Arts / Visual Poetry

Repeat Pattern Tracey Diggins

Much to my father’s disappointment
I was never any good at maths.
I didn’t find it of any interest
until I met you
and discovered that
we were two circles
touching…

MATHS and Metaphors
An image of a random pattern of different sized black and red dots.

About the project

The mathematical concept of a repeating pattern is the building block of all mathematics. A simple definition of a repeating pattern is that it is a cyclical repetition of an identifiable core. The core is the shortest string of elements that repeat. The elements of a pattern repeat in a predictable manner. Understanding repeating patterns is a precursor to understanding and learning to deduce what comes next, which part is repeating and which part is missing. Could it also be a metaphor for the human condition?

REPEAT PATTERN by Tracey Diggins is designed to be both viewed and read. It is poetry in motion and memoir. It plays with both meaning and design. It mixes the conventional arrangement of words with numbers, shapes and symbols. Sometimes it resembles concrete poetry where the words form shapes to illustrate subjects and feelings. The typography conveys a verbal significance. The arrangement of the words creates a visual art object. At other times it more closely resembles visual poetry where visual elements are introduced alongside the words to convey or extend meaning. And occasionally the words are left unadorned to speak for themselves as if there is really no more that can be said.

It is an exploration of the themes of love, loss, friendship and desire. Written and shaped over 20 years, this collection of poems is on the one hand a very personal story with a unique set of circumstances. Just a dot and a dash in the history of time and human experience — one person’s pattern or mark amongst a world of seemingly infinite patterns. And yet could one person’s pattern perhaps also be a universal pattern? And does that pattern repeat?

Tracey is one of the team of directors of OUTSIDE THE BOX / Earth Arts Rights. She wonders whether making and breaking patterns might just be her life’s work.

Publication

OUTSIDE THE BOX / Earth Arts Rights is publishing REPEAT PATTERN by Tracey Diggins under our imprint ‘An Artist’s Own Book’.

This small format 140mm × 205mm [portrait], bespoke publication is hard case (amethyst Wibalin), quarter bound with fine red linen, three foils and die cut intrusion, debossed pattern and section sewn with red stitching. Printed in black and rich red throughout, 232 pages on a fully certified FSC uncoated paper stock plus 2-page parchment Glama Perga insert, yellow gilded exposed edges to protect from light, dust and moisture. Like the human heart, this book has been designed to be a cherished object. You will want to hold it with care.

Designed by Warner Design / Lynda Warner / Tracey Diggins.

Selected poems were first published in Book No. 111, The People’s Library, © Justy Phillips & Margaret Woodward, A Published Event, Hobart 2018.

Pre-orders for REPEAT PATTERN are now open with delivery scheduled for the end of March 2025. All proceeds from the sale of REPEAT PATTERN will be used in the development and delivery of OUTSIDE THE BOX / Earth Arts Rights projects.

A black and white portrait image of Tracey Diggins with her face turned slightly in profile. She has short, spiky grey hair and is wearing large-framed black reading glasses.
An image of the Repeat Pattern book, showing the book standing up and partly open. The cover has a purple coloured hard case with a yellow foil square, an aqua blue foil triangle and a die-cut red hole. The spine of the book is bound with red linen and the exposed edges of the pages are yellow gilded.
An image of two double-paged spreads for the book, with red and black type and red and black graphic elements.

Pre-Order REPEAT PATTERN

Pre-orders for REPEAT PATTERN are now open.
DELIVERY: END OF MARCH 2025

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Pre-order

Images by Lynda Warner