SOFIA HAGSTRÖM MØLLER & MARIANNE FAIRBANKS
LOUD VOLUMES SOFT STUFF
SOFIA HAGSTRÖM MØLLER & MARIANNE FAIRBANKS
JUNE 1 - JULY 4, 2021
OFFICINET
Bredgade 66
1260 Copenhagen
Denmark
dcod.kdk
Fairbanks
Zigs Zags, Zags Zig, 2018 (floor)
Hand woven on a Digital TC2 loom, tencel, nylon, polyester, paper 53 cm x 107 cm
SHARING THE JOY OF WEAVING
Weaving Tricksters
Marianne Fairbanks and Sofia Hagström Møller’s transatlantic collaboration, which resulted in the exhibition Loud Volumes, Soft Stuff, is a potent example of the rich rewards of breaking new ground. By daring to leave one’s comfort zone and embracing new opportunities, at a professional and a personal level each artist’s level of creativity exponentially expanded.
The two weavers first met via Instagram and followed each other’s accounts, ‘liking’ and commenting on each other’s work. Some time later, when Fairbanks was planning a workshop in Copenhagen, she reached out to Hagström Møller. The textile medium served as common ground and connected the two artists. Their meeting in the Danish capital was the first time they met face to face, and after they had spent a day together, with Hagström Møller in the role of tour guide, Scandinavia and America had become a little more closely interwoven.
Their meeting in Copenhagen and Hagström Møller’s subsequent residency in the United States at Fairbanks’ invitation became the real-life junctures that led to the weavers’ unique collaborative project. A project that, like the title of their
first joint exhibition, embodies the powerful potential of interweaving Scandinavian and American textile traditions. Finding common ground between two continents, the two weavers began considering staging a common exhibition. Due to the Covid pandemic, a joint residency at the Danish Art Workshops had to be cancelled, and the weavers were confined to their respective countries. Their collaboration returned to the digital realm, combined with tangible elements in the form of packets of yarn, sketches and weaving samples that were sent back and forth across the Atlantic to enable the hands-on engagement that is so crucial to any weaver. How do the colors look and behave in real life? How do the fibres reflect the light? How can woven textiles be sculptural? How can weaving be used, with all of its limitations and potentials to make something new? There are many questions and considerations to address before the actual weaving begins – for Hagström Møller, on the digital TC1 loom at the Danish Art Workshops, and for Fairbanks, on the digital TC2 loom in the Department of Design Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
During their work on the exhibition in Copenhagen, the two different weaving
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traditions became increasingly evident. With her artistic background, Fairbanks approaches the loom as a tool that she uses to bring out her ideas. Whether her pieces are in fact woven or merely inspired by classic weaving traditions and patterns is of secondary concern to Fairbanks. Her primary focus is on the resulting artistic statements, in this case exploring how the TC2 digital loom can create trompe l’oeil effects of volumetric space that employ weave structures that form tactile narratives that trick the eye. Hagström Møller’s approach is different. As the granddaughter of a traditionally trained Swedish weaver, she grew up with an appreciation for the textile craft and techniques. She masters both the analogue and the digital loom and can weave the classic patterns in her
sleep. These classic virtues are such an integral part of Hagström Møller’s professional DNA that breaking free from them was a major effort as well as a journey of discovery. A journey that involved re-examining, reconsidering, and reinterpreting tradition. This new outlook is essential and one of the interesting outcomes of the encounter between Fairbanks and Hagström Møller. Fairbanks’ intuitive and free approach to the loom, patterns and textile expressions –inspired, for example, by images she sees in a book – only relates to tradition to the extent it provides inspiration and serves her artistic purpose. The liberated creative exuberance of two adventurous textile minds, combined with the rich historical weaving tradition implicit in Hagström
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Møller’s work and the free artistic interpretation of Fairbank’s pieces, opened both weavers’ eyes to the vital and fruitful potential in this encounter of two cultures, two contexts, two backgrounds and traditions. Their collaboration has given Hagström Møller renewed respect for and appreciation of her own traditional crafts background and her classic training and mastery of weaving techniques. An awareness that this background is a strength but that it may also restrict her development as an artist. Fairbanks, on the other hand, has gained a deeper appreciation of traditional weaving techniques and how a craft-based approach can add new layers to both analogue and digital textile storytelling. On the other hand, she is even more convinced that the intuitive textile language she is creating does not necessarily have to relate to a tradition or be the bearer of historical origins; that the artistic endeavour is sufficient in itself, as long as it springs from a sincere passion for the textile medium.
In the Danish exhibition, the works of the two weavers engage in a dialogue that unfolds in form and colour, patterns and techniques, tradition and innovation . Older pieces by the two weavers were included in the exhibition, serving as a foundation that both weavers integrated into their new pieces. Earlier graphic blackand-white weavings by Fairbanks had inspired Hagström Møller to
experiment with this binary colour scale, just as Hagström Møller’s use of gradient colour had impacted Fairbanks’ new works. Their mutual respect for each other’s backgrounds, sources of inspiration and colour scales provided new insights that encouraged both artists to explore new ground, revealed new possibilities and resulted in new works of art they would never have created without this cultural encounter.
Another joint focal point of the Copenhagen exhibition which the two artists pursue further in their upcoming exhibition is the spatial aspect, the hanging and frames of the textile pieces, which adds a new perspective that is integrated as a new feature. A new design dimension and an added layer of storytelling that functions on equal terms with the textile pieces themselves and enables a new dialogue in a three-dimensional and spatial language where the frames that hold the pieces add an accent that raises the multi-faceted expression to new heights. That is a fascinating insight and an original approach that will hopefully be just as “loud” and “soft” as the Copenhagen showcase of the impact of two contexts, two creative minds and two sets of skilful hands meeting in the shared joy of weaving.
