Animism. Design with the soul.

“The animal world will keep invading and transforming the life of humans represented in a more abstract and less narrative manner.
Fibre and plant are becoming dominant materials animated by organic form and skeleton structures”.

“Primitive matter and organic shapes will embody a need of man longing for a more meaningful and ritualistic relationship with earth and the elements.
Resulting in a revival of animism.
Therefore designers create brut and raw shapes that resemble totemic termite mounds, honeycomb shape, spider web laces and timber structures”.

“Can design have a soul and therefore be animated?”

I have mentioned Li Edelkoort some years ago in one of my posts here and now came across her words again when Irit shared it. There’s so much of the truth and purity in her words about trends (that we already see today!) which echo so well with my own inner feelings and believes.

And the whole trend report of her is so well worth reading:

“Post Fossil - excavating 21st century creation by Lee Edelkoort 2011
Time has come for extreme change
Society is ready to break away from last century for good.
To break with creative conventions, theoretic rules and stigmas that now are questioned, challenged and broken.
To break with a materialistic mentality replacing it with the crafted materialization of modest earth-bound and recomposed matter.
In the aftermath of the worst financial crisis in decades, a period of glamorous and streamlined design for design's sake come to an end.
A new generation of designers retrace their roots, refine their earth and research their history, sometimes going back to the beginning of time.
In this process, they form and formulate design around natural and sustainable materials, favoring timber, hide, pulp, fibre, earth and fire.
Like contemporary cavemen, they reinvent shelter, redesign tools and manmade machines, and conceptualize archaic rituals for a more modest, content and contained lifestyle.
Like a Fred Flintstone of the future.
The animal world will keep invading and transforming the life of humans represented in a more abstract and less narrative manner.
fibre and plant are becoming dominant materials animated by organic form and skeleton structures.
Our relationship with all living organisms is at stake. Therefore humans will share and care for each other.
Soon the world will discover that we are all family.
Ecology and sustainability will no longer be enough.
Primitive matter and organic shapes will embody a need of man longing for a more meaningful and ritualistic relationship with earth and the elements.
Resulting in a revival of animism.
Therefore designers create brut and raw shapes that resemble totemic termite mounds, honeycomb shape, spider web laces and timber structures; at times incorporating biotechnology into the making process to inspire design systems for the future.
Nature is a dominant ingredient in this movement, although no longer used in a naive and aspiring ecological language, but as a mature philosophy fit for newer age. Raising the questions that need to be raised.
Can we do with less to become more?
Can design have a soul and therefore be animated?
Can man find a more meaningful way to consume?
Can we break with the past and reinvent the future?
In general, materials will be matte and humble, however the earth and its hidden riches also invites this generation to employ minerals, alloys and crystals; adding lustre and sometimes even sheen to fossil-like concepts and constructions.
Laquered and polished surfaces are enhancing vegabond finds, unveiling their raw beauty while questioning the survival of the world's economy.
At times these designs will echo the essence of the arte povera movement which is bound to make a revival – soon”

Lidewij Edelkoort

A view from above

 

my landscape

 

“I still can’t find any better definition for the word Art, than this. Nature, Reality, Truth, but with a significance, a conception, and a character which the artist brings out in it and to which he gives expression, which he disentangles and makes free”. (Vincent van Gogh)

 

P.S. I found this quotation in a book “Abstract Earth. A View from Above” by Richard Woldendorp – a collection of photographs of Australian landscapes. The book was a gift from a wonderful feltmakers’ group FeltWest in Perth where I was giving workshops. I was doing a slide show on the first night there and shared my passion for landscapes that I create in felt, and they were good listeners – gave me a most wonderful book of landscapes that will be my big inspiration when I return.

Books

There were couple of books on feltmaking published recently that included images of my felt pieces as well.

One was a very big project I would say - “500 Felt Objects” published by Lark Books.

 

First it strikes you with the versatility of what the felt can be – it is really an enormous collection of various felt pieces in different forms – from tiny crafts to art objects. Endless applications and the most diverse techniques that one ever dreamt of fulfilling or would be so much surprised to discover in this book.

 

  My "Wild Pigeon" in "500 Felt Objects"

 

 

  My "Iris Wattii" in "500 Felt Objects"

 

 

The other thing that strikes you is when you think that all of these works were collected for review in the very beginning of 2010, i.e. almost 2 years ago, and then you think what big path all those feltmakers have already travelled in their creative expressions since that time and how astonishing it must be to see all of their works at this moment.

