Expanding, Field Communique and Cotton Linter

This week I practiced expanding appearances and exploring perspectives.  Earlier today, I was hand-casting cotton linter and thought the playful experience lent itself well to the exercises…

 

As I soaked the linter in water, I thought about its momentary forms.  One form was as a seed, sprouting in the sunshine, watered by the rain, growing in the wind into a tall plant blooming into white, cottony puffs.  I thought about its time in rough hands, pulled from the plant and tossed into large baskets to sit on the back of a truck on the way to the mill.  I thought about the machines that tossed it about, pulling the fibers apart and combing out stray seed particles, preparing it for packaging.

 

The form of the cotton at my moment of inquiry was that of dry cotton linter, being again reshaped into a hand-casting mold of forest pines, together with a sprinkling of tiny flower seeds.  I thought about how soon the light that shined upon its newly refined form would be holiday lights, rather than sunshine, and how its audience would be smiling faces rather than cawing black crows.  And then I thought about how it would return to the earth, holding the seeds I’d cast into the pulp, and become another form.

 

It was interesting to consider the way its form expanded, imagining it as a computer might show it as special effects, through all of its forms from a seed in the dirt to return to the dirt holding seeds and finally, dissolving as new plants grew from it.  It was interesting to consider that expansion of its presence, in a timelessness, changing space, and manner.  I’m unsure if I understand the field communiqué correctly; my idea is that that field communiqué was more than the physical hand-cast piece.

 

Hopefully, I’m not too far off track!

Thank you,

Erin