Garaža Kamba

GallerySoft Waste as an artwork is the culmination of Marina Rajšić’s artistic cycle in which she observes and approaches wool from multiple observational points. Essentially, this unabridged artistic research heavily relies on three years of exploration of the material from different perspectives where the author meticulously gathers knowledge of shepherds, processors, textile workers, small businesses, non-government organisations, regional administrations, various scientific disciplines, as well as individuals whose lives were or are bound to sheep. With attested accumulated skills and experiences, the artist compliments them with her own trial-and-error method of working, in which she deals with everything, from seizing “discarded” fleece, to time-consuming refinement and washing by hand, as well as encompassing methods of its treatment. The Unraveling (2023.) and The Cover (2024.), the last two works which were produced by hand as textile objects (a tapestry and quilt respectively), contrast the wool that is processed, pure and held in high regard against her concealed, shabby and dirty side which is inseparable part of its lifespan.

This new work leans on the established practice, where the spotlight is given to wool’s phases of development, or better said – to its stages before it forms a well recognised form of a thread. By gathering, combing through, cleaning, rummaging, spinning, knitting, the history and biological coexistence of a singular fiber is being exposed. Revealed through discipline and devotion, fragments of this excruciating process reflect not only all-encompassing subtle, human and random interactions, but also systemic, scientific and ecological aspects and ramifications. Accentuating the processuality, especially its time component, Soft Waste opens up to its second exhibition segment condense in a form of the flag. It manifests as time caught in classical symbolic representation of tradition, the same one we affiliate with sheep farming regions, objects and customs found in Lika, Krk, Pag and others. With heritage which shouldn’t only be a historical value, but rather the living pulse of contemporaneity.