Compose styles
Rather than blending styles toward a middle, this gives them roles. The first one carries the structure, the next comes in as the accent, and anything after that shows up in a single detail. Where they fight each other, it says so before you start.
How to divide the work
- Composition
- Follow Kōwhaiwhai: Run the band along the rafter and mirror it about the center line
- Type
- Set in Kōwhaiwhai's manner (Let koru direction mark the phrasing and keep the spiral turns even), and let Tapa (Barkcloth)'s lettering (Treat the motif unit as insignia and repeat one combination) appear only where you want the eye to catch.
- Material
- Ground in Kōwhaiwhai's material (Only red, black and white, with black holding the ground down); bring in exactly one thing from Tapa (Barkcloth) (Beaten and joined bark, earth pigments stamped, drawn and smoked in).
- Colour
- Build on #dfe7e8, #9f1914, #1b1b1f and admit one accent from #e4dcc8, #7a5d4d, #3a322a.
Where they fight
These are already listed as related entries, so the join should come easily.
Caution
- Kōwhaiwhai Using the patterns as decoration apart from the genealogy they record removes the sign of whose story it is and becomes appropriation.
- Tapa (Barkcloth) Cutting the patterns loose from the island they belong to strips them of the insignia function and leaves only decoration.
Image prompt
Produce four original images that take their structure from Kōwhaiwhai (style, 18th century–) and their accent from Tapa (Barkcloth) (technique, prehistory–). ## What to make Make the kind of thing Kōwhaiwhai exists for: decorating ceilings and long beams as bands that carry a story, or designing repeated curves under strict rules of symmetry and reflection. Choose one subject and hold it across all four. ## Structure comes from Kōwhaiwhai - Repeating koru spirals - Red, black and white - Symmetry and reflection - Bands following the rafters Composition: Run the band along the rafter and mirror it about the center line. Type and lettering: Let koru direction mark the phrasing and keep the spiral turns even. ## Accent comes from Tapa (Barkcloth), used sparingly - The beaten texture of bark - Repeating geometric pattern - Earth-toned pigments - Great ceremonial sheets Let one material quality come from it: Beaten and joined bark, earth pigments stamped, drawn and smoked in. ## Colour and feeling Build the ground on #dfe7e8, carry the structure in #9f1914 and #1b1b1f, and let a single accent come from #7a5d4d. These are read off real works, so a direction rather than a fixed palette. Feeling to carry: calm, trust, intimacy. ## What goes wrong - Kōwhaiwhai: Using the patterns as decoration apart from the genealogy they record removes the sign of whose story it is and becomes appropriation. - Tapa (Barkcloth): Cutting the patterns loose from the island they belong to strips them of the insignia function and leaves only decoration. ## Across the four Keep the roles fixed in all four. Vary the framing, the scale and the arrangement so the set shows what this pairing can do rather than four versions of one picture. ## Constraints - Do not imitate, reference or name any specific artist, studio, brand, character or copyrighted work. - Do not reproduce the composition of an existing work. - Produce original compositions in the general period languages described above.
Related entries
- Kōwhaiwhai 18th century– / Style / Ornament
Scroll patterns run along the rafters of Māori meeting houses. Built from the koru, the unfurling fern shoot, and worked in red, black and white alone, they unfold symmetry, rotation and reflection as a mathematics of curves that records genealogy and story overhead.
- Tapa (Barkcloth) prehistory– / Technique / Textile Traditions
Across the Pacific islands, bark is beaten out into cloth. Geometric patterns stamped, drawn and smoked onto it serve as communal insignia in ritual and gift exchange, and every island keeps its own pattern system within this Pacific graphic language.
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