Living in an accelerated modern world, among overstimulating devices, never having the chance to rest our eyes and souls, might be the greatest challenge for humans to concur within the near future. I think that we should have the luxury of observing one object slowly. My aim is to create such objects. I experienced that nature has the most relaxing effect, hence it is vital that we find our way back to it. I often observe nature, its beauties, and miracles to be able to build up a little universe of plant-and animal-like sculpture-beings. Some years ago I came across a technique, called pin-tucking. Traditionally it is used to decorate dresses by folding the fabric and sewing every fold. After some experiments, I realized that this technique enables me to create three-dimensional objects. Due to pleating, a striped surface comes to exist, that can be transformed into petals or balls by further shaping processes. I am impressed with the way the pin-tucked surface is rippling when I move it. I wanted to preserve this dynamism along with the fabric-like qualities of the textile. I managed to maintain softness and yet to compress the movement to a moment, to freeze it by using cornstarch and textile glue. The silk I use seems to be a living fabric itself. Silk dupioni has prominent slubs and an almost rustic look with a crisp feel. The results are objects that seem to be natural but also bearing the touch of my hands.

Kinga Földi’s silk sculptures are intentionally busy, even chaotic. Though relatively small in scale, each sculpture is covered in folds, gaps, and caverns within the fabric that invite the gaze to linger. They demand attention, requiring the viewer to pause, take a breath, and look. Földi makes these objects with the intention of interrupting the social media scroll or the meandering of a gallery space on autopilot, demanding the visitor to stop and reflect on what they see. The sculptures invite questions: “How was that made? What is it made of? What does it represent?” In looking closer, one finds answers through what they see when they take the time to pause, to consider, and to breathe.

The artist uses a pin-tuck technique typically reserved for two-dimensional clothing like blouses to create the free-standing, three-dimensional forms that appear organic as they relate to the natural world. She makes the silk into sculptures that are dense rather than light, structured rather than flowing. Földi’s work in their finished form extenuate the crispness and elegant liveliness of the dupioni silk and its rustic look to create sculptural objects that are also completely in tune with nature’s most basic cellular forms and structures. 

Many of Földi’s titles are simple references to plants or the natural world, such as Mushroom, Chrysanthemum, Gingko, Blossom, or Swimming. It illuminates in name and form how the artist takes nature as her inspiration. Soft beige silk is folded to evoke fungi in a forest. Twisting, overlapping forms of off-white fabric resemble a flower blooming in the spring or the spikes of a succulent. The organic forms invite touch and curiosity, even when viewed solely through photographs as they are presented here for this issue of Venti. The softness of the silk that would typically flow when the wind blows is pinned down and restructured by Földi in her sculptures, evoking different natural rhythms: the silk flower blossom that helps create the atmosphere we breathe or the evocation of a form swimming through water. Reflecting on these silken sculptural forms, the viewer is reminded of their own breath as well as the natural environment that provides our inhales and houses our exhales.

- Jenna Wendler