Artologium

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Artologium

An Artologium lab / 18 investigations

Afterlives.

A work is made.
Its life continues.

Follow what changed, find what carried it, inspect how we know. Works, materials, people and ideas move through these researched passages.

Explore all 18 investigations ↓

A copied figure. A pigment in a publisher’s hands. A workshop’s way of making together. Choose a passage into the public life of images.

Editorially revised with AI assistance; independent specialist review pending. Connections retain their qualifications, and visual comparisons make no claim of historical contact.

Pattern studies / 8 interactive studies & 3 motif passages

Patterns never stay still.

Follow how motifs, repeats and borders cross paper stencils, copperplate textiles, porcelain and silk—keeping surviving material, manufacturing technique and imitated technique distinct.

Open the Pattern studies atlas →01 · Cloth pretending to be cloth ↗Motif passage · Follow a bird ↗Motif passage · Follow an enclosure ↗Motif passage · Follow a flower ↗

18 investigations

1564 / c. 1580–85

What happens when a printed figure enters another painter’s world?

Document-led investigation · source images linked

Interactive passage / New investigation

A saint changes languages.

What happens when a printed figure enters another painter’s world?

Rome · Mughal India
1564 / c. 1580–85

attributedEnter the story →
2007 / studio account filmed 2011

Can a sculpture remember weaving without being woven?

Document-led investigation · source images linked

Visual essay / New investigation

Cloth without a loom.

Can a sculpture remember weaving without being woven?

Ghana · Nsukka, Nigeria
2007 / studio account filmed 2011

attributedEnter the story →
Late 1990s / 2010

What if the thing passed on is a way of working together?

Document-led investigation · source images linked

Visual essay / New investigation

A workshop travels.

What if the thing passed on is a way of working together?

Austin · New York · Dominican diaspora
Late 1990s / 2010

documentedEnter the story →
A woodcut of a rhinoceros in profile with densely patterned, armor-like skin and text above.
Albrecht Dürer · The Metropolitan Museum of Art · CC0 · Source ↗

Visual essay / New investigation

An animal made of reports.

How can an image become authoritative without an eyewitness?

Lisbon · Nuremberg · Meissen attribution
1515 / later porcelain adaptation

attributedEnter the story →
17th–18th centuries / curtain 1720–40

Who is adapting to whom when a textile is made for export?

Document-led investigation · source images linked

Visual essay / New investigation

A pattern negotiates a market.

Who is adapting to whom when a textile is made for export?

Indian subcontinent · Europe · Indian Ocean networks
17th–18th centuries / curtain 1720–40

attributedEnter the story →
An ivory pendant mask with a finely carved face and an elaborate border; the Met example, not the British Museum FESTAC source.
Ìgbèsànmwà (ivory- and wood- carving guild) artists · The Metropolitan Museum of Art · CC0 · Source ↗

Connection study / New investigation

An emblem and an absence.

How can an image return while the object stays away?

Benin City · London · Lagos
16th century / 1897 / 1977

documentedEnter the story →
1539 / colonial Mexico

What changes when a printed scene is remade in iridescence?

Document-led investigation · source images linked

Interactive passage / New investigation

An image made of feathers.

What changes when a printed scene is remade in iridescence?

Mexico City · Europe
1539 / colonial Mexico

attributedEnter the story →
Red-brown boats and repeated marks travel around a pale rounded vessel.
Maker unrecorded · The Metropolitan Museum of Art · CC0 · Source ↗

Visual essay / From the journal

What a mark remembers

What changes when a mark belongs to a curved surface?

Egypt · Japan
Ancient Egypt / Edo-period Japan

editorial observationEnter the story →