- Charlotte Jul Design and craft art curator, consultant, writer, editor www.charlottejul.co4
Hagström Møller
Daldräll Series Birthday Cake, Yellow, 2021
Mixed materials handwoven on the TC1 60 cm x 60 cm
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Hagström Møller
Daldräll Series Birthday Cake, Pink, 2021
Mixed materials handwoven on the TC1 60 cm x 60 cm
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Hagström Møller
Daldräll Series Graffiti, 2021 (floor)
Spray painted wooden sticks hand woven on the TC1
100 cm x 160 cm
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Fairbanks
Holding Pattern (Magnolia), 2021
Laser cut high density polyethylene, paint
124 cm X 190 cm
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Hagström Møller
Daldräll Series Laser, 2021
Hand drawn daldräll pattern laser cut from high density polyethylene, paint
124 cm X 190 cm
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Hagström Møller
Daldräll Series Glitch, 2021
Cotton + cotton linen handwoven on the TC1
150 cm x 58 cm
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Fairbanks
Paste 1 (sourcebook series), 2021 (floor front)
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Painted Japanese linen knitted tape, Japanese flat paper yarn and tencel handwoven on TC2
50 cm x 71cm
Paste 2 (sourcebook series), 2021 (floor
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Fairbanks
back)
Painted Japanese linen knitted tape, Japanese flat paper yarn and tencel handwoven on TC2
50 cm x 71cm
Hagström Møller
Rest Your Head on the Rainbow, 2017
Hand Dyed wool in lanasyn dye, handwoven Monk’s Belt
60 x 50 x 30 cm
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Hagström Møller
One Knot Per Pill, 2021
Knotted mixed yarn, aluminum frame
40 cm x 150 cm
Hagström Møller
Soft Steps, 2020
Handwoven linen with Moorman technique
30 cm x 160 cm
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Fairbanks
Fold (sourcebook series), 2021
61cm
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Linen knitted tape, viscose, paint, hand woven on TC2 Loom
x 109 cm
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Fairbanks
Bend Magnolia (sourcebook series), 2021
Painted Japanese linen knitted tape, Japanese flat paper yarn and tencel handwoven on TC2 Loom
109 cm x 77 cm
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Fairbanks
Crumple (sourcebook series), 2021
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Painted and dyed Japanese flat paper yarn and tencel handwoven on TC2 Loom
52cm x 58cm
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Fairbanks
Cut Counterpane (sourcebook series), 2021
Japanese
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Painted and dyed
flat paper yarn and tencel handwoven on TC2 Loom
53 cm x 61 cm
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LOUD VOLUMES SOFT STUFF
SOFIA HAGSTRÖM MØLLER & MARIANNE FAIRBANKS
JUNE 1 - JULY 4, 2021
OFFICINET: Bredgade 66, 1260 Copenhagen, Denmark dcod.kdk
Loud Volumes Soft Stuff features work by Sofia Hagström Møller and Marianne Fairbanks that explores and interrogates woven cloth. Through expanded structures, new materials and dimensional investigations, Hagström Møller and Fairbanks present works that boldly activate the eye and more subtly focuses on the entanglements of woven cloth and its meanings, both personal and political. Traditional, digital and unconventional weavings will be presented, colliding handweaving with digital technology and largely experimental forms. Hagström Møller and Fairbanks virtually collaborated over the six months and brought their works together for the first time in the exhibition at Officinet.
ADDITIONAL EVENTS:
Gallery Talk: Listening Party: Sunday, June 6, 2021 Saturday, June 12, 2021
Sofia Hagström Møller (Sweden) holds a Masters in Textile Design from KADK. She is an artist and freelance designer who develops textiles using both analog and computer-controlled looms. She crafts woven artworks for public space and exhibition for international venues including—Compound Yellow, USA, Lynn Mecklenburg Textile Gallery, USA, Spring exhibition, Kunsthal Charlottenborg Copenhagen, and Vetlanda Museum, Sweden.
Sofia Hagström Møller’s work employs Scandinavian weaving traditions and manipulates the cloth into forms using modern materials and experimental techniques. Each piece delves into the historical origins of the woven structure finding personal connections in the patterns and bindings. She tells woven stories that play with colors, light and materials. Presenting weave design traditions in new ways, through the use of the latest technological developments, yet always with reference to the old analog hand-crafts.
sofiahagstrommoller.com
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Marianne Fairbanks (USA) is an associate professor in the Design Studies department at the University of Wisconsin – Madison. She received her MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and her BFA from the University of Michigan. Her work has been shown nationally and internationally in venues including Copenhagen Contemporary, Denmark, The Roshka Museum of Craft and Design, Gothenburg, Sweden, The Museum of Art and Design, NY, and The Smart Museum of Art, Chicago.
Marianne Fairbanks’s work explodes and makes bold the patterns and systems that are the basis of weaving, playing formally with perception, depth and volume. This body of work began with an investigation into historic American overshot weaving patterns found in books. After photographing and printing these patterns, Fairbanks then manipulates the pages by hand exploring the effects of physical interventions and dimensional shifts. The new images are then brought into the computer where they are further edited before being hand woven on the TC2 digital jacquard loom. There is an inherent complexity that lies at the heart of woven cloth and Fairbanks work to exploit this system to visually play with our understanding of dimension and volume.
mariannefairbanks.com
Charlotte Jul (Denmark) is a curator, writer, counselor and editor with 20 years of experience in the business helping artists, leading design brands and key design institutions communicate their potential. She has also worked as an interior stylist for several years besides creating editorial content for various medias and platforms, both analogue and digital.
charlottejul.com
Photographer: Martin Yam Møller
Front cover design: Marianne Fairbanks
Catalog design: Erica Hess
