Should beauty be linked to good to be beautiful?
It may be good, but it doesn't always have to. The adopted canons mostly form our assessments, but there is no universal measurement that will clearly find what it is. Although beauty is frequently associated with good, it can be liberating even if it is not morally unambiguous. It is simply a force that transcends the limits of reason, goes straight to our emotions and touches where words fail. It is in this extra-verbal ability to decision and transform that is its uniqueness.
What fascinates you in fashion?
Fashion allows you to improve a person, renew him, fix him, give him confidence, even improve him. The costume may have a therapeutic effect not only due to the fact that it is able to supply physical comfort, but besides due to the fact that by showing how cleverly we can transform, it gives an impulse for further changes. Dressing in its basic function provides adequate heat and freedom of movement and is then just average clothing. It is much more interesting to communicate with the planet through your own aesthetic choices. This regular chance to express oneself is our communication system, but besides allows you to manipulate reality. You become who you dress like. I know I can't fix the planet with my approach to textiles, giving them so much meaning. But possibly any clothes will make someone's life better with my tips.
What do you gotta quit your business?
It's a long list. The textile manufacture in pursuit of profit has long exceeded all limits, which is why it is at the forefront of the top environmental poisoners. The excess of cheap, impermanent clothing constantly fills the landfills. We usage immense amounts of water to grow plants for fibers, and the bleaching and dyeing processes additionally poison the earth with chemicals. At the same time, unethical production flourishes. Corporations competing for the lowest prices and the largest marketplace shares have led to the drastic devalue of man's work, bringing it almost to modern slavery. There must have been a immense disaster to have a serious discussion about production that takes into account the welfare of workers.
Viola Szeechowicz – private archive What disaster do you mean?
The collapse of the eight-story Rana Plaza building in Bangladesh. This tragedy took place in 2013, at the time 1,100 people were killed working on behalf of world-famous brands, and 2,500 people were injured. The reason for the collapse was the scandalous method condition of the building, not taking into account any safety standards. This event shook the public and highlighted the appalling working conditions of the production sites.
But has anything changed?
Regulations are introduced within the European Union to reduce the negative practices of the clothing industry. Companies will be required to be more transparent, especially in terms of production methods. It is besides crucial to make consumers aware of the effects of their purchasing choices. investigation is ongoing on the environmental impact of various materials, although this is simply a complex subject, for example, any fibres are biodegradable, but their production requires immense amounts of water. Our cognition of this subject continues to deepen, and during this process there is no shortage of controversial themes. 1 remains unchanged – quality and sustainability are crucial. Manufacturers should supply it and consumers should appreciate it. It can reconstruct respect for clothes, to the full industry
Under what circumstances did the concept of related reality show you?
For a long time, I have been accompanied by a sense of connection and a sense of pervasiveness, not just in art. In the 1990s, as part of my diploma in painting, I showed paintings and a collection of clothes. This concept was to be a full inspired by sun phases and changing light with them. I dared to do so, though I did not show good sense.
Why are you depreciating?
Because the school doesn't anticipate to get out of the pattern, and if you decide to do so, don't anticipate applause. My graduation occupation was to arrange the space with painting. I didn't want the exhibition to come down to a wall painting. The visitor was to decision in the exhibition space in search of his own point of view. During the beginning there were models in my collection of clothes. Fashion was an integral part of the reality I created. Everyone was very surprised. I think they thought I was crazy. But 1 of the professors said this organization should take place somewhere else on Earth! (Laughter)
Because she was a precursor?
I didn't call it that at the time. I was not only curious in painting, but besides in clothing design. I didn't realize why I would keep any kind of purity. The combination of the arts seemed natural and apparent to me. I was curious about going into space, I liked the sculpture, and she's got a lot to do with clothing construction. erstwhile you plan them, you imagine what they're going to look like from each side, in motion, under different vulnerability circumstances. So I felt these connections and I wanted them, even though my college was not prepared for specified interdisciplinaryness at the time.
Photo by Viola SzczeechowiczCongenital request for transgression?
I think she's inborn and acquired. I finished painting. But rapidly my main means of expression changed. I threw a brush from a painting canvas into a fabric. Although I didn't have the chance to plan prints right away.
Let us return to the genesis of the thought of related reality.
I just happened to have quite a few thread, and I was looking for a usage for them. I had the thought that I could make images from this infinite mass of colored threads. They were originally meant to make fabric designs. I was going to photograph them and transfer them to the fabric, but it turned out that they created images that have decorative possible and possibly even are more than just a strand of thread.
Before we talk about technology, what does "a lot of thread" mean?
It was huge. Let's say the truck threads in different colors. erstwhile something's neck, I gotta match the shade perfectly. But I don't always find him in this vast amount of things. 1 could conclude that the truck is inactive not adequate to be happy.
It's got to be an imagination! But what was it to you at first – joy or burden?
