can there be comfort, without softness?
Video, Embroidery on Sheer Polyester, various found fabric materials, Table and chair, 2022.
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In Can there be softness, without comfort?, Spiljak explores themes of domesticity, substance abuse, violence and the effects of internalizing trauma. This is emphasized through the tangible arrangement of embroidered text resembling scarring, distressing and blood onto a delicate sheer fabric mimicking flesh. Sewn in red, the embroidered text comment on the dual circumstances of victims consumed by addiction internalized from personal grievances. On the other hand, the words “my body as a punching bag” acts as a placeholder for the victimized families, friends, or partners, lovers affected second-hand by bearing feelings of exhaustion, anxiety, or existential dread. Due to the bearings of capitalistic governing, fear, violence, conflict and control unravel; with what within the home. This can be translated through the window projection, table and chair set-up recreating the domestic imagery of being behind closed doors - further inviting the viewer to immerse themselves “inside” of one’s home. Spiljak embroiders text onto found fabric materials to make the correlation between domestic life, resistance and paying homage to the historical role of women’s artistry and craft in the household dating back to the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. With the utilization of transformative text, found materials and historical contexts, Spiljak reclaims the traditional nature of embroidery to aid in voicing the familiar grievances of addiction and as a way to process her experiences and act as dialogue for resistance.
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2023 Veronica Spiljak, All Rights Reserved