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Cloth & Culture NOW
the artists - Zane Berzina, Latvia
Art, design and crafts, being a mirror image of the identity of
both the individual and society, reflect on their values and on
the very culture that signifies them. Traditionally considered
a feminine art form, textiles is one of the most ancient and familiar
creative components of our material culture, embodying the collective
belief systems and ideologies of ones society as well as celebrating
the significance of an individual touch. In the form of clothing
and other everyday items textiles have been a non-verbal performance
throughout social, economic, and political stages in every culture.
In Latvian culture textiles have occupied
and still continue to occupy an important part in people’s lives from historical
and ethnographic textiles through to contemporary textiles. In
the form of artefacts and exhibitions these are much appreciated
by the wider public as they communicate in the language that is
so familiar to Latvians. Historically, generations of little girls
were taught by their mothers how to weave, embroider and knit virtually
everything that would be needed for the household to prepare for
when they start their own families – producing towels, bed
linen, fabric for cloth, belts, socks, mittens and much more. Within
this context textile craft was a national Latvian virtue and the
weaving of cloth for a dowry became a long, considerate and almost
meditative preparatory process for the girls transition into womanhood.
The choices of yarns, colours and patters reflected not only on
the specific region and its landscape but also expressed the weaver’s
individual sense of taste, her values and her dreams in a beautifully
crafted non-linear textiles narrative.
My love affair with textiles started when I was a kid, too. Since
my early childhood I have been fortunate enough to experience the
realm of textiles in strikingly direct proximity as my mother,
Astrida Berzina, is a Latvian textile artist herself. I remember
myself as a little girl in her studio, for days restlessly playing
with colourful wool balls under her incredibly huge tapestry looms
together with our cat. The early exposure to the textile making
processes and the intimate tactile experiences of playing with
yarns has inevitably influenced my future decisions. My kindergarten
graduation certificate clearly sates:
‘Name: Zane Berzina
Age: 6 Years
Future Profession: Textile Artist.
Now, although understanding and defining myself as an artist and
designer of Latvian origin, my practice, so far, has not been directly
concerned with issues of Latvian identity or culture nor with an
idea of continuing a specific Latvian textiles tradition through
my work. I am, however, very proud to be a part of this culture,
even if I am not currently living in this country. After Latvia
gained its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991 and travel
to Western countries became possible, I saw this as an opportunity
for development and self-realisation. Soon I left my country to
study abroad in various European cities, absorbing various cultural
environments, influences and perspectives. I learned to adapt to
new systems, which shaped my own perception of ideas, people and
values. Interestingly enough, only by removing myself from the
context of my own culture could I start to identify my own strengths,
establish my own direction as an artist and develop a clearer understanding
of my relationship with the place I originally came from. I had
to leave in order to be able to reconnect with my own culture.
Apart from other influences, I am certain that the development
of my artistic vocabulary inevitably has a lot to do with my Latvian
origin and the skills-based art and design education I received
there. After intense competition, at the age of ten, I was successfully
accepted at the J. Rozentals Secondary Art School in Latvia and
was one of the 25 short listed children in the country who started
professional art practice studies at a secondary school level that
year. Specialisation in very young children, who were talented,
was a common practise in the former Soviet Union. This training
grounded me with a solid foundation in realistic drawing and painting
skills for further studies at the Latvian Art Academy in Riga.
After obtaining a BA in Textile Art in Latvia, my knowledge and
experience were later advanced through my studies at various Western
educational institutions, in Finland, Germany, France and the UK,
focussing on a more conceptual and critical approach to art and
design including textiles.
It is these various educational systems and personal experiences
in a multitude of foreign places as well as my curiosity and inner
desire to connect and respond to these places, people, systems
and values that has strongly informed and shaped my creative practice.
The synthesis of my cross-cultural experiences has been crystallised
into what I can now call my creative practice. Because of that,
I understand my work to be more European in its content and character
but Latvian in terms of its aesthetic qualities and attention to
detail. I find that the constant search for harmony and balance
is a strong Latvian feature very clearly reflected in our national
artefacts including textiles.
I recognise that my creative journey is
an active continuous defining and redefining of my own identity
both as an artist and an individual. In this process textiles
provide me with a rich vocabulary that communicates across borders
and cultures. I am interested in how textiles make explicit and
visible the way that communication is layered, containing multiple
nuances and meanings in every expression. A textile, like a literary
text, is capable of reflecting on various ideas and values through
the maker’s choice of materials,
colours, patterns and textures. It is this general familiarity
of cloths, its cross-cultural acceptance and poetics that fascinates
and inspires me. As an artist and designer I love this unpretentious
but highly evocative language, which generously allows a lot of
space for personal interpretation with all of its deviations from
linear narrative. In my own practice I tend to draw on these qualities
and attempt to further extend this language. In order to create
new readings and meanings I combine traditional textile processes
and materials with technically highly advanced new materials and
methods. I aim not only to comment on the rapid technological and
scientific developments in our lives but to also explore the new
possibilities they offer, hopefully giving visual, material and
conceptual form to these changes.
Taking into consideration the historical
categorisation of textiles, I am trying to continue to develop
the textiles media from traditional to an interdisciplinary exploration
of textile art and design, and all its various guises. My research
led practice attempts to cross the boundaries between the notions
of the ‘scientific’ and
the ‘artistic’ as well as reflects on and utilises
the current developments within material research and technologies.
It considers their possible applications within design and art
to create new textile systems, sensory environments and interactive
artworks. Within this context I am interested in exploring ways
in which new technologies can be used in innovative, poetic and
imaginative ways. My artistic attempts also contribute to cross-disciplinary
activities in science, technology, art and design and question
how these might influence the cultural environment - should it
be nationally or internationally.
LATVIA
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