On the 28th of October, the nature photograher I was introduced to as Kurt Lolo, of Lolo Pics, shared a breathtaking photograph, and it turned out to be on the same day I had the pleasant surprise to learn his real name is Lotfi Bouslah, Bouslah being his family name and Lotfi being his first name. A beautiful name that goes well with the surprise of a very unique sunrise on the heights of Azru n' Thur, at the National Park of Djurdjura, Tizi - Ouzou, in Norhtern Algeria. The photograph set me to dream immediately on the ancient art of gold embroidery, that goes back 2500 years, especially the style of Japanese gold embroidery. What makes this photograph unique is that it creates the impression of being made on satin, decorated with designs in gold silk thread in the style of XVth century Japan, and specifically the style where a large number of gold threads were aligned in a parallel fashion, very tightly together, so they were touching, a style that was also combined with the style of embroidery that uses gold metallic threads, a style I have been using myself in my gold embroidery of flowers and animals for the past ten years. The style of silk thread on satin is the most refined and sophisticated, of an exquisite perfection that can make the heart skip a beat in admiration. The photograph is of a sunrise, a sun of white fire from which emanante 17 rays that are equidistant from the center of the sun, who rules the entire scene.The sun dominates like an ancient god the sky that has the colour of matt dark blue steel, which puts all the attention on the solar star who reigns with absolute authority over the horizon and its distant mountains, that are covered in a sea of peaceful clouds the colour of orange gold, and that create the impression of the texture of spun gold in smooth layers, luxuriously thick and soft. On the right side, in the distance, there is a summet of a mountain poking timidly through the golden carpet of delicate clouds, and this tip of the summet is wearing a piece of white tissued cloudstrands, a precious visual detail. The foreground of the photograph is the colour of burnt sienna, a very effective colour to enhance the intimacy of the moment that is both powerful and tender, a colour that was created by the artists of the Renaissance, and that since is the colour variant of brown most favoured and used by artists, a colour interestingly, of which evidence has been found in the art of pre - historic murals. At the bottom of the photograph, in a line of direct descent from the center of the sun, the nature photographer Lotfi Bouslah has put his signature for his art, Lolo Pics, in white filigreed lettering, which is very appropriate, seeing how the artist is in complete control of this tableau of visual and aesthetic ecstasy. The totality of the photograph, rich in warm colours, of this perplexing creation in which the sun seems to the codebreaker to the destiny of the eternally mute universe, reminds me without reservation of a marvel created in the gold silk of 1.2 million golden orb silk weavers spiders of the genus Nephila, the Greek word being a reference to the fact that these spiders have a predilection for making very large webs of which the silk is golden in colour. This species of spider, of which there are 23 species registered, can be found in Australia, Asia, Africa including Madagascar, and the Americas. In 2004, two men, Simon Peers and Nicholas Godley, carefully trapped 1.2 million Nephila spiders in Madagascar with the help of a team of 80 people, to assist them in a project that would take 3 years, and this without harming the spiders, that were set free after a shift of 30 minutes to extract the silk, in a replica of a spider silk extracting devise designed by French Jesuit missionary Paul Camboue ( 1849 - 1929 ), who had worked with the Nephila spiders in Madagascar in the XIXth century between 1880 and 1890. Each spider was able to give in that 30 minute shift between 30 to 48 meters of gold colored silk. In 2009, Simon Peers and Nicholas Godley succeeded in creating a hand woven sjawl measuring 3.4 by 1.2 meters of the silk of these 1.2 million spiders, and exhibited it at the Museum for Natural Sciences in New York City. In 2012, they succeeded in adding a larger piece, a cape, that together with the sjawl was exhibited at the Museum of Albert and Victoria in London. These are the only two pieces of hand made spider silk garments on earth right now, since the last hundred years. To honour the work of these willing spiders, designs of the spiders' images, with their long, slender legs and slightly elongated bodies, were worked into the fabric of the sjawl and vest.
Spider silk is legendary for its strength, and its resilience, it can be stretch anywhere from 5 to 40 times its original length without breaking. This silk is used in microscopes, telescopes, and as a matter to generate the growth of peripheral nerves, and it was used by the peasants of the Carpathian mountains of Central and Eastern Europe to dress and disinfect wounds, it was even observed that the silk would attach itself to the skin of the wound and thus also had the capacity to stop bleeding. So, spider silk is as useful as it is beautiful.
The photograph of Lotfi Bouslah evokes a strong response when it somes to its eccentric beauty, that is modern and ancient all in one, with its sun that creates the impression of being a spiritual space vessel that has the capicty to decode the mysteries of existence. This futurist sun is at the center of a scene that has ancient echoes of Chinese embroideries because of the refined colours of the sky and the mountains, and because of the golden light reflected by the rays of the sun that combines the Chinese and Japanese style with an intoxicating effect. The result is a photograph of irresistable intimacy, that communicates a beautiful contradiction between forcefulness and tenderness.
Trudi Ralston
The research on the spiders of the genus Nephila and on Chinese gold embroidery with metallic threads and on Japanese embroidery of the XVth century style, done in gold silk thread on satin, and on the French Jesuit Paul Camboue, courtesy of Wikipedia.
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