The Approach opens an exhibition of works by Hana Miletić
The First Art Newspaper on the Net    Established in 1996 Saturday, November 2, 2024


The Approach opens an exhibition of works by Hana Miletić
Hana Miletić, Materials, 202, Hand-woven and Jacquard-woven textile (burnt orange recycled wood fibre, carrot and dahlia- coloured eri silk, dark apricot recycled polyamide, recycled nylon, recycled plastic thread, and white polyester), 30 x 24 x 2 cm (11 3/4 x 9 3/8 x 3/4 in.).



LONDON.- There is a micro-political dimension to weaving for Hana Miletić, who employs this process as a method of slowing down production. She sees it as an embodied and situated art practice that requires considerable time and dedication, aimed at counteracting certain economic and social conditions at work, such as acceleration, standardisation and transparency. Miletić weaves to narrate a different, feminist story of technology and progress stemming from the loom (not extractive and technocratic, but caring and tactile). She sees care as an affect – because caring produces emotional attachments, a real material action that disrupts the artificial and brutal seizure between head and hand, between thinking and feeling – and as an ethical obligation, because caring and repairing are forms of knowledge, building blocks for politics that serve us better.

For Patterns of Thrift, her debut exhibition at The Approach, Miletić produced new works from her ongoing series ‘Materials’. Though at first seemingly abstract, these textile works find their scale, form and colour, as well as their positioning in the exhibition space, from the acts of ‘care and repair’ that Miletić has noticed around the city. Broken windows, kicked in doorways and damaged car wing mirrors are haphazardly taped up with plastic and card, poetically transformed by small considerate gestures. Initially photographed by the artist, she then emulates these DIY repairs through a process of hand-weaving textiles – thereby furthering the act of care. Working on a 1:1 ratio, shifts in scale fluctuate between the very small (perhaps seen in the repair of a doorbell) and the very large (as with the repairs of entire shop windows or doors), demonstrating that regardless of size, all acts of care matter.

The exhibition is partly inspired by the history of the gallery’s local Bethnal Green area, which, along with other parts of East London, developed as a site for silk weaving from around the mid-seventeenth century. The title in particular refers to the absorption of exiled Hugenots (protestants fleeing from the Catholic French king) into the East London weaving communities, whilst the works in the show will be produced as ‘half-silks’. Though the term has fallen into disuse since modern import and export laws require all material content to be declared, historically, a ‘half-silk’ refers to a fabric woven from silk with another material used as the warp textile. Like in nearby Spitalfields, the weavers in Bethnal Green were mostly producing half-silk ribbons and trims, sometimes including gold and silver thread. Using this concept as her departure point, all the works in this exhibition have been made using different silk fibres entangled with other organic materials such as hemp, raffia and wool, as well as artificial fibres including recycled nylons, plastics and gold and silver metal yarns (the latter referring to the half-silk ribbons typical of the area). Hinting at the slow erosion and eventual disappearance of the textile industry from East London driven by the success and efficiency of machines, Miletić has also included patches of automated woven fabric into the works, made with the use of a Jacquard loom (the forerunner of the present-day computer).




Increasingly incorporating recycled and upcycled fibres to produce her work, Miletić feels a growing awareness of the environmental and social factors surrounding textile production, manufacture and consumption. Although this repurposing of fabrics can sometimes compromise the accuracy of the replication of her ‘repairs’ (by creating more aesthetic or structural inconsistencies that resemble the source image less closely than earlier works might), Miletić feels this is preferable if it helps her work in a more ethical, responsible and sustainable way. This includes ensuring the ethical treatment of all species of workers involved, for example, since all of the works in this show contain silk fibres, Miletić has avoided using newly spun silks where silkworms have died to produce the silk. Instead, she prefers to use peace or eri silk produced from non-violent breeding and harvesting of silkworms, which allows the animals to complete their metamorphosis into moths.

Her merging of different materials, natural and artificial, also helps the artist to explore ideas surrounding capitalist production and desire, complicating claims that the existence of nature is a separate category from culture. Influenced by speculative feminist writing, Miletić acknowledges the non-innocence in which she lives and works, and understands the interconnectedness of all species with one another. Through its reproduction of repairs and patchy assemblages, this exhibition demonstrates the complicated entanglements formed by and between everything and everyone, non-human, human and more-than-human – silk worms, silk weavers, Jacquard looms, and computers included.

