Loud volumes soft stuff – an exhibition in Officinet 2021.
This exhibition is a collaboration between Sofia Hagström Møller and Professor Marianne
Fairbanks from Madison Wisconsin, USA.
Maj 2021
The original plan was that, Marianne and I were going to work together on new woven works
at the Tc1: which is the Loom at the Danish Art Workshops in Copenhagen. However, it quickly became apparent that the technology in the loom was not working optimally. The loom is old and needs to be replaced with an upgraded version of this high-tech loom, but due to the Corona epidemic, it was not possible for the Art Workshops to get the new digital loom installed before our stay began.
This led to the collaboration between me and Marianne being carried out with an ocean between us… Marianne at a tc2 loom in Madison, and me at a semi-functioning tc1 loom at the Danish Art Workshops in Copenhagen.
The original weaving files, which I had carefully prepared for the stay, had to be redone and replaced, as the loom could not handle too many pixels being transferred digitally at the same time. The larger and more complicated the pattern was, the more fragile the output, and therefore contained more errors and glitches from the digital system. This presented a significant challenge in producing works for our exhibition in Officinet.
Me and Maríanne’s collaboration for the exhibition is about weaving as a starting point, both historically and in terms of craftsmanship.
From Frustration to Aesthetic Exploration
In my development of works, I have taken as my inspiration, a tablecloth woven by my grandmother in the early 1900s. I have used the same pattern as her (Daldräll or Overshoot) both as an enlarged pattern in itself, but also as a filling pattern in the small scale details. During my stay at this semi-functioning tc1 loom, I have tried to meet my challenges with a creative openness and make use of my experience in the development of samples and works. A process that has now taken me much further in my use of unusual and thicker materials to weave with. After all, one aspect of creativity is the ability to adapt and indeed grow with new situations presented.
So I have become very excited about using thin wooden sticks in the loom, and I have also spray painted them in various patterns, after which I have woven them into the Daldrall.
When I see the final works cut down, I am after all, a little grateful for the creative process that has pushed me, albeit via great frustration, into new avenues of aesthetic exploration. I have also been greatly encouraged in this process by my creative sparring with Marianne.
For me this has reaffirmed a kind of belief that my creative reflexes can also take me further in my artistic endeavours, and my stay at the Danish Art Workshops certainly has. And I have become motivated to create, and even more curious about the design of my future works.
