Morta Jonynaitė
An artist who uses slow textile
Morta Jonynaitė (b. 1995) is an artist who uses slow textile techniques and explores relevant issues or specific phenomena through tactility and manual work. She graduated with a BA in Text, Theory, Textile (TXT) from the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam, and currently lives and works in Vilnius.
Artwork „Second Skin
“L said that the most important thing for her is to be seen. She has been taking estrogen for some time now and her skin is getting softer and thinner – the first signs of feminisation. Like most transpeople, L is waiting for further medical interventions that will help her feel better about her body and gain society’s acceptance.”
The work captures the process of gender transitioning – the process of becoming a woman, both physically and through social relationships. Handtwisted and woven ropes are used to form pieces of ‘skin’ from individual strands, acting as a filter for internal and external experiences through bodily sensations. Like woven pieces of human skin stretched over a metal structure in an operating theatre, the spindly, bleeding warp denotes the complex and painful procedures that help to start a new life – a life under a second skin.
