Aino Ojala
I Feel You
24.6.-17.7.2022
Meet the artist on Saturday 2 July or Sunday 3 July at 12-5 pm.
The exhibition features manually and digitally woven multilayered Jacquard textiles that, when combined with electronics, react to the touch of an exhibition visitor.
In addition to the cotton warp, the textile materials include mohair, wool, linen and electrically conductive threads that together and separately strive to create multisensory, touchable worlds.
The theme is inspired by an interest in the interaction between the human body and materials, especially textiles, and an interest in conductive textile materials and weaving. The works are based on my master’s thesis in which I examined what kinds of textile surfaces people can identify through the sense of touch and what kind of touch is soothing.
The exhibition theme emerged from the yearning for touching and closeness. During the global pandemic and the ongoing wave of extinction, I imagined a world where we are increasingly physically separated from each other and other animals. What if, in the future, we are accompanied by robot pets and people? I speculated on how textiles could create an illusion of being close to another living being and being touched by a living creature.
Through my works that move in the borderland between art and design, I want to bring weaving as a process and as an art into a form of an exhibition.
You can touch and feel the works. However, I ask you to be careful as they are sensitive.
Textile design, weaving and electronics by Aino Ojala
Aino Ojala (b. 1991) is a Helsinki-based artist and textile designer. She graduated from the Turku Arts Academy in 2018 and is currently finishing her Master of Arts studies in Textile De-sign at Aalto University. She works with textiles and ceramics. The exhibition is a continuation of Ojala’s interest in the sense of touch, skin and experiencing the world through touch as well as crafts and material work.
Thank you for supporting my work: Tex-Inno / Finnish Textile & Fashion, Aalto University and Arts Promotion Centre Finland. Thank you Aalto staff for the great help.
Contact details
ainoojala.com
aino.ojala(a)elisanet.fi
Instagram: ojalaaino