Blood on Silk: Surgery by Fiona Davies , is a multi panel woven work that will be installed in the foyer of the Science Building at Macquarie University in the near future.

This work references the predominance of code as the preferred way of seeing or understanding complex situations and concepts. The diagonal red and white stripe of the Barber’s pole indicated the location of a surgeon. Bandages red with blood were wrapped around the white pole to form the marker of the trade in leech craft and bloodletting.

Distortions of this simple striped code reflecting the position of the viewer as well as breakdowns and manipulations into more contemporary code such as the QR code raise questions of when such a code can still be read with the original meaning and when the distortions are so significant that the meaning is unintelligble.