The Language of Mosaic: A Word from Our Muses
In mosaic circles, we speak about a mosaic ‘grammar’ or the language of mosaic. We’re usually referring to the various ancient setting patterns used to express a mood within the matrix of a mosaic. This rhythmic pattern, known as OPUS in Latin, or work, is traditionally expressed using cut stone and glass. In plural, these would be ‘OPERA’. (Well, not like Pavarotti singing ‘La Traviata’, but almost). Some common forms include Opus Regulatum, a grid-like setting pattern, or Opus Vermiculatum, which comes from the Latin term for “worm” and refers to a wavy, winding setting pattern. There are many more. We mosaicists like to talk a lot about how a mosaic surface is worked!
Recently, I’ve noticed there’s a contemporary art trend of using words or letters— language— as the mosaic itself. A ‘double entendre’ if you will. Entendre is French for “to hear”, So double entendre means a phrase that can be taken in more than one way… And there you have the irony of meaning. Do we hear or see mosaics?
Music, Muse, Mosaic, Museum…all derive from the same Greek root word, μουσική for music, a divine order…and mosaics are called l’arte musivum, the Art of the Muses.
Class dismissed. But not before you have look at these:
Frost’s pieces, made entirely out of cast-off keyboard keys, discarded by an array of users from individuals and small businesses to financial institutions, government offices and Fortune 500 companies, can cover whole rooms. Each key has a unique history and bears the imprint of the thousands of taps by countless users.
See more of Sarah Frost’s work here.
Above, Samantha Holmes recently won a 2000 Euro prize for this piece for the Use of Unconventional Technique and Materials. Seen at the GAEM exhibition at Ravenna Mosaico 2011, this old wooden sample board normally used for mosaic samples of colored glass instead contains folded and bound papers bearing her private thoughts. Read an excellent recount of this work and the backstory from the artist on MosaicArt Now.
In the video below, Raniero Bittante’s multi-media mosaic-riff seen at the BIBLIOMOSAICO exhibition in Ravenna. The exhibition, conceived by Rosetta Berardi invited many mosaic artists to create mosaic ‘books’. Using three copies of the Repubblica Italiana, Italy’s constitution, each book is embellished with red, white and green smalti (colors of the Italian flag) and representing the fragmentation of unity – the wads of chewed bubble gum, the cohesion. The “mosaic work” was enhanced by a tiny video screening of citizens blowing bubbles – then the gum was used to stick the pieces (tesserae, in Italian) to the book. A tribute and reflection on Italy’s 150th year.
“It’s an experimental blending of contemporary mosaic and the hand-written essay of the tedious variety that school children dread.”