PATCHING TIME
Ana Vivoda and Monika Cvitanović
07.03. – 07.04.2024
Prsten Gallery

Exhibition opening: Thursday, 7th at 7 pm at Prsten Gallery

PATCHING TIME

Two artists who hold and archive memory within themselves interpret it in their art through a conscious apparatus of memory in two technically different yet conceptually very similar ways. Ana Vivoda and Monika Cvitanović communicate directly using their bodies, ready-mades, originals, or reproductions of themselves, acting within the framework of emancipatory activism, either by gaining freedom of thought and action or by feeling a sense of losing control. Both artists, diametrically different in their artistic paths so far, in a completely accidental meeting that fatefully brought them together, concluded that they are not so different considering that they enrich their lives in the same way through experimental explorations in the media in which they express themselves. What creates a strong connection between them is their relationship to the past that both have decided to preserve in their works, thereby conceptually penetrating into all that is hidden and subconsciously preserved. Their relationship with textile, the canvas that offers immediacy in communication with the audience, is the same – on it, they explicitly or implicitly inscribe themselves and expose themselves to the assessment of the unknown. The diagram of their art offered to us refers to the relationship of image – letter – body, which is particularly elaborated in the works of Ana Vivoda. Both artists use fabric as the matrix of their work, intervening with thread, colour, and print. Their subversive approach to social reality, their position, or position of women who have faced an unfavourable fate is noticeable in the work of Monika Cvitanović. The feminist character of her works functions as a critical practice towards “traditionally gender-based hierarchies of art history and artistic materials.”

In her recent experimenting with different media and techniques, almost on the verge of performative art, in series such as cloth handkerchiefs, installations with digital printing on canvas, and others, Ana Vivoda creates a cognitive map of lived events. Recognizable for her love of book art, Ana also makes works of art in the format of books titled The Book of Scars, I Forgot, Conversations over Coffee, In the interspace, which she designs, binds, and artistically shapes herself. This approach allows her to create a narrative that guides the observer through her most intimate experiences and feelings.

The Blue Book, or the work titled “I Forgot,” consists of pages made of dyed gauze and covers made of dyed diapers with visible traces of use, where words are embroidered with grey thread. As we unveil the thoughts captured by the thread, by turning the pages or fabric, we discover that experiences and emotions described with thread are extracted as moments from memory, such as “first laugh,” “Celina’s first laugh.”Top of Form

The courage to step out of the medium in which an artist feels most secure, especially if they are affirmed and recognized in the visual arts, is truly rare. It is not just about experimenting with other media; what is learned is transferred, or perhaps it is better to say printed/pasted onto entirely different materials. The series of works based on memory is not merely nostalgic; it is conceptually remarkably conceived to preserve and convey a message about personal and intergenerational relationships that both artists nurture towards their ancestors.
In this direction, a series was created and presented at the Biennale Internazionale Donna 23 held in Trieste, where cloth handkerchiefs were used as the foundation for stories stemming from memories of the father who used them. The artist then expanded this collection by receiving handkerchiefs as gifts from family and friends. The handkerchief becomes an object carrying a message, with the artist embroidered in dialect,[1] intertwining different memories. She expresses this with words: “The work conveys the need of my grandparents to shape their lives into stories to be passed down at the end of their lives, revealing similarities between past struggles and today’s crises… I embroidered fragments of conversations onto worn-out handkerchiefs, inscribing words into artifacts that remained after them.”

The Book of Scars was created in 2023 as a hand-sewn and bound collection of personal intimate records that begins with words written in pencil on white paper, “I am trying not to look,” complemented by red thread embroidered in various directions. By turning the pages, we realize that the thread plays a dual role, actually stitching a photographed forearm extended across two pages. The placement of the stitches with red thread reveals traces of self-harm, traces of scars all over the body, and questions the psychological impact on the observer, provoking a reaction of shock similar to what Sanja Iveković achieved in her early works representing violence against women. “I am turning my head” introduces a photograph of the upper part of a woman’s/artist’s head, where these irregular thread stitches cover the eyebrows. Then we realise that in the continuation of this verbalized visual confession, the word “pain” concludes the trauma that resulted in this visual expression.

The installation of the same name on canvas in the form of intimate records of the female body photographically reproduced and then overlaid with verses, portrays the body as a map of lived experiences. The form of the body is shaped through life and changes, and those metamorphoses, visible only to us, uniquely describe our experiences that define every wrinkle, every change. We are a collection of memories and experiences; our skin is woven from the tiny threads of life. The installations are executed in digital print on crepe georgette material in two variants – as a body without scars with accompanying text that envelops and shields it from view, and as a body with scars marked spontaneously with red thread, but without text – a shield that protects it.”

