from day to day, the colour of the thread or thickness might vary, and the pressure of the boom might be different from row to row of the weft.