TRAUMA PORN

“Brutal Honesty”, “Formal Moral”, “Generational Trauma”: these are some of the slogans Gvantsa Jishkariani embroiders on her works. They also describe the special aura surrounding her art. Jishkariani, who was born the same year that Georgia regained its independence, can indeed be brutally honest, and she does combine formalism with morality, but generational traumas are also reflected in her works. The starting material for these pieces is the decorative tapestries that were popular in the Soviet Union, which the artist deconstructs and processes by applying embroidered mottos. The language she uses, bordering on parody, is a mixture of political banners, academic jargon, and notes from therapy sessions. By juxtaposing post-Soviet material culture with the newspeak of Global English, Jishkariani creates unique, artisanal objects—captivating souvenirs of our contemporary political apocalypse.