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Patterns and Rhythm. What is repetition, pattern, and rhythm? How do they relate to each other?
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What is repetition, pattern, and rhythm? How do they relate to each other? • Repetition refers to one object or shape repeated; pattern is a combination of elements or shapes repeated in a recurring and regular arrangement; rhythm--is a combination of elements repeated, but with variations.
Repetition • Repetition is an object, form, or figure that is repeated.
To get an idea of the effect of repetition in an artwork, look at the illustration below. There appears to be two boxes. In the first box, there is one colored circle. The second box is overflowing with multicolored circles, so many that they cannot all be contained within the box. What words do you think of when you look at the two different boxes? You might think of spare, lone, almost empty, lonely...or you might think of abundant, innumerable, unmanageable, out of control.
Donald Judd: repetition as a minimalist • Donald Judd, untitled (1969/1982), • anodized aluminum each of 10 boxes 6 x 27 x 24 inches • Walker Art Center Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Edmond R. Ruben, 1981 • From the Walker Art Center website: "One of the foremost practitioners of Minimal Art, Donald Judd is best known for his sleek, boxlike constructions made of industrial materials such as aluminum, plywood, sheet metal, and Plexiglas. Through these works, he sought to create a depersonalized art in which the exploration of space, scale, and materials served as an end, rather than as a metaphor for human experience. Emphatically concerned with pure forms, Judd’s works become statements about proportion and rhythm as well as three-dimensional space. His stacked boxes seem to come directly out of the wall rather than projecting from a backing surface. This creates the impression that the artwork shares the observer’s space instead of being set apart like a sculpture on a pedestal".
If Judd's concern is with pure forms, how does the repetition of a single form --shape, dimensions, spacing and color--affect your response? Does it strengthen Judd's intent? Are you able to experience this work as pure form only, or do you look for metaphoric references that relate to hman experience?
Christo and Jeanne-Claude: the Umbrella Project • Another massive project by Christo and Jeanne-Claude was the installation of large scale blue and yellow umbrella sculptures, 1,340 blue ones in Japan, and 1,760 yellow ones in the U.S. Besides covering a large area geographically in each site, the sites also linked one country to another. Imagine a field with one large umbrella sculpture. Now imagine more than a thousand of them, in the same field. What is the effect of repetition in this project?
Pattern • Pattern is a combination of elements or shapes repeated in a recurring and regular arrangement.
Symbolic uses of pattern • Pattern is often used symbolically to represent many things: people, beliefs, the natural world, history, tradition. Colors and shapes have specific meanings, and are passed down from generation to generation. The predictability of pattern is important in establishing a historical tradition and cultural practice.
Ghanaian kente cloth • Colors convey mood, dark shades being associated with grief and used for mourning ceremonies, while lighter shades are associated with happiness. The symbolic significance of kente is located in the motifs (the elephant signifies kingship, the scorpion bitterness). The colors of the Ghanaian national flag – red, yellow, green and black – are popular in modern cloths."
Pattern as decoration • We are all familiar with the use of pattern as decoration, from clothing, to everyday objects, to home decorating . Here is an example of an elaborate use of pattern in home decoration.
What is Rhythm? • Rhythm is like pattern, in that the same elements (i.e.shape, line) are repeated; however, with rhythm there are slight variations in the pattern. Rhythm is easily perceived but complex and subtle.
In pattern, elements are repeated in the same way throughout the whole composition. In rhythm, the same elements are used, but with variations. See if you can sense and understand the difference Rhythm is most easily understood within music. Rhythm represents our desire for order. Rhythm is like our own heartbeat; it gives us a sense of the pulsing of life.