It’s a beautiful gallery book for people who are interested in felt as a textile medium. The idea of the book was great though there are still some weaker points in its materialization I believe. The idea, design, format, and publishing claim for a solid and solemn publication, though some photos do surprise you in the lack of simplest quality and higher class of presentation of the object. And I am not speaking of the tastes here as they differ so much individually. The other thing that might surprise a person who has a better knowledge of feltmakers’ world already is the criteria the curator chose some photos of a particular author to be published. Some of them don’t really reveal the spirit of the author at all (e.g. the only yellow carpet by Claudy Jongstra and purses of Agostina Zwilling). This makes you doubt if there was enough of time for the publishers to really examine the submitted images and review the authors or maybe a little drop of energy and enthusiasm in bringing the idea to life.

Despite these two little things I felt like mentioning, it is really the book what its title says it to be – 500 Felt Objects. Creative Explorations of a Remarkable Material. A material to be discovered and explored. And get inspired! And a quite true reflection of the felt making world in present times.

 

The second book I was going to mention is written by a Russian author Ксения Шинковская - "Войлок" (“Felt”) – a little encyclopedia of many various techniques used in feltmaking. A very eclectic and informative book that included several images of my felt pieces that you can see on my Facebook page.

Becoming a character

I like to intimate the stories with my felt and the way I take photos with it. And I liked the idea of someone else continuing these stories from my photos when Lyse whom I met on Etsy asked me if she could use some of my photos for her creative works in her Imaginary World – ImagineStudio.

That’s how me with my felts became a character – Girl with the Golden Earing

…Homage to Claudel
 

The Wave

People and wisdom

One aspect of travelling that I appreciate and adore now is meeting people. When I was younger I was so much taken by places I got to visit, the surroundings that people always went to the second plan. Now it’s the other way around. If I had ever developed a talent of a writer I would now have hundreds of characters and their stories to put into ink and paper.

Piet Mondriaan – Passie Bloem. One of my students Bertken gave me a postcard with P.Mondriaan painting “Witte rozen” and told me the story about Piet and how she wanted to give me another postcard - “Passie Bloem”, but couldn’t find it. Touched by the attention of my student I just had to find that painting myself.

 

Besides all the enriching and inspiring communication I get from the people I meet during my trips, I also sometimes hear the special words of wisdom they share.

When I was having dinner with my colleague friend Eveline van der Pas (into whom I just bumped into on my stay in the Netherlands without knowing where exactly she lived) her young daughter musician said that we always admire someone who’s potential we have ourselves, just haven’t developed it yet. And I found it so true and encouraging in everyone’s way of creativity.

On a short visit to Elis Vermeulen and discussing all the impressions from my workshop life and travelling, she said that you always have to get back to yourself and understand what it is that YOU want after hearing what others say you should/could do. And that’s exactly what I am doing now. I am getting back to myself and what I myself want out of my felt.

Workshops

When I came back from the Netherlands I found a CD waiting for me in the post. Agostina’s (Italian Felt Academy) husband Gosta Zwilling was taking photos during the workshop and sent them to me as well. It was really interesting to see these photos after some time has passed after the workshop in Italy ended. There is always something you see and realize in the moment it is happening, and always something else that comes to your perception when the time passes.

I pay a lot of attention to working on samples during my workshops. And here are some of the samples the participants made in Italy. Their concept for the workshop was combining archaic spirit of the woman using raw fleece with modern, subtle femininity using tactile surfaces from various fabrics.

The workshop in the Netherlands was taking place in a perfect studio of Truus Huijbregts. It is always more inspiring to work in the surroundings like these and create a healthy environment for creativity in a relaxed way without the stress  that is no good at all during such workshops.

The students made lot’s of beautiful and promising samples, as well as dresses, but I didn’t take any more descent photos to be posted. One of the reasons is that after the workshop the dresses are still quite wet and the process of working with textures is not finally finished, thus I never get to see them in a full beauty, but knowing the technique and what it gives, I always know, what the students will discover when they go home with their dresses and finish them 100%.
Workshop in Belgium gave me an opportunity to meet one Lithuanian woman living in Belgium and also making felt. We had quite a lot of conversations about creativity and felt making during the workshop and the time after as Sigita accompanied me on the trips to Antwerpen where we also visited MOMU – Mode Museum with an exhibition on knitwear in fashion “Unravel”.  And I felt really happy when she sent me a photo of a dress she made straight after returning from my workshop, inspired by what we did and talked during the workshop and the knitting exhibition we saw. When I see something like that, I understand that my student got the point (which is not always easy, especially for people who are used to working just inside the box), and that my teaching is not just a mere play of techniques, it makes people create using the language I teach. And that is my goal as a teacher.


