‘Empathic unsettlement’: trauma as spectre in contemporary textile art

Batorowicz, B; Palmer, J

‘Empathic unsettlement’: trauma as spectre in contemporary textile art

Batorowicz, B Palmer, J

Permalink

Publisher:: TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD
Publication Type:: Journal Article
Citation:: Journal of Aesthetics and Culture, 2024, 16, (1)
Issue Date:: 2024-01-01

Open Access

Copyright Clearance Process

Recently Added
In Progress
Open Access

This item is open access.

Adobe PDF

Download Published versionAdobe PDF (6.25 MB)

View on publisher's site

View statistics

Full metadata record

Field	Value	Language
dc.contributor.author	Batorowicz, B
dc.contributor.author	Palmer, J https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4131-4482
dc.date.accessioned	2025-04-23T04:06:41Z
dc.date.available	2025-04-23T04:06:41Z
dc.date.issued	2024-01-01
dc.identifier.citation	Journal of Aesthetics and Culture, 2024, 16, (1)
dc.identifier.issn	2000-4214
dc.identifier.issn	2000-4214
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10453/187002
dc.description.abstract	Autobiographical trauma art is a way to connect its viewers with the artist and her experience, and with the history in which this experience occurred. We argue that when autobiographical trauma art involves craft practices, such as working with textiles, the relationships between history, the artist, the artwork, and the viewer become particularly strong. The interplay between the present and past, viewer and artist, through fabrication and encounter constitute, we suggest, a series of hauntings that draw attention to something broader—structural violence, selective forgetting, or wilful ignorance—in which trauma was, and remains, situated. We use examples of textile artwork by Beata Batorowicz to explore autobiographical trauma art as a tactile, embodied response to the intergenerational trauma arising from her family’s experiences in Poland during World War II. A line of hauntings, traceable from the artist via the artwork to the viewer, parallels the flowing effects of intergenerational trauma, but the intervention of the artist, in creatively addressing her own ghosts, offers the viewer and a wider public the opportunity to experience her truth-telling in the form of “empathic unsettlement” (LaCapra 2014 (2001), 41) and a new comprehension of a past that has fallen by the wayside of history.
dc.language	English
dc.publisher	TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD
dc.relation.ispartof	Journal of Aesthetics and Culture
dc.relation.isbasedon	10.1080/20004214.2024.2432686
dc.rights	info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
dc.subject	1901 Art Theory and Criticism, 2001 Communication and Media Studies, 2002 Cultural Studies
dc.subject.classification	3601 Art history, theory and criticism
dc.title	‘Empathic unsettlement’: trauma as spectre in contemporary textile art
dc.type	Journal Article
utslib.citation.volume	16
utslib.for	1901 Art Theory and Criticism
utslib.for	2001 Communication and Media Studies
utslib.for	2002 Cultural Studies
pubs.organisational-group	University of Technology Sydney
pubs.organisational-group	University of Technology Sydney/DVC (Research)
pubs.organisational-group	University of Technology Sydney/DVC (Research)/Institute For Sustainable Futures
utslib.copyright.status	open_access	*
dc.rights.license	This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0). To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
dc.date.updated	2025-04-23T04:06:39Z
pubs.issue	1
pubs.publication-status	Published
pubs.volume	16
utslib.citation.issue	1

Abstract:

Autobiographical trauma art is a way to connect its viewers with the artist and her experience, and with the history in which this experience occurred. We argue that when autobiographical trauma art involves craft practices, such as working with textiles, the relationships between history, the artist, the artwork, and the viewer become particularly strong. The interplay between the present and past, viewer and artist, through fabrication and encounter constitute, we suggest, a series of hauntings that draw attention to something broader—structural violence, selective forgetting, or wilful ignorance—in which trauma was, and remains, situated. We use examples of textile artwork by Beata Batorowicz to explore autobiographical trauma art as a tactile, embodied response to the intergenerational trauma arising from her family’s experiences in Poland during World War II. A line of hauntings, traceable from the artist via the artwork to the viewer, parallels the flowing effects of intergenerational trauma, but the intervention of the artist, in creatively addressing her own ghosts, offers the viewer and a wider public the opportunity to experience her truth-telling in the form of “empathic unsettlement” (LaCapra 2014 (2001), 41) and a new comprehension of a past that has fallen by the wayside of history.

Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item:

http://hdl.handle.net/10453/187002