Monday, July 11, 2011

How Cool is This?


I was doing a bit of research for another project and discovered
this which jarred my memory.
I lifted this from a wikipedia article. The cylinder is a rolling stone stamp. The rectangle is a piece of clay that was stamped with the roller. This particular example is in the Louvre.

I'm thinking a lot of things right now. 1. There really is nothing new. This art form is thousands of years old. And while the article doesn't say it specifically I'm thinking that if you want to do a frieze or a border around a central figure and don't have a lot of time to do it because some Babylonian overlord with a whip is being an asshole about finishing a temple.... this is how you are going to get the job done. Slap a layer of wet clay over the substrate and roll for a ll you're worth. Granted the story is only going to be as long as the cylinder is in circumference. But if you are going to hit the highlights and have a great artistic design.... what more do you need?

2. I'm thinking that what I love to do with a passion was high art back in the day (3500 B.C.E) and now is relegated to puffery.

3. We are unimaginative idiots to think that someone almost 6000 years ago stood out in the hot sun and carved these things with crude tools on the wall surface. Why would you not build task specific tools to do your work? I mean holy carp Anne Bagby carves her own rubber stamps to do the same kind of thing in her artwork. Why do we think that ancient people wouldn't do the same? There is a uniformity in the work back then that defies the many hands concept of construction. Sure... Dale Chihuly teaches his apprentices his techniques and they build the pieces he designs. It would be insane to think that one guy can blow all that glass by himself. Just like its insane to thing that one guy carved all those walls. He built the tools that the workers used to decorate the walls they built.... I think.

4. Most importantly and positively in this pondering : We rubber stampers come from a long and proud and awesome tradition. Yea us!

Visitors Count