Hana Miletić (b.1982, Zagreb, Croatia), lives and works in Brussels. Recent solo exhibitions include Bergen Kunsthall, Bergen, Norway (forthcoming 2021); La Loge, Brussels, Belgium (2021); Lambda Lambda Lambda, Prishtina, Kosovo; La Maison de Rendez-Vous, Brussels, Belgium; Apoteka Space for Contemporary Art, Vodjnan, Croatia; The Annexe, London, UK (all 2019); WIELS Contemporary Art Centre, Brussels, Belgium (2018); and participation in the 13th Sharjah Biennial (2017). Group exhibitions include KAI 10 | Arthena Foundation, Dusseldorf, Germany and 39th EVA International, Ireland Biennial of Contemporary Art; Art Encounters Biennial, Timișoara, Romania (forthcoming 2021); Muzeum Sztuki, Łódź, Poland; Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna, Austria (both 2020); Metro Pictures, New York (2019); S.M.A.K., Ghent, Belgium and TextielMuseum, Tilburg, Netherland (both 2018-19).

Past residencies include: The Cultural Centre of the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation in Senegal (2019), and the Jan van Eyck Academy in Maastricht (2014-2015). In the last few years, Miletić has facilitated collaborative projects at Globe Aroma, Brussels and De Appel, Amsterdam.










Today's News

May 9, 2021

Melting glaciers have exposed frozen relics of World War I

Leonardo da Vinci's Head of a Boar to be offered at Christie's London in July

Mainland China and U.S. collectors catapult Lark Mason Associates sale to $1,744,570 on iGavelAuctions.com

Hindman's May Fine Art auctions realize over $7.4 million & set new records

Pace Gallery opens an exhibition of sculpture in cast bronze by Lynda Benglis

Rare portrait of Catherine de' Medici comes home to Strawberry Hill House - 247 years after she first hung there

Joan B Mirviss LTD opens an exhibition of Fujino Sachiko's latest multi-dimensional clay forms

Christie's presents Live Auctions of Design from 26-27 May

A jaw-dropping Philip Glass opera is finally on video

Christie's Paris announces Asian art sale

Caroline Bøge selects 35 works from von Bartha's archive for ongoing series of temporary exhibitions

Pamela Kraft, 77, dies; Arts magnet and champion of Indigenous rights

The Approach opens an exhibition of works by Hana Miletić

Bob Dylan's handwritten lyrics to Blowin' in the Wind to be offered at auction

Exhibition of new sculptures by Kathleen Ryan opens at Karma

The June Kelly Gallery opens an exhibition of paintings and drawings by John Moore

Anita Lane, rocker who was more than a muse, is dead at 61

Holabird Western Americana Collections will hold a huge five-day sale

Once sold for $89, rare Rolex Submariner could fetch $175K at Heritage Auctions

J.C. Leyendecker Saturday Evening Post cover sells for $4.1 million at Heritage Auctions

Fontaine's auction highlights spring with 2-part auction in May

Michelangelo Lovelace, artist of street life in Cleveland, dies at 60

Freeman's to bring the collection of a prominent Philadelphia lady to jewelry and watches auction

What Is A Smart Building?

How To Make Money In Photography And Filmmaking

Art Of Life: Why Do We Need A Wish List?

4 Exceptional Tips To Make Your Google Ads Campaign A Success




Museums, Exhibits, Artists, Milestones, Digital Art, Architecture, Photography,
Photographers, Special Photos, Special Reports, Featured Stories, Auctions, Art Fairs,
Anecdotes, Art Quiz, Education, Mythology, 3D Images, Last Week, .

 



Founder:
Ignacio Villarreal
(1941 - 2019)
Editor & Publisher: Jose Villarreal
Art Director: Juan José Sepúlveda Ramírez
Writer: Ofelia Zurbia Betancourt

Attorneys
Truck Accident Attorneys
Accident Attorneys
Holistic Dentist
Abogado de accidentes
สล็อต
สล็อตเว็บตรง

Royalville Communications, Inc
produces:

ignaciovillarreal.org juncodelavega.com facundocabral-elfinal.org
Founder's Site. Hommage
to a Mexican poet.
Hommage
       

The First Art Newspaper on the Net. The Best Versions Of Ave Maria Song Junco de la Vega Site Ignacio Villarreal Site Parroquia Natividad del Señor
Tell a Friend
Dear User, please complete the form below in order to recommend the Artdaily newsletter to someone you know.
Please complete all fields marked *.
Sending Mail
Sending Successful