In a somewhat radical use of what is closest to the body, the delicate women’s undershirt, a fabric hidden from view that touches a woman’s skin, Monika Cvitanović deprives ready-made objects of their original purpose and gives them a new meaning. Multiplying and connecting individual everyday clothing items into a single artwork gives that very object the power of conveying a message far greater than it would have carried on its own, separate and discarded. As one of the major themes in art that has inspired numerous modern and contemporary artists, Monika, focusing on the theme of memory, aims to simulate the observer and stimulate discussion. She de-aestheticizes the aesthetics of textile products by uniting them with thread into a work that continuously brings back aesthetics, thus constructing the idea of memory that depends on recollection. She operates through the deconstruction of the object and then connects its parts into a whole. She disseminates traces of the past on a series of objects that serve the symbolic transformation of memory into a sign – in her case, into a cross.

In an attempt to recapitulate her work so far, one cannot avoid the phrase ‘creative responsibility’ – Monika Cvitanović takes upon herself the weight of the communicator towards the recipient in an effort to convey a message shaped through generations of women – mothers, grandmothers. Her agenda is not imperative; she intricately dissects and sublimates it towards the observer with the aim of emphasizing the neglected past of women and their contributions to culture. In this, she has a subjective, personal motivation stemming from family relationships,[2] with a desire to explore personal and intergenerational relationships related to rituals related to textiles. Her approach is activist-intensive, especially in works like Remediation and Rags, in which she works with recycled materials, based on the use of manual labour employing techniques such as cutting, embroidery, and colouring.

Remediation consists of ten folded shirts connected with thread, where she intervened with natural colours or trims from other fabrics, and then embroidered them with irregular symbols – cross stitches. The cross stitches on the fabric document the time spent in the production of the work, uniting the collective past of female workers with alternative models of fabric use. What may seem like ordinary rag at first glance is, in fact, a rejection of the perfection and excellence stemming from a patriarchal context that had its expectations of women, and free irregular embroidery unburdened by the demands of the past. Her works represent a kind of visual biography of people whose memories are woven into textile objects that Monika has carefully collected over the years. One particularly noteworthy piece is Wedding Dress (thread on two scarfs and pieces of silk, gauze, and tulle) from the series Rags where she “contemplates the personal and intergenerational relationship with wedding rituals through the sensibility of fabrics and respect for textile work inherited from her mother…” This work carries reminiscences of Monika’s personal experience of purchasing a wedding dress for her own wedding, while also drawing attention to the recyclability and repeated use of fabrics used in wedding dresses. Works from the Rags series include several partially torn scarves that either belonged to Monika’s grandmothers or were given to her by friends. Recalling her late grandmother’s patching practice – visible mending using threads made from old stockings – the artist rejects economic mechanisms and raises awareness of the experience of time, as well as hours woven into textile products.

Already with previous experience of successful realizations of workshops with embroidery on textiles (handkerchiefs) or interventions in a kind of interactive performance of cutting fabric in which the audience is involved, this time as well both artists intend to conclude their exhibition project in an engaged manner. In a conceptually conceived exhibition composed of two parts, each artist will not only present their works divided into different cycles of artistic creation but will also hold workshops to engage exhibition visitors and promote creative energy.

According to Ana Vivoda, this exhibition is the most intimate testimony of her life, the events she has experienced and that have left an impression on her. This graphic artist from Rijeka has been on the graphic scene for more than two decades and has long been recognized not only in Croatia but also by the international cultural community. Her dynamic work and tireless will to express herself creatively have rightfully earned her guest appearances and awards in more than a dozen countries worldwide. Together with Monika Cvitanović, she is breaking new ground in accumulating female energy through artistic expression focused on women’s issues. By paying attention to her relationship with ancestors, she threads memories and creates installations transformed into tangible objects that materialize emotions. Although primarily recognized in Australian artistic circles as a representative of the younger upcoming generation, Monika has established herself as a highly inventive and active artist with a unique approach to generating myths about women from an androcentric history. Traumas of the body and spirit are not always necessarily traumas visible as scars; the violence that occurs can be provoked by societal or ideological violence. In the case of Monika and Ana, memory, controlled by their precise artistic work, is organized through their exact artistic work. Under the common denominator of Patching Time, a unique communication is established in dismantling the meaning of material objects that are reborn as works of art. Subversive patching refers not only to literal stitching with threads but also to metaphorical mending of life’s threads.

[1] In earlier exhibitions, a transcription was required to make the content readable and understandable for the reader, providing a completely new range of possibilities for their interpretation and perception.

[2] The artist is the child of a professional seamstress (formerly employed at the now-defunct Kamensko factory, whose textile workers continued to independently collaborate even after the factory’s closure under the slogan “Mi ćemo raditi i stvarati” – “We will work and create,” demonstrating their determination not to be halted in their activities).

Antonia Došen