Małgorzata Markiewicz, another one of the consistently ‘textile’ artists, uses her work to explore selected feminist motifs. One of these is the story of the mythological Medusa – seen, since the publication of Hélène Cixous’s epochal text, as a victim of patriarchy as well as a figure of an emancipated woman who reclaims her agency and uses her embodiment as a weapon. According to Markiewicz, the myth of Medusa tells the story of socialisation that women are subjected to and which consists in the repression of one’s ‘evil’ side, including the expression of anger, instead of integrating these traits. After all, it’s only the confrontation with our own ‘flaws’ and difficult emotions that liberates us from auto-aggression.
Markiewicz depicted the Gorgona on, among others, The Curtain of Women in the Juliusz Słowacki Theatre in Kraków. Between the snaky locks of the mythological creature we see female figures, and below them the artist placed first and last names of 130 women (a number referring to the anniversary of the theatre’s founding) who contributed to the development of the city, culture, and performative arts, including those largely absent from the collective memory (such as Janina Krasicka, who died during the 1936 Kraków workers’ strikes) and those whose work has been overlooked (e.g. Bronisława Korejbko, who worked for the Słowacki Theatre as a seamstress, and her sister Janina, who spent years an accountant at the institution).
Fifty people were involved in the making of the curtain, including seamstresses Bernarda Rość and Lucyna Kędzierska. Textile art often takes on the form of an encounter with others and possesses a perceptibly relational and pedagogical quality, as exemplified by Hands of Gold – Embroidery School for Ladies and Gents run by Drożyńska, Demko’s activities as a university educator, as well as the pursuits of Anna Panek and Marta Niedbał, discussed below. In many cases it’s a form of knowledge exchange based on partnership and mutual induction of ideas.
Markiewicz also employs the motif of a spider’s web, evoking the Greek goddess Arachne and Grandmother Spider from the beliefs of Native Americans, endowed with the fertile power of creating the world. Although her subject matter is similar to that explored by Demko, she opted for a strategy that differs from the ones employed by the three artists discussed above. Her projects boast a varied, eclectic style, and hence it’s difficult to make an accessible synthesis of her artistic practice. The repetitiveness of her work concerns not form but technique: crocheting, knitting (although she prefers the former, as it creates a more spatial, sculpture-like effect), embroidery, and weaving on a loom. She emphasises the importance of the material: felt, animal fat and birch tar, which result from mimicking the method of impregnating highlanders’ hats, and sheep’s wool.
Other regularities appear on the cognitive level. One has the impression that Markiewicz strives to convey and evoke an embodied experience: affective, multi-sensory (not least haptic), visceral, processed slowly, devoid of rivalry and coercion. She opts for materials that are closest to the body: garments, tablecloths, bedsheets, and other textiles. She notes that human beings ‘don’t cuddle up to marble’ and ‘don’t cover themselves with aluminium foil’. She’s interested in juxtaposing the template, represented by the fixed, repetitive layout of patterns on the fabric, with chaotic and uncontrolled processes stemming from the need for transgression, symbolised by the patches randomly appearing on the material.
Patterns & layers