William Morris and the insurgency of ornament

textile erasure, labor, and material memory

Abstract

This article offers a critical rereading of William Morris’s work in light of the notion of textile erasure, understood as the historical marginalization of knowledge related to ornamental surfaces, manual crafts and non-hegemonic visual practices, often associated with domestic space, women’s labor and everyday making. Based on the analysis of his writings and patterns, the article examines how the author challenges historically constructed dichotomies such as art and utility, ornament and structure, labor and expression, and proposes, through ornament, a visual language grounded in meaningful repetition, manual gesture and the symbolic inscription of experience. His critique of industrialization goes beyond the denunciation of material labor conditions: it proposes another form of existence more sensitive, slower, and more rooted in the temporal dignity of processes. By repositioning ornament as visual thought and craftsmanship as both aesthetic and political practice, Morris anticipates key discussions in contemporary surface design. In this context, concepts such as those proposed by Ada Schwartz, which define surface as representational, constitutional and relational, help to deepen the relevance of his thinking. It is argued that his surfaces still speak: they tell stories, organize perception and offer forms of resistance to the sensorial erasure that pervades the present.