Elena Pipinienė (b. 1920, Lithuania – d. 2009, Lithuania)
Audinys, 1995

Pipinienė has ignited my interest for textiles. Her weavings expose a personal take on traditional folk patterns. Grounded in tradition, but still recognisably own. There is another interesting layer of meaning going on as well – how “traditional patterns” become formalised abstractions of very particular figurative motifs.

Under Pipinienės guidance I’ve acquired some basic skills in weaving, embroidery, tapestry and rug making. While I’ve been working with textiles very sparsely later, I am often transferring this thinking patterns into other media – weaving wires, imagery, sounds; looking for ways to abstract figurative variety into a particular minimalistic pattern etc.