PARTYING WITH DIONYSUS: CELEBRATION, FEMININITY, TEXTILES

Object of the Week | Caitlin McCurdy

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Earlier this year, the Textile Museum of Canada was gearing up for a new exhibition of fibre artist Anna Torma’s works, titled Permanent Dangers. Torma uses techniques like embroidery, felting, photo transfer, collage, and quilting to weave narratives of popular culture, mythology, traditional Hungarian textiles, and her own personal stories of family, immigration, and joy. In an effort to highlight some objects made in this century, I’d like to discuss one of Anna Torma’s incredible pieces, inspired by the Greek god Dionysus, aptly titled Dionysia. This artwork brings together elements of mythology, traditionally “feminine” crafts, and nudity into a rich tapestry of life and celebration. I’m intrigued by this use of ancient myth in contemporary art, and it serves as my entry point into engaging with her work.

Dionysia, Anna Torma (2020) | Source

Textile art has always walked a line between craft and the artworld. The common understanding of why this is the case is that sewing, embroidery, and the like were considered “women’s work,” kept in the realm of the home and recreation, not for the sophisticated art connoisseur. Torma herself was introduced to embroidery and sewing by her mother and grandmother who taught her while she was growing up in Hungary. Her work often explores these ideas of fixed femininity and feminine decorum in order to destabilize them, which in turn elevates her “craft-based creative practices” in the eyes of some art critics.

In Dionysia, Torma draws inspiration from elements of Greek mythology. Dionysus served a number of purposes within the Greek pantheon. He was the masked god, the effeminate god, the “great liberator through wine," and later the patron of the arts. A festival held in his name, Great Dionysia, was a weeks long festival of renewal involving wine, the performance of plays, and “overall lechery.” The air of festivity and celebration is reflective in the brightness and action within Dionysia, in which nudity is just a piece of the celebration.

Detail of Dionysia | Source

Femininity, female sensuality, and nudity often play a role in Torma’s works. In Dionysia, they work as a part of celebration of life as inspired by the myth of Dionysus, particularly its more lecherous elements. Nudity is only one of several elements that can bring you in to follow the rich narrative taking place within Torma’s embroidered storytelling. In an article for White Hot Magazine, James D. Campbell discusses the multiple entry points Torma’s works provides. He describes engaging with her work as “non-hierarchical entry and exit points in an acentered and labyrinthine diaspora,” using the specific term Rhizomatic Wanderlust. This description resonated with me, as you can choose any corner of the tapestry to engage with and be brought into a narrative of femininity, domesticity, or sensuality and move through the piece in any direction you choose. Then choose a new spot and begin the whole process again.

Entry Points into Torma's work | Source

In this particular corner of Torma’s piece, nudity is interspersed with elements invoking the changing of seasons. Great Dionysia was held in March, a festival of renewal at the onset of a new spring. As a god also associated with rebirth, the influence of Dionysus is also implicit in the scenes of greenery and flowers surrounding a snowman. This whimsical play of seasons, and the humour with which the nudity is presented influences the overall air of celebration that permeates the piece and allows viewers to string together a narrative as they engage with its specific elements.

Now, my specialty is not contemporary art nor art theory and my reading of this piece is based solely on my own feelings and interpretation based on initial engagement with the piece. But I think that is something that Torma’s work welcomes as each piece is so visually busy it has something for everyone to connect to initially. The use of techniques traditionally not associated with the fine arts world also alludes to this accessibility.

In researching this article, I also learned more about the Textile Museum and its dedication to exploring the world through textile arts. Although the museum is closed right now due to COVID-19 lockdowns, I look forward to a time when I can visit and see how my impression of Dionysia changes. I long to engage with Dionysia in person and see how this process differs from simply zooming in and out of the pictures available on the Textile Museum’s website. I’d love to engage with the tactile elements of the piece, how the stitching changes the narrative, or the fabric emphasizes certain portions of the story it is telling.

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