P.S. You can always check my schedule of workshops on my blog which should be updated soon with more workshops in Autumn, 2011.

felt and fiber women

Not too much time left for the blog with all the projects going on and preparation for the workshops this Spring (though you can always find some little updates in my Facebook page), but I just wanted to share and enjoy a beautiful idea of other fiber artist Ricarda Assman to connect many fiber women in one e-book of artists. And I am also happy that Ricarda and Hans have designed a beautiful page with my profile for the book.
You can find all profiles here.

As I read my profile now there is so much more I want to add about my connection to felting process, but the space was limited. No time right now, but I think I am going to share more insights about that in my blog in a near future.
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Nedaug laiko belieka dienoraščio rašymui, kuomet tiesiog užgriuvę įvairūs projektai bei pasiruošimas kursams, kuriuos vesiu pavasarį, nors visgi Facebook puslapyje karts nuo karto atnaujinu naujienas. Tiesiog norėjau pasidalinti labai gražia kitos menininkės idėja sujungti daugelį moterų, užsiimančių tekstilės menu vienoje elektroninėje knygoje. Vienam menininkui – 2 knygos puslapiai. Labai džiaugiuosi ir šių puslapių dizainu, kurį sukūrė Ricarda ir Hans. “Felt and fiber women” knygoje – daugybė menininkių portretų.
Dabar skaitydama savo profilį, manau, kad dar tiek daug galėčiau pasakyti apie savo santykį su veltiniu, tačiau, žinoma, vieta puslapiuose nebuvo beribė, tad… manau, kad savo įžvalgas paliksiu kitam kartui pasidalinimui šiame dienoraštyje.

Glimpse of the process

photos by Svetlana Batura

Feeling of a white wedding. Through one’s lens

After all the celebration is gone, you are left with photos of the day that evoke feelings. It’s not just the feelings of the actual day, these are also the feelings that a person behind the lens has encoded in your photography. There are lot’s of talented photographers with their own signature, I guess it’s sometimes even hard to choose, but if I had to, the main criteria would be that footprint of feeling that photographer leaves in the memories of your wedding day.

I chose to introduce you to 3 different Lithuanian photographers who also do wedding photography. Yes, I am acquainted with all of them and that’s probably why I chose to introduce them here. Because I get a better feeling of what they do.

Svetlana Batura takes a very sensual, spiritual approach, she captures something that is beyond. Perhaps it’s more feminine look at the world, or I should better say sense, not look.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Viktorija Vaišvilaitė Skirutienė has a talent of capturing the very true pulse of life – very sensitive reality, those uncovered true moments in life, the touching point of soul and body, the relation. In reality.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And Victor Morozov, very cinematic approach, passionate and stylish. Lot’s of flight. Everywhere – in people’s relation, life or even exaggerated reality. But he is a master of creating a phenomenal day in one’s life.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Kai baigiasi visas šventės šurmulys, lieka nuotraukos, kurios sužadina jausmus. Ir tai nėra tik tos tikrosios dienos jausmai, čia įsipina ir žmogaus, stovinčio už fotoaparato objektyvo, nuotraukose užkoduoti jausmai.  Yra nemažai talentingų fotografų, turinčių savo braižą, tikriausiai sunku ir pasirinkti, bet jei reikėtų rinktis, vadovaučiausi būtent tais jausmų pėdsakais, kuriuos fotografas palieka savo kurtose vestuvių dienos fotografijose-prisiminimuose.

Norėjau pristatyti 3 skirtingus lietuvių fotografus, kurie užsiima ir vestuvine fotografija. Taip, pažįstu visus tris ir tikriausiai būtent dėl to pasirinkau juos pristatymui savo dienoraštyje. Dėl to, kad galbūt geriau jaučiu tai, ką jie kuria.

 

Svetlanos Baturos fotografija persmelkta jausmingumu ir jautrumu, dvasinga įkrova, jos objektyvas fiksuoja kažką, kas yra virš viso matomo. Tikriausiai tai labiau moteriškas požiūris, tik turbūt reikėtų sakyti jausmas.

 

Viktorija Vaišvilaitė Skirutienė turi ypatingą talentą užčiuopti ir fiksuoti patį gyvenimo pulsą – labai jautrią realybę, atvirus, tikrus momentus gyvenimo plotmėje, dvasios ir kūno sąlyčio tašką, santykį. Realybėje.

 

Ir Victor Morozov – labai kinematografiškas, aistringas ir stilingas. Begalė polėkio. Visur – žmonių santykiuose, gyvenime, net ir suintensyvintoje realybėje. Jis tikras meistras, kurdamas išskirtinę dieną savo personažų gyvenimuose.