1972

 Lithuania / Germany

 4 MILION_PORT. 2011. Foam, video. Installation

Behind most of my performative works there are videoperformances created outdoors without the presence of an audience. I prefer the endless space of nature: fields, seashore or a sandy desert- surroundings where the human body loses its own dimensions and extends. Natural influences such as wind, light and shade, mould and form my work, as well.

Working with the foam, I use body-oriented large-scale mats: even as the empty surfaces they imply the absence of the human body. Generally, I associate the foam surface with the skin…

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CHUNGHIE LEE

South Corea

NO-NAME WOMEN. 2011. Installation

Chunghie Lee is a textile artist and writer who lectures at universities in Seoul, Korea and abroad, including Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) in the USA and Evtek Institute of Art & Design in Finland. She received her BFA and MFA degrees from Hongik University in Seoul, Korea and was a Fulbright Exchange Scholar at Rhode Island School of Design in 1994. Here she showed the traditional bojagi (bo-ja-ki) technique which she employs for her artwork.

When Chunghie Lee set out to teach her first bojagi course outside Korea during the…

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Ainsley Hillard

1987
United Kingdom

TRACES. 2008. Audio and textile installation

The audio-textile installation “Traces” by Welsh textile artist Ainsley Hillard utilises traditional aspects of textiles along with sophisticated digital software. This work was made in November 2008 and consists of ten to fifteen hand-woven structures that create an ensemble, suspended in space together with digital surround sound effects which acts as a theatrical event. The visual, the tactile and the audio converge to create a multi-layered sensory experience.

Interested in making connections between the past and the present, most of Ainsley Hillard’s creative output to date has been in the…

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LIA COOK
USA

born in 1942, studied at the University of California, Berkeley, and received her MA in Art and Design in 1973. From 1976 to date she has worked as a Professor of Art at the California College of Arts in Oakland, USA. Lia Cook has been represented in many exhibitions, to name but a few: Lausanne Biennial (1989 and 1992), Kyoto International Textile Competition (1989 and 1992), Craft Today USA (travelling exhibition, 1992); “Design Life Now, National Design Triennial”, Cooper-Hewitt Museum, New York, 2006; “From Lausanne to Beijing” International Fiber Art Biennial, Gold Award, Beijing, China, 2008.

Crossing…

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1959

Lithuania

WOMEN IN THEIR FIFTIES. PYTHIAS

Oeuvre of Laima Oržekauskienė unfolds through giving carefully considered sense to ritual and attention to origins and traditions of the phenomenon which enables deeper knowledge. The artist interprets a ritual as well as implements it. She identifies herself with the ritual as she weaves millimetre by millimetre. In solitude. Week after week. Every single detail of the image she weaves is meaningful – motif, pattern, technique, material. In her artwork the artist employs rich heritage of global culture and seeks for codes that affirm feminine entity or invents them…

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USA

ETYMON. 2010. Cotton, Jacquard viewing. 300 x 1500 cm.

CYNTHIA SCHIRA has been exhibiting for over 40 years and is one of the most influential figures in the world of contemporary textiles. She has been using computerised looms since 1983 to create complex woven textile structures and was one of the first textile artists to fully appreciate the potential of computerisation for the handweaver. Cynthia Schira received the Gold Medal from the College of Fellows of the American Craft Council in 2000 in recognition of her lifetime achievement and an Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts…

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Lithuania, Germany

1964

METAMORPHOSIS OF MY WORK or HOW SPAGHETTI TURNED INTO CABLE. 2010-2011. Installation

In the beginning was the wish, my wish to create filigree structures. These structures should be fragile, flexible and graceful. Spaghetti seemed to me to be an outstanding material to be transformed into such delicate structures.

In the end they were too delicate indeed and therefore in the tale of the formation of my works those spaghetti structures cannot be presented anymore as a real work of art; now they only appear as a precious reminiscence of that distant beginning.

But at…

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HIROKO WATANABE

Japan

RED CLOTH’S MOVEMENT. Linen, cotton, wire, metal yarn, handwoven. 132 x 93 x 19 cm

I selected this piece from a project entitled “Aka no shiriizu” (Red Series). I’ve always been totally captivated by the material properties of textiles, and I’m especially drawn to red, a mysterious colour that embodies both yang and yin, the opposed male and female principles in East Asian cosmology. I decided to see what happened if I tried to combine and draw out the amazing strength of fabric and the magical power of red, working with threads coloured an extreme scarlet…

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1955

USA

EVERYTHING BUT MEMORY. BABA. 2010. Merino wool, hand wet felted. 620 x 580 cm

This story is real and personal, but universal. Lou was adopted. For many years, he tried to figure out who his real parents were, but without success. In time, Lou finally gave up trying. Surprisingly, the developments of modern science have made it possible to uncover his secret in an absolutely amazing way. The answer was buried in his blood, or, to be more precise, in the molecules of his DNA.

It appears our blood is a time machine where the greatest…

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SILJA PURANEN

1961

Finland

The focus of my works is in the unforeseen process of life and the contrast between reality and the commonly accepted ideals in life. What do we (or others) expect our life to be and what are the chances of those who do not meet the norms? What happens when we lose control?

