Lítost
2020
Lítost is a Czech word that, Dittmann said, “is untranslatable, but can roughly be said to be a feeling we have about an immense, negative and unchangeable breach of the order we expect the world to have.” The works in this exhibition are about nostalgia and a loss of home and the ways that memories are treasured and thought about after this loss. After being uprooted from her family home a few years ago, Dittmann, who has Czech ancestry, realized how important memories of her family are to her. She incorporates into her artwork the Czech folk art traditions that have been passed down to her, as well as images from her family’s history. She also incorporates sewing, embroidery and needlework skills that were practiced by her mother and other important women in her family into her work. Crystals also appear in her work and act as an important vehicle for these memories. They represent facets of her memory and function as a personal symbol for her. About the crystal works in this exhibition, Dittmann says, “They alter the memories portrayed, just as memories distort with passage of time.”
