Page 63 - AC-1-2

Arts & Communication Textile agency in art

like a curtain, neither liquid nor solid, to be sure, but sacred or multi-sensory metaphors. In 2007, Žaltauskaitė
participating in both conditions. Pliable, tearable, Grašienė completed her postgraduate studies in Vilnius,
stretchable. topological” . focusing on the history of Jacquard weaving and the new
[6]
Textiles, as a sensory metaphor for fibrous and networked possibilities of its artistic expression, as revealed in her
life, have also been proposed by other philosophers (Michel series “Skin Paintings.” She became a “pioneer of computer
[8]
Foucault, Gilles Deleuze, Félix Guattari, Tim Ingold, Jacquard in Lithuania and a virtuoso of this technique,”
Geert Lovink) , who have emphasized their inherent perfecting the specific method of digital image transfer to
4
mediality. This quality allows us to detect the related or the fabric. The complex weaving system requires mathematical
indeterminate, the state of movement or change. Textiles calculation and spatial network perception. In her words,
have thus become a significant metaphorical concept. Jacquard weaving is like building an image with threads.
Sometimes, it is necessary to use three-dimensional
Žaltauskaitė Grašienė, as an artist, participates in this images to perceive what is happening inside the fabric or
“textile discourse.” Materiality is one of the fundamental on its surface. The Jacquard machine allows technological
driving forces behind her work. She admits: “I perceive control over every thread of the warp and is considered a
matter as an existing and imaginary state; it can be defined pioneer of modern programming, a precursor of the digital
as something more than a system of natural sciences. The era that has evoked metaphors of the communication
old Lithuanian dialect word “materiolas,” which refers network. Perhaps this is why in Žaltauskaitė Grašienė’s
to handmade fabric, aptly describes the textiles that work, which is based on Jacquard weaving, the motifs
encompass women’s life experiences and visions. Textiles depicted appear as if in a matrix, linking the weaving
are one of humanity’s oldest forms of material expression, pattern to the language of digital codes. Several themes
encoding a whole perception of the world”(personal and cycles could be distinguished in her work, integrating
communication). into a connective metatextile narrative. These themes and
It was textile artist Laima Oržekauskienė who cycles include issues of the body, identity, memory, and
5
encouraged Žaltauskaitė Grašienėto study textiles at becoming, bringing out various metaphors of fabric and
the Vilnius Academy of Arts, Kaunas Faculty, where she the agentic forces of material.
created a distinctive school of conceptual textiles . This 2. Living matter
[7]
school has fostered respect for the tradition of weaving as a
spiritual value and an attitude toward textiles as a dynamic, The theme of corporeality, exploring the relationship
changing medium (attracting and involving other media). between skin and cloth, body and clothing, organic and
The threads of personal experiences and subtle observations inorganic fabric, as well as living and non-living matter,
of everyday life in the work of its representatives are has captivated the interest of many contemporary artists
woven into a broad fabric of art, cultural history, or in various aspects. In her series “Generations” (2005) and
social existence, elevating life relationships to the level of “Skin Pictures” (2007) (Figure 1), Žaltauskaitė Grašienė
also delved into the depths of meaning found in the surface
4 The following works have contributed to the development of the body and the texture of life and living matter. The fold
of textile philosophy in different aspects: Michel Foucault,
Les mots et les choses (1966); Gilles Deleuze, Felix Guattari,
A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia (1980),
Gilles Deleuze, The Fold: Leibniz & the Baroque (1988), Tim
In gold, The Textility of Making (2010), Geert Lovink, Dark
Fiber (2002).
5 Laima Oržekauskienė-Ore (born 1959), while heading the
Department of Textiles at the Kaunas Facultyof Vilnius
Academy of Arts from 1996 to 2007, established a conceptual
textile school. This school is represented by outstanding
artists such as Almyra Bartkevičiūtė-Weigel, Vita Gelūnienė,
Lina Jonikė, Inga Likšaitė, Loreta Švaikauskienė, Rasma
Noreikytė, to name just a few. These artists have perfected
individual styles within the “expanded” field of textile art. In
1997, following the example of the Lausanne Biennale, she
initiated a textile biennale in Kaunas. Oržekauskienė’s works
encode feminine experiences, connecting postmodernity to Figure 1. Monika Žaltauskaitė Grašienė (Žaltė), Skin pictures.
archaism, personal life to cultural history, thereby entangling Computerized Jacquard weaving, 150 × 70 cm, 5 parts, 2007. © Monika
performative networks of meanings. Žaltė.

Volume 1 Issue 2 (2023) 3 https://doi.org/10.36922/ac.1867