Neringa Studio is Lithuanian artist Neringa Dastoor. Simplicity, texture and mark making are the key elements of Neringa’s textile art which if she has to put into a category she describes as ‘docu-stitching.’ “I am putting out there what has already happened.”

Firstly where are you from and where are you based now?

It’s a good question. I was born in Lithuania, but I have never been properly ‘based’ anywhere for work (or life). Throughout my childhood and since I left Lithuania in 1999 I have never lived anywhere for longer than four or maybe five years. Since September 2019 I’ve been in Brooklyn, NY, and work from our largest room where we eat, play and do ‘yola’ (yoga) together with my 2 year old.

What is your background in textiles?

My mom is to blame for everything. Not only did she teach me various craft ways of working using thread and textiles but also to make things big. I am aware my latest pieces are small, intimate stitchings (which I call edgings because they literally edge to edge cover the piece of fabric it is stitched on). But these pieces are part of the works to develop from. I don’t see stitching any differently to mark-making in painting or as a mixed media sculpture. I moved from mark-making on textiles to stitching on textiles because of the newborn baby situation; I simply practically was able to make marks by stitch rather than paint.

How do you describe your work?

I can never shelter my work into a particular category. Long before any mark-making with paint or by stitch on textiles I did a lot of mixed media projects; some include collaborations resulting in interactive video and object installations. Also worth mentioning here is that my very first outlet through visual art was photography. I borrowed a manual Zenit from my uncle in Kaunas (Lithuania) in the 1990s when I was at art college. So from that perspective the core of my process spins around the concept of process itself: like photography I seem to aim to capture an ‘event’ in the most undisturbed or most natural, seeming-less way or form it appears. It could be part of a docu-stitching category if there was one! I am not creating or inventing anything, rather I am putting out there what has already happened. Hence most recent works even use thread from the same piece of fabric it is sewn on to. 

Can you describe the process of your work?

Well, I guess my previous question response touches on the process of how I work. My current sketchbook is a mix of video and photo capture of seen things, found objects and typed words. I have collected two buckets full of debris from digging in our new garden in Brooklyn: a mix of broken pieces of plates, rusty nails, a vintage ink bottle from 1800s, a shoe – all will be part of some work to come. I have typed out all sounds or words made or said from birth to two years of age by my newborn. A lot of times words become the underlying poem that leads the viewer through a particular stitched piece or series. 

Right now it’s not easy to find time with a toddler to put down thoughts on the go in an actual sketchbook although I am longing to do so very much. This huge drive to be doing more and more reminds me of another one of my mom’s influences: she once suggested I make a clown, a big clown. I started it but I never finished it. I still ponder upon that event whether it was a good or a bad thing, or how it is playing out within my art work making life…

What is it about using textiles as a medium that appeals to you?

Tactility, materialism. I was introduced to it so early in my life with my mom sewing and crocheting and also running craft after school workshops for girls where I used to hang out a lot after my classes. I guess paper seems too clean and crisp and requires a very thought-through mark… Fabric is more suggestive or demands a response just by having it in one’s hands, yet those delicate qualities give me an opportunity to resist the comfort and avoid giving in emotionally into its softness. Textiles at end of the day is a material we use closest to our body hence the intimate appeal conceptually, but it is just one of materials and can be distant or unfamiliar at the same time. 

I know it’s a tricky question but how long does a piece take?

It really varies but can be from five hours to few weeks (that’s scattered hours and minutes put together).

What is your career highlight to date?

Meeting Lawrence Weiner. I love his way of being, thinking. His work shines through with his sharp yet hidden sense of humour and humanity yet may appear quite cold and distant. Generally I love studying details of artworks or reading biographies, to in a way investigate how the day to day person, current and past personal histories are revealed within the artwork. 

I loved showing work in Tate Modern on the 6th floor, the background to my artwork was magnificent. Also memories of my video work shown on all screens possible in the HQ of BBC World Service new building in White City in London.

Do you have any advice for aspiring textile artists?

I can’t possibly give advice. It’s up to them to explore what, how and why they find something needs to be explored or not. 

Is there anything else you would like to include? 

I will be sending work to a curator Katya Kvasova who’s curated a show coming up in London in Nov 2020. Since the strict lockdown in NY I wasn’t able to get to know galleries or curators here but I hope I will have time to email & Zoom soon!

www.neringastudio.com

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