I use found materials, textiles with a history. I transfer digitally manipulated photograph on the worn-out surface, stitch and embroider. My works combine contemporary technology with traditional slow handicraft. Hard and soft. The second hand domestic textiles represent home, shelter, memory, body and…

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1969

Lithuania

THE HUNT OF THE UNICORN. 2010-2011. Tapestry, classic gobelin weaving

This work, which was developed over a period of three years, is influenced by those tapestries produced during the high period of textile (XV-XVI c.). Their unifying feature is a pattern of flowers called mille-fleurs and a Unicorn, an image that went into decline during the Renaissance. I borrowed the title of my work from a set of tapestries – „The Hunt of the Unicorn“(1495–1505), Southern Netherlands(?). The set of seven tapestries depicts a dramatic capture of the Unicorn. The woven story reveals passion, pain,…

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Lithuania / Germany

1972

WOMAN REMAKE. 2011. Embroidery, installation for choreography

When invited together with choreographers to take part in a collaborative program PLAY, my attention was drawn towards a notion of movement as such, and the perception of it as a trace or shape of time. I see it as an origami of time, which might be folded, and when refolded in a different way, a new content might be obtained (reference to Deleuze). Substance is changing when remade many times, but new patterns evolve.

For the installation, which is going to work as a stage…

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Sweden

FOR A BODY. 2010-2011. Tapestry and the installation created during the collaboration with students

My contribution to Kaunas Biennial TEXTILE ’11, the tapestry Definitely Gold, shows a body, a dressed up person, surrounded by decorative and beautiful things, ornaments, flowers, gold and thin layers of colours. Things I have appreciated since childhood and in this work decided to recognize.

I will now tell you another story about what I treasure. It’s about my students.

My assignment as Visiting Professor in Textile Art at HDK, School of Design & Crafts at The University of Gothenburg,…

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MIN-TZU CHAO

1983
Taiwan

DOUBLE HAPPINESS – the wedding dresses of Taiwanese women from 1900 to present. 2010–2011. Digital print on papeR

Women’s feeling about love and marriage expressed through pattern. ”Women are made not born”. Simone de Beauvoir

A map not only shows geographical locations, but also tells stories. Symbols are used extensively in a map in order to convey information and to achieve visual communication. In this project, modern symbolism is used to interpret times in which Taiwanese women in four generations were born, lived and married. It seeks to understand the life experiences of Taiwanese women in a…

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EGLĖ GANDA BOGDANIENĖ

1962

Lithuania
IMAGINATIONS. 2011. Installation

It is a cycle of textile works about women (could be about men, as well) fantasies, which main focus is – desire to be loved and to love. Often we do realize that we are not living the perfect life we always dreamt about, but we do not dare to face that we are simply unhappy; we lack a clear motive and courage to change ourselves and the environment around us. Then the ambition to become part of this imaginary perfect life moves to lace of fantasies, that come from personal experiences, read…

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1975

Lithuania

BREATH. 2010. Cotton, polyester, computerised Jacquard weaving. Installation. 2 x (300 x 300 cm). Implemented in JSC “Audėjas”

My story started when my son was born in 2007. I spent long time in hospital and then I was walking in corridors … it was the time of continuous waiting. Then I started to think how to stop this most important moment in our lives and make pictures about childbirth. Six families agreed to participate in my project. The photographs of the new born babies are woven in a computer jacquard technique. I find it important…

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KATIE WAUGH

1983

USA

COLLECTED SUGGESTIONS. 2010. Graphite on paper, digital video & sound. Installation

This work tells the story of contemporary American political and institutional discourse. I am drawn to the subtly iconic cultural habits that shape social and political interaction by the very fact of their quietude, repetition, and widespread acceptance. My work seeks to understand material expressions of authority, propriety and identity within the context of the countless meetings, summits, and hearings at which life-changing decisions are made.

There emerges a pattern of pomp and tradition expressed through the material objects and interior architecture of places of…

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1978

Japan

RED SCENERY. 2010.

Wool, tapestry. 195 x 400 cm

The fibre is near oneself; it has power to heal the person and to relax. The tapestry, having a painting element, has played an important role in passing on the content. The mindscape described in the theme “Red Scenery” is expressed by weaving. The lycoris is an interesting plant. It is beautiful on the outside, eerie on the inside, and toxic. In addition, there is a superstition that a fire might start if the lycoris is brought into the house. People also show different sides of…

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1955

South Corea

ORIGINAL FORM. 2008. Various fabrics, sewing. Installation

When I suffered extreme hardships in my life, my needlework enabled me to regain stability and gave me a chance to meditate on my life and myself. While I was sewing, which required all my attentiveness, I kept asking the ultimate reasons of my pain, agony, anxiety, and despair.

Now my husband in heaven, but he has been sick for 20 years because of combination illness of diabetes. While he struggled against to disease his was atrophied, not only physically but also mentally. To try…

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TILLEKE SCHWARZ

1946

The Netherlands

PURR CHASE AND FREE RECOVERY. 2008–2010.

Hand embroidery with all kind of threads on linen.

All my works are part of a continuing story, a personal reflection on modern life. Inspiration comes from daily life, mass media and from the sampler tradition. I include anything that moves, amazes or intrigues me. This results in a subtle comment on our modern society. “Real life is often more strange than fantasy”.

Purr Chase 2009

The title “Purr chase” is constructed of purring, purchasing and chasing. Purchasing (shopping) seems to be the most popular leisure activity,…

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