P O T E N T I A
Solo Exhibition
Marijos ir Jurgio Slapeliu namas-muziejus Vilnius Lithuania 2020
Plato proposed that everything on earth is what it is by participating in the ideal. So a shoe is such a thing in as much as it partakes in the perfect shue in the world of ideas. Aristotle was his student and thought that to be too abstract. He proposed a simpler solution. Everything on earth, is just two things. First it is matter / material (efni) and as such is a possibility – has potential. Secondly, every material has some form or another. Each matter has form and the form of the thing turns pure unformed matter into something.
An unformatted marble is for the sculpturer just a possibility – potentia – and then he starts to work at it – giving it form. With the form the unformatted marble – the possibility – gains some actuality.
Aristotelian form is like a thought (structure without matter), whereas Aristitelian matter is like possibility (matter without form).
Ásta uses natural material that used to have some form or another is restructured – reformed – so as to give it new form, possibilities, potentia.
In his psychological work Aristotle explains that in perception we see pure form and Ásta re-arranges natural material, inviting the audience to perceive new forms in it.
Iceland‘s threads are old and new, multiple and many-sided. Some lie deep within the nation‘s consciousness, whilst others are dynamically woven into the culture of both urban life and rural life. They get distinguished, find their way up to the surface and back into existence. Travelling into oceans, out to space and over to other countries. There, the threads connect with foreign threads, bond together with new and old. ENDLESS POSSIBILITIES.
Some will split, others interlace – BECOME ONE.
To travel the world with threads in her arms gives Ásta Vilhelmína Guðmundsdóttir endless options. What will catch her eye? What comes up to the surface? What wants to step into existence?
Through textile Ásta interprets connections between different cultures. She directs us in seeing what unites us, and seeing our possibilities in finding common grounds throughout different cultures. Tangibly.
The soft, white blankets give us the sense of dreaming, the sense that we can allow ourselves to dream, come together, and the threads are endless. L E T U S D R E A M.
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Þræðir Íslands nýir og gamlir eru margir og fjölþættir. Sumir liggja djúpt i vitund þjóðarinnar en aðir vefjast kvikir í menningarlífi sveita og borga. Þeir greinast og leita undir yfirborð tilverunnar og aftur upp. Fara út í sjó, upp í geim og til annarra landa. Þar tengjast þræðirnir nýjum böndum, bindast saman við gamalt og nýtt. ENDALAUSIR MÖGULEIKAR.
Sumir klofna aðrir vefjast saman – VERÐA EITT.
Að ferðast um heiminn með þræði í fanginu veitir Ástu Vilhelmínu Guðmundsdóttur endalausa möguleika. Hvað kemur hún auga á? Hvað vill koma upp á yfirborðið og verða sýnilegt?
Með textíl túlkar Ásta tengingar ólíkra menningarheima. Hún beinir sjónum okkar til þess sem sameinar okkur og um leið möguleika okkar til að finna sameiginlega fleti ólíkra heima. Áþreifanlega.
Hin mjúku, hvítu teppi gefa okkur til kynna að við getum látið okkur dreyma, koma saman og þræðirnir eru endalausir. L Á T U M O K K U R D R E Y M A.
