'Those Lights We Call Stars' is an object that is also a material rem(a)inder of an event, a series of events. An object that weaves multiple spatial and temporal situations into its fabric. The object is a Persian rug. The worn areas of the rug have been repaired through darning the rug using an inappropriate blue metallic thread that refuses to sit discreetly and invisibly within the rug hiding its damage but, rather, calls attention to itself, highlighting the rug’s wear and tear.
For centuries, Persian rugs have been traded as precious commodities for the interior. They embody a literal and metaphorical relationship to their environment from the dyes and yarns (vegetable and animal) used in their material construction, to the symbolism used in their decoration depicting real and imagined landscapes, specific territorial (tribal) markers, and the acknowledgement of seasonal cycles from human fertility and animal migration to the movement of the stars and planets. In attempting to ‘repair’ this particular rug through a process of re-weaving I am drawn into a moment in the long history of the object; I become entangled in the history of its making and remaking, its use, exchange, reuse. The ‘artificial’ blue metallic thread introduced to this rug produces something jarring and unnatural; it doesn’t belong and yet it can also be seen to produce something new.

Those lights we call stars was exhibited in SITUATION, an event, symposium, exhibition and a series of city occupations – initiated and arranged by the RMIT Interior Design program in Melbourne. SITUATION brings attention to the designing of interiors as a practice engaged in spatial and temporal production; a practice that works in the midst of social, cultural, historical and political forces; a practice open to contingency, chance and change; a practice engaged with singularity and specificity.

SITUATION highlights ideas of ‘event’ and the eventful nature of interiors, lived space-time compositions in constant change; atmospheric compositions as distinct from artefacts; ephemerality; uniqueness; one-offs; a multiplicity of experience. The event aims to contribute to the discipline of interior design at an international level by focusing on these key characteristics of practice, the kinds of research this produces and through this articulates, fosters and advocates opportunities for future practice.