Picture of artwork
Untitled

Ivana Šáteková is an artist and activist who focuses on social and political topics, reflects on Slovak folklore and literature, traditions, proverbs and last but not least, Slovak human nature, which she re-evaluates critically and offers her viewers a non-idealised image of our society, stripped of non-critical romanticism which is so often present in the interpretation of folk culture and traditions. She challenges our deeply rooted way of thinking inherited from generation to generation and stereotypical acceptance of “folk wisdom” full of anger, hatred and violence.

In 2017, Ivana Šáteková publicly debuted her work with her series of embroideries subversively titled Up the Heill, Down the Heill which merged together traditional folk embroidery techniques with her critical and ironic position toward Slovak society. She used sequences of images to comment on a whole spectrum of socially understated issues, such as violence on women, but also an increase in xenophobia, chauvinism, misogyny, racism or antisemitism. Her Untitled embroidery could be considered a part of this line of the artist’s portfolio as it was created a year later and it is a part of Nitra Gallery’s collection fund.  It bears all of the previous series’ characteristic features – it is inspired by figural embroideries from the Šoporňa region and embroidered into canvas using colourful moulines and full flat seam, the only difference being its fixation into a circular frame which is typically used during the embroidery process. At first glance, the depicted image shows an idyllic life of a young couple with its calm mood being disrupted only by the presence of an armed vehicle – a tank. As the tank’s gun barrel is jokingly used for drying laundry, this could be interpreted as a reference to the antiwar slogan Make love, not war from the 1960s, which gains a tragic new meaning considering the world’s current events. 

Ivana Šáteková’s embroidery is not just an alternative to the more traditional drawing or painting, but it forms a strategic artistic tool. Even though embroidery used to be considered a typically feminine and undervalued work, in the context of contemporary art, it has become a part of artistic activism as it is in the case of Ivana Šáteková’s work. 

Ivana Šáteková (* 1984, Bratislava) is an intermedia artist, object and installation creator. She studied at the Puppetry Department at the Academy of Performing Arts (2004 – 2006) and at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava. She concluded her studies at the Department of Painting at the +-XXl Studio led by prof. Daniel Fischer (2012). In 2013, she became a finalist for the Essl Art Award and in 2014, she received the Young Artist Award of the Tatra banka Foundation. She is a part of a trio of drawers called Dzive, she collaborates with a children’s magazine titled Bublina [Bubble]. She lives and works in Bratislava.

—Barbora Kurek Geržová

Notes

1 Studio XIII, Bratislava, 2017, curator Omar Mirza.

Inventory No.: F 166
Artist: Ivana Šáteková
Title: Untitled

Year: 2018
Technique: embroidery
Material: canvas
Dimensions: diameter 20 cm 
Signature: none