Zuzana Šidlíková
Work of Ildikó Dobešová remains very closely connected to the machine knitted items from which she makes clothes and accessories. Ildikó, however, makes regular jumps into free style art work which she presents at exhibitions and symposiums, both at home and abroad. Ildikó started her artistic career some fifteen years ago, when she graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts and Design.
“Both types of work I do blend and coexist together nicely. I make applied art items for the longer fraction of a year, this is what I do for living. It is therefore a refreshing experience to do free style art work at symposiums in summer. I transfer some procedures I invent there such as folding, interweaving, layering, combining colours into my utility work. I find factories and paper-mills very inspiring – waste being recycled there, items tied into bundles and waiting to be re-used… Usually, I let my intuition guide me and I play with materials. An outcome of such method is often a matter of coincidence – incidental combination of colours or an interesting structure. I seek to use original characteristics of materials.
I decided for knitted fabric for its elasticity. For me, a body is a construction covered up with clothes. I used to work with knitted fabric as with a sculpturing material, now I incline to “body work”. I started to concentrate on patterns. I used to work with clothes as with an object, now I am more into fashion trends. I believe that looser clothes with plastic draperies remain trendy.”
In addition to her trademark fashion clothes, Ildikó Dobešová makes jewellery items – “a ready-to-be-used textile miniature”. “I started with brooches. Initially, they were made to fasten parts of fabric. A brooch allows freedom of choice, you can keep clothing free, without fastening or use a brooch to fasten material. I use jewellery to make the clothing complete. Jewellery is a detail that, combined with clothing, produces a unified style. I do not limit myself to brooches only, I design whole sets of same style including necklaces, bracelets, pins, etc.”
Expected projects: “I am preparing items for a miniature exhibition in Bratislava. Besides, I was invited to participate in the 3rd Triennal of Textile Art Szombathely and in the 25th Year International Textile Art Graz. You must pay a fee to participate in the latter projects. I have to make a decision on which pieces I would take and if I register. The projects are quite expensive and time-consuming. It is, however, the only opportunity for a textile designer to compare his/her work with other designers.”