I was happy to have quite a few threads in a wide spectrum of colors, but the fact was, it was hard to find a place for it in my surviving space (Laughter). But already at the beginning, I treated it as potential. Definitely. This multiplicity of colors provided possibilities for mixing, creating colors. I predicted that laser-like, or layered overlapping of different permeable colors of thread could lead to something attractive in terms of structural and color.
So you work like in a classical painting, where you besides place another laser, or transparent or translucent layers on the ground, just the material is not thread, but paint?
That's right. erstwhile I created the first works, I thought only about the fabric, but then the threads themselves began drifting towards more advanced artistic forms. erstwhile I looked at this rhizome, it became the painting I missed. They were flat images pressed against the glass. They have their charm, but erstwhile I did more than a fewer of these, I began to wonder what to do to go into space with them. I started creating 3D thread paintings. This allowed me to show not only the colour but besides the expressive fold of matter. Later it turned out that you could go into space with them even more.
What do you mean you went into space with these paintings?
I've been trying so hard to remove the layers of thread from the ground. I have a way to merge them. I fixed them with a fixture or hair spray, and then I pierce them, protecting them from decay.
What is it for you to make a relation between reality?
Such a painting can include large decks of expression. So I've got a chance to unload, let go of all the difficult, smiting emotions. Besides, I have a sense of continuing, constantly interrupted, the end of something that gives emergence to the next.
I'd say this occupation is an existential experience.
The mixture of colors is an expression of emotion. There's a rhizome at the dawn. This confusion, entanglement, density can be a metaphor for something very complicated, confusion, chaos. I see quite a few harmony in the final. erstwhile I start doing this, and I make the first layers of single threads developed from spools or from nervously torn glories, they mean nothing, they're a small boring. They look bad for a long time. At first, there's nothing, nothing, nothing or chaos, but as a consequence of laborious work with this matter, form begins to emerge.
Out of chaos, space emerges. Do you know what you're up to, starting to work out the threads?
Sometimes I have a plan. In 1 series, I made suggestions for organic soil, like moss or forest fleece. Then this concept left me alone and I started putting on nothing, not reasoning about what I had planned for things to happen. I erstwhile had specified a thready fire. I didn't want it due to the fact that it was besides apparent and I tried to change it, but despite many modifications, this painting didn't want to halt being fire. These are not miniature formats. usually 80/100, sometimes bigger, so you gotta truly stick with this tiny, shapeless matter. At first I have a painful feeling that I'm not even gonna get out of this. I can even say that this is simply a process of passing through suffering to a sense of satisfaction. But that's only erstwhile it's successful.
Like in life, erstwhile at first it scares us that the problem that touches us is inconclusive.
Yes, and that would mean that we should treat the problem as a challenge and not quit in action. And going further into metaphors related to my threads, this application of subsequent layers requires concentration, and this allows you to announcement that even 1 thread thrown in the right place matters. As in life. Leaving in harmony sensitizes small things that affect the whole.
So what is this trial to you?
I'm certain he's got a meditation value. possibly not the same as erstwhile you sit in a lotus, but the focus on this subtle substance undoubtedly allows you to break away...
For example, from the head of thought.
Exactly.
Is the associated reality related to ecology? respect for nature has always been present in what you do. You usage natural fabrics, you don't let the truck waste threads, you make awesome additions to new...
The relation between man and nature is crucial to our existence. The slogan "related reality" was to draw attention to the law of origin and effect, to the link between our actions and the existing state of affairs and to what might happen in the future.
Brand Related Reality are besides awesome dresses, bombers, capes, bags. This concept is constantly transforming into something new. Now you're making luminospheres.
Yeah, it turns out that thread is simply a grateful matter, and if you start digging, the concept evolves itself. erstwhile I went to work with the related reality, an apprentice came to me, whom I outlined the concept and suggested that she experimented, which could arise from the entanglement of threads. She looked at me with disbelief and never showed up again. My thought most likely seemed utopian to her. But I'm inactive developing it, and now it's a phase of drowning threaded artifacts in epoxy resin. specified images of threads become even more spacious, and integral with specified a sculpture lighting introduces the effect of aquarium stories. I called it luminospheres. The form of the illuminated sculpture perfectly revives the dark angle in the interior. Lumisphery of size, e.g. 30/30 can be a module from which you can build an effective glowing wall.
It's beautiful and useful. Besides, it's a message...
The message itself crystallized due to the fact that utilizing useless textile waste, I created something valuable from it. 1 action led to another, highlighting the interrelationship of successive events. Related reality is nothing but the law of origin and effect. If we want to preserve the planet on which we live, we must remember this fundamental right that has been with us since the beginning of existence.
But this isn't your first action in protecting the planet?
