"Damp Cloth of Gray Blur", exhibition by Ingrid Helena Pajo

Opening at 19:00, April 7th

Living Room, Spetson 29 Kypseli

Live DJ set by TSirAT At The dEsk

 

While continuing the creative research of antique textiles, Ingrid is currently focusing on the characteristics of textiles that are perhaps difficult to describe in words, such as the atmosphere that the fabric creates and the craftsmanship, or simply the humanity, that is left on the object by the hand of its maker. Here in Athens she has regularly visited archeology and ethnography museums, sketching their exhibits and pondering the values they reflect: alongside visible meanings, there are also those that cannot be understood millennia after they were created, and theories why some things are done, are the fruits of pure improvisation. This lack of knowledge is incendiary, giving way to self-interpretations. At the same time, it puts in a different light the theories that have been made about history inspired by archaeological findings - how seriously can they be taken at all? In The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction, Ursula K. Le Guin also discusses this, polemicizing the stone ax as the first tool: 'before the tool that forces energy outward, we made the tool that brings energy home.' She suggests, and also points out several other researchers who have thought so, that the first tool was instead a basket, a packet of medicinal herbs, a net bag – objects for holding and carrying something.

Textiles do not stand the test of time, and most of what is known about antique textiles has been discovered on other materials, such as painted on ceramics, engraved in stone, or the textures of objects made from fibers left in volcanic ash. In addition, different materials seem to reflect each other's stories in turn, and the clear line between one story and another seems to blur. An imperceptible layer appears from there - one material becomes another over an immense amount of time, and the trace of human culture on it is shorter than a moment.