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Arts & Communication Textile agency in art

context of “material turn,” addressing the social life of
things, their narrative, and conversational capacities by
extending narratives to other entities and intertwining
humans and nonhumans.
6. The horizons of being

Textiles, as a medium of sensory thought, become a
conceptual tool that encourages a deeper exploration of
the interconnections between material agents and the
surrounding environment. Monika Žaltė’s recent work
reveals the relationship between humans and nature. Figure 7. Monika Žaltauskaitė Grašienė, Network. Digital Jacquard
The life-giving fabric connects living entities within weaving, 140 × 1100 cm, 2019. © Monika Žaltė.
Earth’s overall ecosystem. In her piece “Network” (2019)
(Figure 7), Monika Žaltėcon templates the commonality of
human and tree life, alluding to the symbolic significance
of the spruce tree in Lithuanian cultural tradition,
symbolizing the intersection of the worlds of the living
and the dead. The installation features a horizontal
tapestry created through Jacquard weaving, depicting a
spruce grove stretching between water and sky, existence
and nothingness, spruce needles, and a white shawl. The
spruce tree holds a special place in Lithuanian legends,
rituals, and meanings. Lithuanian folklore and fairy tales
assign special significance to the spruce tree, describing
it as a symbol of the profound archetypal experiences of
women. Finally, the spruce tree is used in a cloth woven
with a herringbone pattern (which translates literally
from Lithuanian as “little spruce tree”). The artist has
also incorporated “herringbone weaving” into her Figure 8. Monika Žaltauskaitė Grašienė, WWW. Women oWn Writing.
artwork, and while it may be a technological solution, it Digital Jacquard tapestry, 250 × 420 cm, 2022. © Monika Žaltė.
reflects an old cultural tradition and the experience of a
person embedded in nature, which is encoded in smart or moving away, the landscape transforms into a cosmic
archaic media. Indigenous cultures testify to an extremely vision composed of ornamental networks that encode and
deep connection between humans and living nature, recode the truth of existence. In one of the artist’s works,
contributing to what we now call ecological consciousness. the riverbeds merge like a network of veins into the world’s
web. The artist is engaged in networked narratives that lead
The challenges of today’s global world have given rise beyond the divisions separating culture from nature and
to an impulse to revisit the past, restoring the broken humanity from “inhumanity,” opening up new horizons of
links between humans and nature. Recent studies tend perceptual connectivity and maintenance.
to personalize trees, treating them as humans and
recognizing their crucial role in creating the atmosphere 7. Conclusion
and the networked fabric of our being . In response
[19]
to the climate crisis, contemporary art focuses on the In recent years, the humanities have focused on the life of
vital and creative powers of trees on their bio-intellect, matter and the matter of life, emphasizing the sensitivity of
engaging viewers in a form of “cosmic contemplation” and being and its networked fabric. Textiles, thereby, emerge
returning to archaic worldviews. In Žaltauskaitė Grašienė’s as a sensitive expression of our material fragility. Textile
oeuvre, the naturalness becomes a focus of the present. art has given rise to a distinctive textile philosophy and
The installation “Network,” exhibited at Gallery Gallery a metatextile discourse, encompassing all the surfaces,
in Kyoto in 2019, inaugurates a new phase, the “Horizons” fabrics, and textures that surround us. This art form
series. When looking at the tapestry “WWW. Women oWn presents multiple conceptual and poetic metaphors of
Writing” (2022) (Figure 8), one’s gaze follows the horizon the pleats of matters: the textility of the body, the social
line, where the sky merges with the water. However, as fabric, memory, everyday experiences, and practices. It is a
one changes one’s angle of vision by either approaching specific philosophy expressed through in-depth cognition

Volume 1 Issue 2 (2023) 10 https://doi.org/10.36922/ac.1867