Jimmie Durham
image(c) Frédéric Lefever
Une machine désire de l'instruction comme un jardin désire de la discipline, 1996
Installation
, Variable dimensions
Wood, cotton thread, print on paper
In 1996, these two pieces of weaving tools where shown at the exhibition La porte de l'Europe (les bourgeois de Calais). Calais is a place where lace has traditionally been produced since the nineteenth century through a system of punch cards with patterned holes instructing a sequence of operations.
The text hanging above the pieces gives an extra dimension to the concept of this artwork, comparing the automatism of the binary lace-making machines (perhaps the forefather of the computer) with the orderly jardin à la française.