Světlana Pavlíčková | Milieu
07/10/22–15/01/23

Světlana Pavlíčková is an important artist from the Hradec Králové region. A lace designer, she here presents her work Milieu, an ongoing project spanning many years, in the space of the White Cube. Many pieces from milieu – whether in the form of an embroidered doily or an opulent tablecloth – are created with vintage or found objects and, as well as being a painstaking work, are testaments to personal experiences and stories, while offering a refuge from the world. Besides a fine sense of aesthetics, Světlana Pavlíčková’s work is characterized by her lace-making background, a love of textiles, and a desire to collect a variety of objects. The exhibition is complemented with statues by Karel Hyliš and Miloslav Chlupáč from the collection of the Hradec Králové Gallery.

The exhibition presents a complete overview of the artist’s understanding of textiles, which uses an approach that weaves together visual and material aspects with cultural, social, and historical themes. In her current work, Světlana Pavlíčková breaks the traditional rules of her own craft by using diverse combinations of materials and techniques. Through this process, she teaches herself that there is no such thing as a ‘wrong’ approach. She shows that every kind of material can be recycled and that one can select only what’s necessary from the techniques one learns, in order to tell a new story. She draws great inspiration from the Japanese Boro technique, sometimes called “the repair technique”. Since the 15th century, Japanese women have used this technique to extend the life of damaged clothing and linen. The years of fixes resulted in unique articles of clothing which told family stories going back several generations. Světlana Pavlíčková, too, is a lover of stories, which she herself invents, writes, and usually records in her textile creations. We can even find embroideries of messages written in the artist’s hand. Besides impersonal stories, the artist also includes her own diary entries and both happy and painful memories.

The artist’s process is not – as she herself says – conceptual. It begins with finding materials which she may have inherited, saved, received as a gift, or “hunted down” in second hand shops and sales. The departure points of her work are therefore collected, combined elements – various cloths, drawings, things made by her children and grand-children, and objects which caught her attention, but also the handicrafts of unknown artists, which she uses to create brand new objects.

Světlana Pavlíčková (*1954, Hradec Králové) studied bobbin lacemaking at the Vamberk branch of the Educational Institute of Artistic Production in Prague. She initially applied her lacemaking skills with the Vamberecká krajka (Vamberk Lace) cooperative (1973–1978), where she later worked as a designer (1978–1991). In 1991 she began focusing on her own creations. She publishes bobbin lace patterns and teaches in the field of bobbin lacemaking and manual patchwork. Pavlíčková has won numerous awards for her work, including first prize at the LUV workers’ competition in the field of bobbin lacemaking (1980, 1985), the AMTEX Klatovy grand prix for textile appliqué (1987, 1990, 1993), second place for a Star of David design from the Jewish Museum in Prague (2004), and the Bronze Bobbin at the Biennial of Czech Lacemaking in Vamberk (2008). In 2022, she was honored with a diploma from the Vamberk Museum of Lace. Her work, which she has exhibited in group and solo exhibitions at home and abroad since 1978, can be found in the collections of the Vamberk Museum of Lace, the Prachatice Museum of Lace, the Jewish Museum in Prague, the Třebechovice Museum of Nativity Scenes, and the Museo del Ricamo e del Tessile in Valtopina, Italy.

The exhibition was supported by the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic and the Statutory City of Hradec Králové.