This thesis deals with the Catholic sacral space in relation to art and textiles. The sacral space has been a special place from the very beginning of human existence. The most important purpose of the Catholic sacral space is to celebrate the Eucharist. The chosen sacral space is located on the last hill of Slovenske gorice, in Hum pri Ormožu. Church of St. John the Baptist is the main inspiration for the experimental part of this thesis.
Sacred art is a tool by means of which the believer can more easily and in greater depth understand the word of God. Throughout history, various artistic styles have been formed that have characterized the Catholic sacral space. The sacral cultural heritage that the Church has always cared for and preserved is extremely rich and picturesque in Slovenia. In our area we can find around 2400 churches.
Textiles are used in the sacral space mainly for decorative purposes, serving to warm up the space. Light plays an important role in textile installations, as textiles offer many possibilities for light manipulation. The concept that I, as the author of the installation with the artistic subject of textile placement in the sacral space, want to convey to visitors is the awareness of the invisible things that empower the individual and consequently the society.
In the process of exploration, artists that work with light, colour and movement have had the biggest influence on me. The ideas processed in the theoretical part are transferred into practice in the experimental part, which is divided into three parts: the Light Cycle, Genesis, and the Apocalypse.
These are all interconnected. The first part consists of a collection of photographs, which show the overlooked details in the church, which I saw only when they were illuminated by rays of light that were coming through the nave on sunny days. In the glimmer of light, I also saw threads of spider webs as thin as hairs that reminded me of textile yarns. In the second part, when I began to think more deeply about life and the connections between different contents, these barely visible thread masterpieces, skilfully spread across the space, led me to a special embroidery textile technique, with which I carried out a series of embroidery on raw wooden foundations that had just been sawed. I placed the products in various positions in the sacral space. Photographic interpretations of those, which can be used as a stand-alone artistic oeuvre or as a graphical accompaniment to parish publications, also turned out very well. From the planar thread structures formed by the layered rays of multicolored threads across one another, my creative thought led me to even more spatial thread formations, so that in the third part I actually made a larger one with a sculptural textile placement in the chosen sacral space of the church of St. John the Baptist in Hum pri Ormožu, which in its appearance, color and shape came to life in harmony with the architecture and equipment of the church.
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