«From nature to culture, man leaves his mark. He redesigns and gives another life by attaching symbols. The beauty of a stone or a simple pebble can be touching in its own raw minerality, but when man (re)discovers and (re)transfoms it, he adds poetry to it, forever.»
A stone, a rope, or nature in its minerality and the hand of the man who binds, knots, and ties.
If the art of tying is often associated with the Japansese practice of rope bondage (shibari) and the photographer Araki, one of its most prominent representatives, the practice of tying with a rope can also prove to be simply poetic and symbolic.
Ropes surround elements that the Japanese consider “inhabited” by their gods. They sometimes evoke the idea of separation or boundaries, or perhaps even a link, such as between the two Meoto Iwa Rocks, which are joined by a rope of rice straw that is regularly replaced because it is worn by the sea. The two are also called the “Married Couple Rocks”.
Stone, sand, gravel, and rocks are essential and omnipresent in Japanese gardens, especially in karesansui gardens or dry gardens, or tobi-ishi (stone paths). Girded by rope, stone can become a border that contains a message. A large pebble surrounded by a rope and placed in front of a door warns the visitor to not cross this symbolic limit. This Japanese practice was adopted by the painter Pierre Soulages who, to prevent access to his studio in Sète, designed stones surrounded by ropes. With two stones, no one can enter the studio; with one, his wife still has access to it. The spirit of the place, under poetic Japanese auspices.
As for the expression “tie me up”, it is now world famous thanks to the Almodovar film.