December

In brief: ‘Curiosity to try something new is the vehicle of my work‘, - the textile artist Zinaida Dargienė said during the opening of her exhibition ‘Delivered by Dreams – Aborigines’, opened at Meno Parkas Gallery in Kaunas.
Z. Dargienė travelled across Australia for three months in 2010; she visited museums, galleries, aboriginal festivals and fairs, filmed and photographed there. The author was convinced that there were plenty of common symbols and signs in the phenomena of human culture. In her show the artist attempted to convey the common mythological motives of the Indo-Europeans and aborigines by using aboriginal stylistics through her personal vision.
When the author started to study in Kaunas, textile art was not so popular as nowadays. However, it revived soon and became interesting again. Z. Dargienė has been always interested in new trends and directions of textile art; she finds textile more appealing than painting. She also keeps on discovering her own potentials in the genre anew.
Being the first godmother of Kaunas Textile Biennial, Z. Dargienė says that contemporary textile art interests her a lot. Young authors find their individual techniques and some of them are interesting not only for Lithuania but for the whole Europe too. The youth solve their problems that are relevant in these times. Z. Dargienė is interested in generalised conclusions and globality rather than authors who show themselves in their works. She thinks that the situation of everyone thinking about themselves and the indifference towards sociability evokes destruction in contemporary art.
The artist once declared a very interesting thought: ‘Collecting often refers to collecting only. The richer a museum is, the fuller its vaults are, the less that fortune is available for those who are supposed to see it. That is why the further fate of my works is not important to me.’ The author thinks that the world is overfull of art and there is no place for it anymore.
Z. Dargienė is inspired by foreign countries and cultures, she is hungry for novelties. She travelled to Canada, America, Mexico, Israel, Australia and other places. The Australian aboriginal painting impressed the artist for its colouring, patterns and subjects. Their culture is ancient and still alive – no other civilisation can be compared to them.
The exhibition ‘Delivered by Dreams – Aborigines’ is a peculiar interpretation of this unique culture. Mythology is relevant in the show: aborigines derive themselves from dreams; they come from dreams and return to them; they do not have one god. Aborigines worship their ancestors who created the Earth. Analysing the cultures, Z. Dargienė noticed that there were many symbols and metaphors living in all cultures, such as creation of world, relation of birth and death, human beings and nature, cult of ancestors, resonances of global cataclysms.
Asked about her future plans, the artist expressed her further wish to go deep into the Lithuanian mythology and roots.