Biennale for Craft and Design.
We in the Yarn Purchasing Association can be proud that 2 of our committee members are participating in the Biennale for Craft and Design.
Marianne Johnstad-Møller is exhibiting “Lysgople” (Light medusa/jellyfish), executed in knitting, and Berthe Forchhammer is exhibiting “Min japanske logbog” (My Japanese log book), which consists of 10 woven tapestries. Each of them here describes their idea, and its design and expression.
Marianne Johnstad-Møller trained as a textile designer, specialising in knitting, and graduated from Danmarks Designskole in 2004. Before that she had worked on theatre and dance costumes.
As well as designing her one-off pieces she also produces accessories, which she sells from her workshop, works freelance on the development of textiles in knitting, crochet and gimp making for the exclusive section of the fashion industry, as well as knitting models. She teaches handknitting and crochet at an evening course in Copenhagen.
The light medusa is a one-off piece and was created as a deliberate counterbalance to mass production, uniformity and speed. It has been created out of her fascination with and need for expression through her hands, and with a desire that the time, soul, skill and love that she has put into the creation of the piece also reaches out to the user/viewer.
The idea of the light medusa itself comes from an earlier exhibition where she had made a knitted piece that resembled a medusa and looked as though it was lit up. Out of this came a fascination with medusas and she began to work on the light medusa itself.
It consists of many layers of similar pieces of knitting, where she has made use of the ability of plain knitting (stocking stitch) to roll up both at the sides and at the ends. The pieces are knitted from transparent monofilament, with grey crepe wool at the ends – both yarns from the Association. It is built up over a framework, with an energy-saving light bulb in the centre. She has worked with knitting in the simplest way, using the possibilities for form that the knitting and the materials create together.
On YouTube a short film can be seen where Marianne describes working on the light medusa.
The light medusa was shown in an exhibition “Fra Dybet” (From the Deep) at Officinet in the spring of 2010. This had its starting point in her fascination with medusas, their strange beauty and dancing movements, hidden under the surface of the sea. Specifically, she worked with layers and transparency in various ways and used techniques such as knitting, embroidery and cutting out, as well as painting and using collage on the fabric.
The materials were yarns such as copper thread, phosphorescent yarn, reflective yarn, polyamide and crepe wool – all from the Yarn Purchasing Association. The exhibition can be seen in August at Janusbygningen in Tistrup. It will not include the light medusa, because this is hanging in the exhibition at Koldinghus – but perhaps it will get a cousin, as there are many different light medusas on Marianne’s sketch board.
Marianne Johnstad-Møller 2011
Berthe Forchhammer's main field of work is church textiles, which are designed and woven to commission and tailored to the ecclesiastical year, liturgy and colour scheme of the individual church. In addition she designs and weaves textiles for both interiors and clothing, and also experiments with new materials, including optical fibres and similar materials.
She has taught weaving for many years, including at Danmarks Designskole, The Guild of Printers and Weavers and The Institute for the Blind.
“Min japanske logbog” (My Japanese logbook) is the title of Berthe’s contribution to the Biennale 2011. The 10 tapestries were woven after a very inspiring study tour of Japan in 2009, when she visited Tokyo, Kyoto and Hiroshima. She was fortunate to receive a grant from the Solar Fund for the journey, so she thought it would be fun to weave pictures inspired by the tour, in place of the traditional rambling report. The tapestries were exhibited at Officinet in Copenhagen in 2010 and are now on show at Koldinghus.
The tapestries are divided into 2 series, one of which is a black and white series of graphic images of Japanese signs, adapted on the computer, where she has altered the amount of dark and light, only stopping when she felt there was a good, homogeneous balance. It is interesting to see how harmonious a picture produced by computer can be.
The technique for these graphic tapestries is a double weave, where she has picked up the pattern. “I am wild about this technique because it is so simple and one needs only 4 shafts and 6 treadles on the loom.” She has used a paper yarn that she found during her tour of Japan. “It is very pleasant to work with and really strong. I don’t think a single thread broke during the weaving.”
The other series of tapestries are more complicated because they are woven with a single thread controlled loom, after adapting her travel photos.
First she worked with the photos on Photoshop, where the files were simplified, and then introduced different weave structures, depending on how many different details there needed to be in the picture. The warp was put on to the loom and consisted of 3 differently coloured layers. By interweaving with themselves, and also with one another, these gave countless different colour combinations. Then it was just necessary to set about weaving and let the tapestries unfold.
Berthe Forchhammer 2011
Events for your Calendar.
We will have OPEN HOUSE at the yarn store on Thursday 3rdNovember 2011 15.00-17.00
All members of The Yarn Purchasing Association are welcome.
Address: SenSen, Niels Bohr Vej 31D, 8660 Skanderborg
New yarns
The committee are working hard at findingnew exciting yarns for the Association– so be glad. In the autumn you will receive the sample card with the new yarns that will be available at the webshop. If you have a suggestion for a particular yarn that you think we should have, you are always welcome to mail suggestions to us.
LAB12–The Yarn Purchasing Association is working to repeat the success of the experimental exhibition “Laboratory 10” with an exciting new exhibition for the spring of 2012, “LAB12”.
The Yarn Purchasing Association has received 2 grants for this exhibition, one from L.F. Fogh’s Fund and one from Statens Kunst Fond (State Art Fund). We are very honoured by this and it also means that we can carry out our exhibition plans and find other venues in the country.
The concept is in place, we are working on finding participants, and 2 exhibition venues are already booked.
In March 2012 the exhibition will open at Officinet, in connection with the General Meeting, and in April and June it can be seen at Grønbechs Gård on Bornholm.
More information about the exhibition will be available in the newsletter in the autumn.
