ABSTRACT
This chapter identifies representations of assimilation between the patterned surface and subject in film and visual art. It presents biographical research on Florence Broadhurst and Jim Thompson, proposing that in their separate ways they were drawn to design patterns because they each needed to occupy the inherent concealing properties. The chapter returns to film and visual art to further analyse this occupation of the patterned surface. It focuses on the fictional character Candy from the Australian film of the same name, and the work of Australian body illustrator Emma Hack and her simulated assimilation of the body into surface. The pattern as a living element draws the subject in for a close encounter and is an agent through which the subject can come to terms with their material existence and the physical environment. The chapter investigates both filmic and visual art, where the subject is both literally and metaphorically assimilated with the surface.
