The Entangled State. What direction is contemporary textile art going in today?

The Central Museum of Textiles in Łódź is hosting an exhibition as part of the 17th International Triennial of Tapestry. This year’s staging of the competition was held under unusual circumstances. Recent years have brought significant changes and challenges, such as the pandemic, and war taking place right outside Poland’s border. These events affected the selection of the theme of the 17th edition of the Triennial, and can be found in numerous works showcased in the exhibition. 

The title of this year’s edition is ‘Entangled State’. The slogan had been selected before the contest was announced, in 2021, and is derived from quantum physics. It is interesting to note that about two weeks before the opening night of the exhibition, physicists researching the quantum entanglement of photons were awarded the Nobel Prize. 

Since the previous edition, the leitmotif is the key element of not only the competition, but also the exhibition itself. According to curator Marta Kowalewska a display without a theme is only a collection of works, not an exhibition. The leitmotif contributed to transforming this review of artistic textiles into a fully-fledged art exhibition, presenting issues which are currently of interest to the selected artists. The entire exhibition was divided into four thematic blocks, called; ‘The Civilised’, ‘Represented States’, ‘Rootedness’, and ‘Horizons of Reality’.

Sources of civilisation 

The theme which most strongly resounds at the beginning of the exhibition is war. The artists refer to current and future armed conflicts. As you enter the exhibition, the first thing we can see is an installation entitled ‘Tears That Solidify and Blood That Doesn’t Clot’ by Ukrainian artist Vasylyna Buryanyk. The piece consists of e two aquariums filled with a solution of salt in which textiles are arranged in a way which imitates human skin layers. In one of the aquariums, metal plates are placed on the surface layer of the fabric, rusting in contact with salt, while the other aquarium is covered with a net on which salt crystals are forming. The processes taking place in the aquarium illustrate a state of despair and helplessness. The textiles were used here in a non-obvious way, as physical matter symbolising biological tissue.

Another piece relating to the same subject matter is ‘Heavy’ by Andi Arnovitz. The artist evokes the tragedy of Syria stricken by the civil war in 2011. Rings symbolising people who died were sewn to a black shroud. The physical weight of the work is a metaphor, and the scale of the loss deprives the viewers of any sense of peace.

The first part of the exhibition might give the impression that our civilisation is based on war. However, in the next part we also could identify pieces which take up the topic of shelter and safety, with motifs associated with home. There are two intertwining theories answering the question of what civilisation really is. Being ‘civilised is, on the one hand, the human ability to conduct armed conflicts, and on the other hand, it means the use of tools for caring and ensuring security. A tent might be seen as an object which provides protection or even a semblance of security, and it is presented in Katarina Weslien’s work entitled ‘Night Tent’ or ‘Security Blanket’ by Jennifer Smith-Windsor.

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Longing for childhood

‘Represented States’ is an attempt to show memory and related experience and emotions. The motif of home can be found in gold medal winner Moumita Basak’s work (untitled). It is not a shelter, but a place where you are locked, even trapped inside. Through the windows, we can observe women who are busy doing house chores. We can’t see the expressions on their faces, but one of them seems to be looking out a window with longing. Below we can see children playing light-heartedly amidst plants, free and in close contact with nature. The artist comes from India and in the area of the country where she lives, women are usually forbidden to leave their house on their own. They are stuck in houses, just like snippets and pieces of fabric hidden in the corners, returning in their minds to their carefree childhoods. As the curator has emphasised, the work does not shout out to viewers, it is not conspicuous, but encourages us to contemplate. It fits in the increasingly visible trend to notice and appreciate female artists representing various fields of art– particularly from outside the European cultural sphere.

On the ground and under the ground

The part called ‘Rootedness’ includes works which demonstrate that from a wider perspective, the entire planet is our home. The current climate change may turn some places into a space where life is impossible. The uncertain future has made artists take a close look at humanity, which is part of the global network of inter-species connections. We belong to a complex ecosystem in which plants and animals are on a par with humans, and the animated world transcends the inanimate world. The artists notice the network of connections between species, and even the relationships between living beings and mystical ones. There are worlds hidden from our sight in mythologies and beliefs. The piece by Małgorzata Markiewicz, called ‘Pimoa Cthulhu’, depicts an underground world built as a network of links which gives life to anything over ground. Life as well as death also takes place within this system. Dead leaves and animals give life to beings that are above the ground. 

The degradation of the natural environment is caused by human intervention, and some artists are trying to draw our attention to possible solutions. Tanyu Lu’s ‘30 x 30 Initiative’ is a design of a dress made of recycled materials, inspired by coral which is disappearing due to pollution in the sea. In her work entitled ‘The Wave’, Maria Ortega draws our attention to water as a source of green energy, whose generation would be a chance to stop the impact of the climate catastrophe.

Between crafts and technology

Fabric is increasingly becoming a medium which has its place in various artistic phenomena. It is no longer treated only as handicraft, but one of numerous possibilities for artistic expression, especially for younger artists. Through textiles, they touch upon such issues as the boundaries between the real and the virtual worlds, which is the subject-matter of one of the exhibition’s sections called ‘Horizons of Reality’.

The piece by Katje Felle, ‘Stop — Sew — Reset’, awarded the bronze medal, presents the moment when a computer error occurs. A screenshot of a frozen digital image has been recreated as a tapestry, so that a traditional technique is combined with modernity.  The tension between the temporariness of the image on a computer screen and the long-lasting nature of its image made of fabric can also be understood as the tension between the young generation freely moving around the digital world, and the difficulties in the use of digital solutions which elderly persons encounter. The way the work has been created is also a vital context – it is a joint work by the participants of a project at the Intergenerational Center Ravne in Slovenia.

The silver medal went to Zhanna Petrenko for her work entitled ‘Shroud of Insecurity’, which is also an attempt to transfer a digital image into a tangible object. To the artist, weaving a computer graphics pattern with the use of traditional techniques was an experiment during which she observed how the image was changing and how she herself was changing. 

Context and direction

‘Horizons of reality’ also entail various approaches to the medium of fabric, often in relation to the context in which they function in different regions. Karo Apokiere from Nigeria primarily uses drawing to express his views, combining it with various other techniques to tell both personal and political stories through his works. His tapestry entitled ‘Nigerian Mystic Visa Temple’ balances at the borderline between fine arts and graphic design, drawing inspiration from satire and the language of advertising. To Aoi Tashiro from Japan, weaving is a personal experience. Her work, ‘Self-Portrait I II III’ is an attempt to confront herself. Using receipts, she created the story of everyday consumption, taking a close look at her habits.

The selection of 54 pieces into the exhibition from among nearly 500 submissions was surely a difficult task. While making the selection and deciding on the awards, the jury members not only tried to pay attention to the contents but also asked why the artist used textiles. As the curator Marta Kowalewska stressed: ‘I wanted to show the contemporary direction of textile art’.

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17th International Triennal of Tapestry, Łódź 2022

8.10.2022-15.04.2023

Curator: Marta Kowalewska
Production: Aleksandra Kmiecik
Exhibition Design: CENTRALA (Simone De Iacobis, Małgorzata Kuciewicz)
Visual identity, graphic design of the exhibition: Łukasz Paluch, AnoMalia art studio
Medal design: Malwina Konopacka

Venue: Central Museum of Textiles in Łódź, Poland

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