Arte textil

Arte textil (Textile shadows)

“Deepness taught me the other truth.
Thus, it reunited the sense and counter sense in me”
Carl Jung, Red Book, page 231.

The main part of the textile art history -linked to the framework of natural and/or synthetic fabric- has been referred to a category of “low art”, surely because of its female character (and all the gender connotations that it involves). However, the textile has taken force and validation in contemporary art since the second half of XX century and beyond, leaving behind those strong categories between low and high art. Partially, it occurred thanks to Anni Albers’s work (1899 Germany – 1994 USA), who was the first artist to exhibit a solo textile show at MoMA (NYC), in 1949.

Violeta Parra -on the other hand- did the same for our country, exhibiting her visual/musical artwork -with her burlap sacks- in the Decorative Arts Museum at the Louvre Palace (Paris), in 1964, becoming an ambassador of popular traditions.

The title of this collective show, Textile Shadows, recalls to shadows in many perspectives. On the one hand, the shadow as a counterpoint of light, that gives force to it and highlights its presence. An image without a shadow has a lack of structure and weight. Therefore, a shadow is necessary to generate contrast and complete an image. On the other hand, a shadow is also similar to what is hidden and veiled; thus,  it is not easy to identify it just at first glance… spontaneously, we see these shadows more clearly in the others than in ourselves.

In his phrase, Jung reminds us the complement between opposite poles –in this case, lights and shadows- for us to be developed in a whole way and then, be able of making conscious what is asleep and invisible.

Textile Shadows presents works that were born from the idea of bringing what is in our oneiric and intuitive field to our awareness. Thus, in Rocío’s pieces sewing, felt and other textile mediums and supports are present to create overlapping images, generating rough surfaces that activate tactile sensations. Beatrice configures images in patchwork with dyed fabrics by using the arashi/shibori technique, in order to produce a wide variety of visual textures, chromatic hues and configurational rhythms. My piece approach is mainly from colour and materiality in order to generate sensations linked to the skin. The opacity of the plastic makes the prints visible in the sewing and the pictorial gesture that participated in it.

Finally, Textile Shadows has been a way to illuminate our own shadows to observe at distance something that we cannot clarify from pure rationality.

Alejandra Rojas Contreras
July 2017