By Kristina Austi
Background
Kristina Austi (former name Kristina Daukintytė Aas) was born in 1978 in Klaipėda, Lithuania, and now resides in Bergen, Norway. Austi’s multifaceted work spans digital jacquard weave, embroidery, installations, video, and collage. Her artistic inquiries challenge our perceptual understanding and the relationship we maintain with our surroundings, pushing the boundaries of textile art into new realms.
Kristina Austi
After graduating from the Bergen Academy of Art and Design in 2011, Austi’s journey in the textile arts has been marked by a profound engagement with digital Jacquard weaving since 2013. This technique, which marries traditional weaving methods with digital technology, has allowed her to explore the woven surface in innovative ways. Her work as a part-time textile designer at Innvik AS, a small weaving mill in Western Norway, further enriches her practice, blending industrial techniques with her artistic exploration.
For Austi, the allure of digital weaving lies in its ability to extend the ancient craft of weaving into the digital age, allowing for unprecedented creativity and precision. This fusion respects the past and embraces the future, reflecting Austi’s deep respect for textile tradition alongside her commitment to innovation.
Current exploration
In my latest endeavour, Hybrid, I venture into the realm where folklore, poetry, and advanced technology converge, creating a narrative fabric that weaves together the mystic charm of Lithuanian folktales with the profound verses of William Blake. This project is an artistic endeavour and a textual exploration that bridges centuries and disciplines. It represents a dialogue between the ancient and the digital, embodying a quest for a new aesthetic and conceptual vocabulary in textile art.
Kristina Austi. “And it grew both day and night. Till it bore an apple bright” Photo: Øystein Thorvaldsen
Central to Hybrid is the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) as more than just a tool—it is a collaborator in the creative process, pushing the boundaries of traditional craftsmanship and digital innovation. By feeding AI algorithms with images of my handcrafted weaves, I challenge them to reinterpret 16th-century tapestries. The outcomes are mesmerizing yet unsettling, blurring the lines between creator and creation and prompting a reevaluation of authenticity, originality, and the role of the machine in art.
The project further explores the potential of AI to generate novel patterns that draw inspiration from historical textiles while simultaneously questioning established notions of artistic genesis and authenticity. This inquiry extends into the domain of 3D printing, where digital weaving patterns are transformed into tangible models. These intricate structures, reminiscent of futuristic cityscapes or sophisticated microchips, serve not only as a testament to the versatility of weaving techniques but also as a metaphor for the intricate interplay between tradition and innovation.
Kristina Austi. “The Princess Tears”
The exhibition Hybrid encapsulates this duality, showcasing the collaboration between artisanal expertise and machine intelligence. It’s an invitation to perceive textile art as a tactile experience and a medium for conceptual exploration and technological experimentation. I aim to showcase the tangible outcomes of this artistic journey and initiate a conversation about the evolving landscape of art in the digital age.
Hybrid I marks the beginning of this larger project, with further developments and revelations anticipated in Part II, to be exhibited at KRAFT, Bergen, in April and May, 2024. One selected piece from this series will be displayed at the “Tendencies 24” exhibition at F15 in Moss from March to June. Later in 2024, I will show the project in Lithuania.
In 2023, I started my own company, VEVFT, together with three of my former students. This initiative is born out of a deep-seated desire to explore the boundaries of digital weaving myself and cultivate a thriving professional environment for this innovative craft in Norway.
Through VEVFT, I am dedicated to sharing the knowledge and insights I have garnered over years of experimenting and creating with digital looms. It is a platform for learning, collaboration, and experimentation designed to empower artists to harness the potential of digital weaving in their work. The establishment of this organization reflects my belief in the power of community and education in advancing the arts and crafts. It’s gratifying to witness the impact of these efforts, as a growing number of young artists are now embracing digital looms in Scandinavia. As digital weaving continues to evolve, so will the ways we think about, create, and interact with textiles.
March 2024
Editor’s note: The author sent a link to a review of her current show at the Soft gallery, with the pieces shown above, by Katia Maria Hassve for paragone.no. Because it is difficult to understand the impact of Austi’s tapestries with photos, it is fun to read Hassve’s reactions to seeing them in person. For example, “Turning to the right, I encounter another impressive tapestry with the text “Swim here, swim here, little boy, I will give you white shirt and red ribbon!” This piece immediately captures my attention. I begin to wonder: Is this a forest? Is the forest burning, or is something else happening? My gaze shifts to the stones in the water, and I ask myself if someone could drown there. Could someone drown in the tapestry itself? I notice that this seems more intricate, and I start to think that some form of data must have been used in the creation process. It’s almost like a woven snippet of a video game.”