LAZNIA 2 2014 - Festival Vilnus in Gdansk
Art vs. Design?
5.09.2014 - 26.10.2014
Textile Self-reflections
Artists: Eglė Bogdanienė, Lina Jonikė, Kazimieras Inčirauskas, Severija Inčirauskaitė-Kriaunevičienė, Egidijus and Remigijus Praspaliauskas (Mother Eleganza), Monika Žaltauskaitė-Grašienė, Aleksandra Glušinaitė.
Curator: Severija Inčirauskaitė-Kriaunevičienė
Artifex textile gallery of the Vilnius Academy of Arts
Perhaps one of the most pressing textile-related issues at the moment is its formal function – does it belong in the sphere of art or design? This uncertainty has provided the conceptual basis and the title of one of the project's parts, Art vs Design?. Yet the objective of this exhibition is not to provide an unambiguous answer, but instead the very opposite: to demonstrate the possible pointlessness of this question. The question mark in the end of the title is not accidental, because the works of some artists ignore the formal criteria that set apart the notions of art and design, and thus resist being pigeonholed. The exhibition intentionally presents textile works which can be classified as both art and design. They can be very artistic functional objects of a distinctive design on the one hand and works of art with an emerging functional capacity on the other. Many of the works presented in this part of project have been exhibited both in contemporary art exhibitions and at design fairs or contests. Paradoxically, even though interdisciplinarity is obviously dominant in contemporary art, on the institutional level (in museums and art schools) the formal distinctions still survive.
The presented project Textile Self-reflections was organised in co-operation with Vilnius based gallery Artifex. The textile gallery not only presents most recent works by Lithuanian and foreign artists, but also reflects on the key current issues related to the art of textile itself. Although the latter is the main strand of Artifex gallery's activity, it is not associated solely with yarn or other textile fibers. The gallery often presents artists who employ textile as their material in the broadest sense: i. e., the very information about textile can become the filament used for creative work.
Eglė Ridikaitė
Dziedzictwo. Granny’s Scarf/ Babutas skarialas
Textile self-reflections
Curator: Severija Inčirauskaitė-Kriaunevičienė
Artifex textile gallery of the Vilnius Academy of Arts
Among the more intriguing Lithuanian artists is Eglė Ridikaitė who takes a consistent approach to exploring the esthetics of everyday life.
The cycle of 17 works entitled “Heritage. Granny’s Scarf” (Palikimas. Babutas skarialas) combines the vulnerability of personal experience with the urban forms of expression. The author uses spray aerosol paint on canvas, a technique she has mastered very well. Capturing imagery typical of the artist’s work such as outdated and culturally worn-out pieces of furniture reminiscent of the Soviet era, everyday utensils and domestic life details, this time the author is not trying to avoid personal relationship with the portrayed objects either. However, this is not a monotonous glimpse at the homely atmosphere surrounding us every day but rather an attempt to capture childhood memories. Colorful and plain scarves for festive occasions or daily wear were always held in the grandma’s coffer. Every day women would wear a different scarf based on a particular occasion, whether it is a trip to the market place, to the village to visit relatives or to the garden: the texts in local dialects below each of the art piece paints a scene of a domestic rural life. Day after day, year after year, scarves remain an integral part of their rituals. E. Ridikaitė not only recreates textile patterns but also highlights its physical characteristics: more practical scarves that had shrunk from washing are portrayed as smaller, meanwhile the perfectly mastered painting technique imitates the worn out edges of the fabric.
The cycle is a curious mix of contrasts. A conceptual technique akin to graffiti and a silicon-coated canvas without a stretcher create an ironic contrast to a painting object. This creates a picture of familiar country-style scarves (perhaps hand-made as well?). On the other hand, they are exhibited in a bold manner without the unnecessary shyness: they alone are the single object of a considerably sized painting, hanging in a grey cozy space typical of E. Ridikaitė’s works. Speaking of the handiwork, the theme of the cycle offers subtle but telling hints about the everyday life of the woman from a little town.
The artist crossed paths with the VDA textile gallery during the launch of Eglė’s latest cycle of works entitled “Heritage. Granny’s Scarf (Lith. Palikimas. Babutas skarialas) at the international art fair “ArtVilnius’14” (E. Ridikaitė won the Best Artist’s award). A subtle synthesis between painting and textile embodied in this work reflects the main goal of the gallery to raise public awareness about the artists who engage in create textile applications (the textile in its broad sense, i. e. not only as a piece of fabric but also as information about it).
BIP