Textile - Grethe Sørensen (DK)

Grethe Sørensen is a Danish textile artist. A pioneer in the field of digital weaving in which she combines traditional craftsmanship with technological innovation.

 In “Rush Hour” the unfocused camera transforms the realism of the car head lights into patterns of lit,circular, half-transparent surfaces. They arrange themselves in levels of varying transparency and colour effect.

Weaving and video have been juxtaposed in this piece and the weight and structure of the tapestries create a physical opposition to the video projection’s ethereal image sequences of flowing movements. The two media enhance and accentuate each other. The quality of the wea-vings exists in the depth, physicality and colour intensity which the yarns and the constructions add to the images while the enchantment of the video lies in light, image flow and movement.

Textile
It goes without saying, that art harnessing textiles is not necessarily more material than so much other art, still, materiality and tactile aspects – texture, structure, shine, fragility and softness appear more significant, more pressing. 

When materiality takes centre-stage, then artworks draw attention to their banal existence as objects, as things, and may challenge a number of preconceived notions about art. The notion that works of art are above things. The notion that art is impractical, of no everyday value, indeed, that it should not be usable. 

In 2020 and 2021 the Nordic House in the Faroe Islands is paying tribute to art that draws on textiles with a series of exhibitions.