Celtic Ornament no. 2. Interlaced styles 

Editor: This is “Celtic Ornament no. 2. Interlaced styles" by Owen Jones. It looks like a page of carefully drawn patterns, perhaps a print of textile designs. I'm immediately struck by how meticulously detailed they are! What do you see in this piece? Curator: It's an image steeped in cultural memory. The interlace is potent, speaking of cycles, connections, and continuities cherished across Celtic and even pre-Celtic cultures. Consider how this visual language persists. Jones likely draws from illuminated manuscripts, yes? But those manuscripts draw from metalwork, from standing stones, all echoing older cosmologies. Do you sense how these repeating forms perform a kind of cultural anchoring? Editor: Absolutely! There's something reassuring about them. It’s as if the artists are building on this pre-existing vocabulary to transmit tradition across generations. So, it is not new then? Curator: Precisely. It’s the skillful negotiation between continuity and novelty. New contexts and new expressions are layered upon established forms, reinforcing a community’s visual identity across time. Do you see specific motifs echoing in modern design today? Editor: Yes, now that you mention it, I notice elements appearing in contemporary tattoos or jewelry, design that echoes tradition but lives again! Curator: A powerful testimony to visual resilience! I wonder if these ornamentations are less "decorative" than we assume. Maybe they carry stories and codes that the intended viewers intimately knew. Editor: It makes me rethink patterns not as mere surface design, but loaded visual communication. I'm going to look at those knotworks differently now!