3rd European textile and Fibre Art Festival - Catalogue

JASMINKA KONâIå
Croatia / Horvåtija
Born 1973
DruÏilovec 72
49214 Veliko Trgovi‰çe, Croatia
Education
1997 Zagreb Academy of Fine
Arts, Graphic Art
Department, Croatia
Selected exhibitions
2007 ”Supermen”, SC Gallery,
Zagreb, Croatia
2006 ”Fetish”, VN Gallery,
Zagreb, Croatia
2 nd Biennial of Fashion
Photography, VaraÏdin,
Croatia
2005 ”The Parallel Reality”,
Miroslav Kraljevic Gallery,
Zagreb, Croatia
Awards
1997 Fashion news, Rijeka,
Croatia
In this work I am playing with the visual information
available through digital and e-
media that are nowadays, at the time of
total globalization, the fundamental means
of communication. I am fascinated by fan
clubs (especially with the Hollywood stars’
websites designed by fans where you can
find and trade variety of information, such
as photos for example). Thus photography
becomes one of the fundamental means of
communication, and I thought it interesting
to transfer something, that has such a
media presence, into a decorative ”media
pattern”.
Images of actors were processed and multiplied
as a decorative textile design. I placed
today’s idols on T-shirts by means of inversion.
Whereas in the 1950s the irresistible
actors like Marlon Brando and James Dean
(whom media turned into stereotypes of
male beauty) promoted the T-shirt greatly by
wearing it, I use it inversely, only as a canvas
on which a design is printed. The design
resulted from minimalization and rhythmical
and geometrical repetition of today’s superheroes
images, such as Brad Pitt. Their
images are used only to form a decorative
design and cannot be recognized as themselves
until seen up-close. When seen from
a distance, the designs look just like some
traditional patterns.
The design is printed on a glossy, synthetic
material and is hermetically sealed inside a
plexiglass case, visible to all, but at the same
time autonomous and untouchable.
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