Open To Interpretation

A Meander Through the Long History of the Greek Key Pattern

By Kiera Coffee on May 5, 2022

In the next leg of the Greek key journey, the pattern shows up in Central America around 900 BCE. The world is still a place where communication between disparate geographies—Central America, Greece, China—is unlikely.

So, the pattern may not have been passed from one of these cultures to the other, but somehow there it is in Mexico, at the Mitla ruins from 900 BCE.

https://www.shutterstock.com/blog/greek-key-pattern

Josef Albers and the Pre-Columbian Artisan

JOAQUÍN BARRIENDOS

Found throughout North America, Mesoamerica, and the Andean region, the xicalcoliuhqui is a sophisticated abstract concept with no definite archeological meaning. This Nahuatl expression could be translated as “volute of the curcubit basin” (voluta de jícara). For some scholars it evokes aquatic elements such as waves and seashells or atmospheric phenomena such as storms, clouds, and hurricanes. For others, the cosmographic symbolism of the xicalcoliuhqui is closely linked to the underworld of Mictlán (or Mitla, in Spanish), the abode of the dead.

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Following this hypothesis, I argue that the Homages derive from the chromatic condensation of an abstract visual concept: the stepped-fret motif known as xicalcoliuhqui in Nahuatl.11 (fig. 03) This motif was for Albers the most eye-opening architectural element of the Oaxacan archaeological site Mitla, excavated by Alfonso Caso and Daniel Rubín de la Borbolla in 1934 – 35. Albers extensively photographed this motif and composed photomontages with the resulting images. (fig. 04) His Homages cannot be detached from his understanding of the motif as a grounded signifier; that is, as the spiritual gateway to the architectonic center of the pyramid, conceptually represented in the woven steps and rhythmic openings of this ancient abstract form.

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Thus it is unsurprising that after visiting Mitla and Monte Albán, among other places, Albers was amazed at the sophisticated nature of the activated negative space of the xicalcoliuhqui. As he states in his Harvard lecture:

Fig. 05
Joaquín Barriendos, stepped-fret motif scheme, 2017
Repository: Personal archive

There we can study again a very modern art problem. The relationship between active and passive, a certain proportion between positive and negative elements, a proportion very rare throughout all European and Oriental art work. … It teaches us a very high social philosophy, namely, real democracy in this way: Every part serves and at the same time is served

https://www.bauhaus-imaginista.org/articles/6263/josef-albers-and-the-pre-columbian-artisan

Archaeologists Uncovered Mythical Labyrinth Under Ancient Church

By Charlene Badasie | Updated 6 days ago

Evidence of an underground maze beneath the ancient ruins of Mitla in Oaxaca, Mexico, has been unearthed by archaeologists. Previously thought to be a legend, this labyrinth is believed to be the gateway to the Zapotec underworld, Lyobaa, or “place of rest.” The ancient people of Zapotec considered it to be a sacred place.

https://www.giantfreakinrobot.com/sci/ancient-ruins-labyrinth-mexico.html

Years later, when Romans conquered the territory, Herod Philip rebuilt the city and named it after hThe Turing Test Poetry Fest is a poetry competition where humans pretend to be artificial intelligence, and artificial intelligence pretends to be human."...

Maldonado is being a pest...Astros with another run...Astros 5, Angels 3...for sometime, AI vs Human...anyway, I thought to search; poem greek key, and search: poem Xicalcoliuhqui...:"Xicalcoliuhqui" is Aztec name for step fret-twisted gourd...aaand just those two searches brought up quick too real marvels!...first, a mash up about Greek Key and all the other meanders from around the world, and over time...the other, a paper about Joseph Albers, the artist, and the interest he had in step frets at Mitla...in 1939 he noted the motif's distribution thru out the Americas, he also noted the Mesoamerican artisans use of "negative space", negative space an artistic term for finding form in the background spaces...this a kinda reach, but the Andeans saw animal forms in the dark places between the stars of the Milky Way...it's contour rivalry...puns...innuendo...imputation...I just saw that word in a talkitup about "Did Jesus go to Hell?"...apparently Hell has different neighborhoods, one a kinda waiting zone for the saved, and this where Jesus went, briefly...apparently, Jesus had a kinda itinerary list to check off!...I dunno...in the news, are the caves discovered under the Church above the ruined Mitla Temple...actually , it was known they were there, the early Friars described it as the entrance to Hell...and sealed it up...I just came home from the Thrift Store with an underwater camera housing, and anxious to see what it is for...really pretty just to look at...fourteen bucks...Angels hit a home run, Adele?...Astros 9, Angels 5...Ohtani up...K......bbk...it's an Olympus housing, went with a particular Olympus model camera, twenty years ago!...one more Angels run...Astros 9, Angels 6...time was one got a Nikonos, or a housing for a DSLR camera, and underwater lights, at great expense...now, I have two of the Canon underwater point and shoots, my favorites, for snap shots in any weather...OHHH!...a home run by Moutakis!...Angels have scored six times in the inning...Astros 9, Angels 9...and a dream to go on snorkling, or even scuba diving, adventures with them...that Olympus set up, I could take out into the surf line to take pics of waves, and surfers, skim boarders...seen this done...to top of eighth...Astros with two runs...Astros 11, Angels 9...story has it the archaeologists will go into the caverns in September...top of ninth...Astros 12, Angels 9...Albers is a very well known artist, and his wife too in textiles...somewhere I read he'd noted the step fret in Peru textiles, but he was before the finding of the Moche tombs...there the step fret triangle identical to the step fret triangle at Mitla...old posts have this...to bottom of ninth...oh, trying to paste I've made a mess...Ohtani waps a home run!...Astros 11, Angels 10...paste was about the Cave of Pan at Caesarea in Israel, another gate to Hell, one that Jesus admonished his disciples to cover up..., or some such...I don't know what happened to the post's opening, "Notes...Game on"...paste deleted it...now, no one out...now, the ninth...runners at second and first...passed ball...Astros 12, Angels 11...Maldonado dogged it?...runners on second and third no one out...ground out...Angels up against the best reliever in the game...base hit...Astros 12, Angels 12..to top of tenth, extra innings...the beginning section had a long bit about how I do binary searches, how I arrived at search: poem greek key...I will write that up again...stuff useful to know when doing web searches..fly out caught in foul territory...Astro runner advance to third...Dusty Baker a great manager...K...two down...pop out...to bottom of tenth...Astros dog a put out at second...Astros 12, Angels 13..."put a halo over this one!!!"

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