Figure1: Dayanita Singh, Museum of Chance. 

The presence of a story can be felt in the silence of the room. Who used to live here? Do they still live here? The objects- the bed, drawers, tiles, curtain, window seem to have seen it all. What did they see that we didn’t see?

The feeling of home is hard to define. It varies and adapts but there’s something constant enough about it that allows it to be used as a phrase. Home, like the heart, is centred and whole.  It sustains itself and life in turn, through its looped structure. The loops, Tim Ingold explains, are like knots or a chorus that come together to sing a melody. The invisible connections create a web strong enough to make a heart beat or build the foundations of a home.

The meshwork bodies, materials and spaces create the environment of a home. They support each other interchangeably as if a house is something we wear, clothes something we breathe with and skin we live in. Yet, none of these ideas are unfathomable. Dwelling, clothing and bodies are all elements that make our spaces flexible and porous.

They are also dependable and stable and yet stretch wide enough to create new spaces for change. As we empty ourselves from some interactions and homes, the impressions of the knots remain. They remain as memories; felt, touched and heard.

Written by Rukmini Swaminathan. 

Rukmini is a researcher at The Registry of Sarees. She is interested in textile, design and architecture history and hopes to explore  her interests through these journal entries.

Further Reading

Ekici, Didem. “Skin, Clothing, and Dwelling.” Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians ,Volume 75 (2016): 281-298. Digital.

Ingold, Tim. The Life of Lines. New York: Routledge, 2015. Digital.

Kozlov, Dmitri. “Knots as a Principle of Form in Modern Art and Architecture.” Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research, volume 284 (2018): 367-372. Digital.

Image Source:

https://www.npr.org/2018/04/10/601142938/this-photographer-wants-to-put-a-museum-in-your-pocket