Homemade Cure for Digital Spleen

My hometown does not have an exhibition space designated for contemporary art. Moving back in recently and experiencing a desire to do a project here, I began to list the alternatives. One option that came to mind is a memorial house dedicated to the Romanian historian, politician, and writer Nicolae Iorga (1871 - 1940), managed and curated by Botoşani County Museum of History. I felt a connection with this place, as it reconstructs a domestic environment and the concept of dwelling is something that I tackled in previous works. But the primary interest and challenge would be to engage the public in a new way by initiating a two channel discourse, comprising both linear and non-linear narratives, high and low culture, edited content with controlled limits and improvised resourcefulness, public and personal space.

Another identifiable layer is on the conventional notions of achievement, applicable to a discussion on gender roles. A secondary presence within the house, although very much an instrumental figure, is the mother, Zulnia Iorga.

There is an enormous quantity of information that I have to process somehow. I find this worth pursuing because even if I fail in my capacity as an artist, employing this approach would still make a valuable stand for my belief that art is the most useful tool to the task of disambiguation and meaningful archiving, some of the today's essential operations.

The preliminary visit clarified that I would have to diverge from painting, my usual medium, to make my temporary intervention consistent with the pre-existing conditions. I noticed a need for something more insubstantial that would hold an image - objects that could be placed anywhere in space without causing any damaged or much interference. One idea I am following is of manufacturing several pillows in needlepoint, as a pretext for advancing through the rendered images concepts of my own. Thus, for now, I am engaged in what might be seen as an idiosyncratic and counterintuitive practice, of needlepoint, as it is imperative to see what is the first work I can produce in this manner, that I would consider a significant addition to my portfolio. The project is set to evolve in a way that is to be found through practice.