Aleksejs Mališevs

There is a pattern in all of that. 

Stories that are being told, spoken words, expressions and sayings have an imprint on a human way of looking at the surrounding us reality. In this project I am working with my mother tongue, Russian. The central focus of the project are words and phrases that stuck to me while growing up. Some of them convey the notion of oppression which I associate with the Soviet past that Russian language is carrying. Verbal communication dictates the prism through which reality is eventually to be perceived. 

When You Grow Up, You'll Understand is an exploration of the interrelation between linguistic patterns and weaving patterns. Since weaving is dealing with the constant repetitiveness of ornaments, there is a perceived similarity to language considering the repetition of words, narratives, and phrases. 

In my work, language is considered a piece of textile, and textile a piece of woven narrative. 

As part of the research, I distinguish different patterns in language in order to explore the structures of oppression that they create. In using artificial material such as internet cables and organic material including textile and the non- anthropocentric entity SCOBY, my aim is to create an environment for their interaction as an opportunity to change fixed, oppressive patterns.