In view of the tiny production scale of my activity, even if I care very much about the quality and durability of my brand of clothing, without forgetting the conditions in which production takes place, it is possible to talk about my actions for the planet only in the ideological sphere. That's why I'm focusing on it. Since the size of my production will not change the destiny of the planet significantly, it can only be a tiny signpost. I even think that in the case of luminosphere, I can face the charge of utilizing material that is not biodegradable. In advance of this allegation, I answer that if we treat the luminosphere as an component of interior decoration, specified as “work”, it would be best if it did not undergo biodegradation.
The discovery of the intraatomic planet made by the physics of the 20th century revealed that the nature of substance is constant motion and change. The improvement of your task Related Reality is that. Lumisphery involving nothing from recovery is not over, is it?
Impermanence, or inevitable change, is 1 of the fundamental Buddhist truths. It is good that modern discipline has confirmed what has been known for over 2,000 years. Both change and awareness of the relation of all things let us to flow with events. It is interesting, though sometimes painful process, which we can only manage to a certain extent. Believing in the right direction is very helpful. I'm trying not to lose her, possibly it takes me from 1 task to another.
Psychology doctor, environmental activist, author Ryszard Kulik in his latest book “Enoughly Good Life” writes a lot about how we are connected to nature and act as if we were not. We can't halt ourselves from consuming. Meanwhile, the better we are, the worse in nature. "Totally everything is connected and depends on each other. It's all co-existing and getting into relationships. Being in a relationship, being in a relation is simply a matrix of reality – the most basic fact concerning existence. To be means to coexist." I take it you can mention to the planet of fashion, clothing production?
I see it precisely the same way. I wanted to draw attention to the fact that we are connected, even due to the fact that we live on the same planet. The sense of separateness is just an illusion. We're on Earth due to the fact that there are inactive convenient conditions for creatures like us. However, this arrangement does not gotta last forever. Becoming pests, we cut the branch on which we sit. The deficiency of a sense of human connection to nature could indicate a disturbance. The question is whether we want to and whether we can fix anything else in this relationship.
Fashion balanced. What does that mean?
This phrase, mostly speaking, means production respecting the environment, as well as animal and human welfare.
What precisely does it mean that your collection is balanced?
If the collection is made from textile waste or good quality materials, it is flawlessly sewn, made in friendly conditions, and the tailor received a fair payment for it, after which specified a product finds a buyer who appreciates the quality and accepts the price, then you can talk about balance. I besides supply a service in case of harm to items produced in my studio.
Brussels, April 2024, fresh European Bauhaus – your collection has made a thrill there.
New European Bauhaus is simply a cyclical event that was created at the initiative of the European Commission. Its aim is to advance sustainable improvement in areas specified as construction, architecture and the textile industry. The task implements the assumptions of the European Green Deal and through fresh technologies, as well as through art, has the chance to accelerate the transformation of areas that have a crucial impact on the environment. The event itself opened Ursula von der Leyen and talked about creativity as a possible leading to changes essential for the environment. During this event, 16 designers from all over the planet were presented.
Who represented you on the NEB?
I had 2 worthy representatives. The manager of the Institute for Sustainable improvement and Environment at Łazarski University Agnieszka Oleksyn-Wajda had a speech on the NEB as a panelist and at the same time replaced me during the show. He's a individual like no 1 privy to fashion and ecology. He understands the concept of related reality. Like Agnieszka Ziółko from Agazi Brenda. The Agazi Brenda brand shoes and the Related Reality brand had a common exit at the show, not the first time. Agazi produces shoes from materials derived from apples, bananas, coconut and pineapple. This presentation turned out to be so fascinating for audiences and organizers that my brand was in the NEB Encyclopedia, which is presently in preparation, and is intended to inspire a fresh look at fashion.
Beauty in your surroundings is not always a substance of choice. How do you handle not being beautiful?
If nothing can change, I close my eyes.
VIOLA ŚpieECHOWICZ – fashion designer. She graduated from the Faculty of Fine Arts at the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń. He creates textile paintings with his own technique. Designs accessories, jewelry, glass and printing on fabric. Since 2006, he has been working under his own name, designing evening and casual collections. Its kind is consistent and recognisable, and an innovative approach to plan results in original, sculptural designs. She is the author of costumes designed to order the Bhutan royal family.
She received the title of Fashion Excellence of your kind magazine 3 times, the title of Designer of the Year awarded by the National Fashion Chamber and the Elle Trophy. She is simply a winner of many prestigious awards, including the awards of the Italian fashion fair Pitti Immagine. In 2016, at fresh York Fashion Week, the premiere of her Light Union collection was presented by CNN tv in the program "Made in Poland", describing Polish innovative phenomena. In 2017, at the European economical legislature she received the title Visionary awarded by the "Journal of Law Newspapers". In April 2024, her collection Related Reality (PR) was presented as part of the fresh European Bauhaus in Brussels. In May 2024, images from the PR series were exhibited in the Gdańsk City Gallery.
