The Storting (parliament) building major artists, due to an explicit colle- exhibition, and in the years that based on early Norwegian Viking on Løvebakken is Norway’s most cting strategy adopted in the 1990s, followed, important exhibitions textiles, including references to important building, according to Peter which was followed increasingly by opened at the major museums in fragments of woven textiles found Butenschøn, whose 2016 book an institutional determination that Norway: Soft Monuments at KODE during the excavation of the Ose- celebrated the building’s 150th artistic criteria should be decisive in Bergen (2015), which examined berg Ship and fragments of the Bal- anniversary. Butenschøn describes in acquisition processes. Becoming textile art from the past 25 years; dishol tapestry from the mid-12th the building, scene of many of the part of the Storting’s art collection Hannah Ryggen – Weaving the century. The second section refers most important events in modern should mean something, and the World at the National Museum of to works by Frida Hansen, Hannah Norwegian history, as a living symbol primary goal when acquiring works Art, Architecture and Design in Oslo Ryggen and Gerhard Munthe, while of Norwegian democracy. The from the 1990s onwards has been (2015); and a major Frida Hansen the third section is dedicated to main building on Løvebakken was for the works to «provide the Storting exhibition at Stavanger Art Museum Jakobsen’s contemporaries, with designed by the young architect Emil with a representative collection of (2015). As early as 2011, however, woven quotations from textile Victor Langlet in 1860. Gradually Norwegian art».1 Kunsthall Oslo had put on the artists including Brit Fuglevaag, the Storting has expanded into the In 1994, Else Marie Jakobsen comple- exhibition Human Patterns, with Synnøve Anker Aurdal, Kjellaug Hø- surrounding streets, taking over plots ted her tapestry The Dromedaries works by Hannah Ryggen and other laas, and an original contribution by on Prinsens gate (1972), Akersgaten and Textile Art. The tapestry’s central artists, curated by Marit Paasche. Jakobsen. In an interview, Jakobsen (1988), and Nedre Vollgate (1993). motif is the Peder Balke painting This exhibition can be said to have characterized her own contribution The works in the Storting’s art colle- Lighthouse on the Norwegian Coast sparked an interest in looking with as a «polemic in shades of red».5 ction are associated with the actual (1885). The painting is divided up new eyes at – re-curating, or more Storting buildings to varying degrees, into a grid, which according to Jakob- accurately, correctively curating – Jakobsen’s most important works and the collection has come into exis- sen symbolizes a reductive, analytical often overlooked artists from recent comprise a woven historical tence under distinctive circumstances. and «dissecting» approach to art that art history. Two years later came the narrative about the textile art that If one is given the opportunity to has been traditionally adopted by art exhibition that remains a powerful hangs in public spaces in institutions study this collection, one gains access historians.2 Balke is incorporated into symbol of this trend: Hold stein- all over Norway. In the absence of not only to iconic works of art, but art history, and in polemical fashion hårdt fast på greia di. Norsk kunst- galleries dedicated to textile art, and also to the less well-known stories Jakobsen incorporates Emile Zola’s og kvinnekamp 1968-89 opened on limited interest from the museums, that are the gateway to understan- famous accusation «J’accuse»(French: 8 March 2013 and included works public spaces became the venues ding the history and politics of the I accuse), made in the context of by artists such as Brit Fuglevaag and where we could experience this artistic decorations in public buildings the Dreyfus affair, and also her own Elisabeth Haarr.4 In other words, one important field of art. With their in Norway. So-called «public» art is initials EMJ, into the tapestry, four and can safely say that textile art has inherently institutional critique, often linked to a national decorative five times respectively. Zola’s words made a massive incursion into art Jakobsen’s works represent – in a tradition whereby a work’s specific are taken from his open letter to the institutions in recent years. But what spirit of solidarity with other textile location and physical context deter- French newspaper L’Aurore, in which kind of breakthrough is this? artists – an attempt to double the mine its starting point to a greater the author defended the Jewish army display opportunities for textile art. or lesser extent. In such cases, an captain Alfred Dreyfus. In the letter, When developing the curatorial Her own works become sites and artwork’s «meaning» can depend on which was addressed to the French concept for the art to be displayed expressive opportunities for this where it is placed, and when a work president, Zola also strongly attacked at Prinsens gate 26, The Dromed- overlooked area of art. is positioned in a well-known public the French army and French national aries and Textile Art, which was al- space, the public space may almost pride.3 Is this insistence, combined the ready in the Storting’s art collection, Weaving within the visual arts. become an integral part of the work. accusation, a necessary tactic to bring was of particular significance. In this In Norway, textile art can be said to One example is one of Norway’s about change in the approach taken work, Jakobsen directly considers have had several minor «bre- most famous history paintings, by art historians towards women not only the status – or lack of akthroughs», with each heyday Eidsvold 1814 by Oscar Wergeland, artists, and textile art? Is it somet- status – assigned to textile art in taking its own unique form. From which hangs behind the President’s hing that is needed in order for the Norway’s history and art history, but the monumentally scaled (often podium in the Storting Chamber. material- and craft-based art to take also the close relationship between figurative) textile works of the Another is Sissel Blystad’s Landscape, its place as one of the central fields art and politics. The Dromedaries 1950s, pioneered by Hannah which hangs in the Storting’s Central of the visual arts? The towering dro- and Textile Art also has direct links Ryggen,6 to the experimental works Hall. These works have a strong medaries in the tapestry apparently to the work widely considered to be of the 1960s, when Brit Fuglevaag presence in the public consciousness represent (male) art historians – the Jakobsen’s masterpiece, Den røde and Synnøve Anker Aurdal were thanks to the debates and political gatekeepers who are supervising and tråd , a commission undertaken highly influential, and texture decisions that take place every day in literally trampling on the beautiful in 1981/82 for the lobby of the became as important as the image. their presence. tapestries under their hooves. Natural Sciences Building at the The 1960s were also characterized University of Bergen. Den røde tråd by influences from Poland, partly But the Storting’s collection also In 2014, when I was appointed (a Norwegian expression meaning as a result of Fuglevaag’s exchange represents a departure from the idea curator for this project, 20 years had a recurring theme or leitmotif) is visit to the Academy of Fine Art in of site-specific artistic decoration, elapsed since Jacobsen completed in three parts. Believed to be the Warsaw in 1963. In Poland, unlike and at different times represents her tapestry, and the situation was largest textile artwork in Norway, in Norway, textile art was viewed different views of art, as well as quite different. A change was under- it was produced by Utsmykkings- as an independent form of art, on always the sometimes difficult, and way in the status of textile art within fondet Public Art Norway’s (KORO) a par with painting, printmaking ever-present, relationship between the visual arts as a whole. Two years predecessor. While a reading of the and sculpture. Several exhibitions in art and politics. Among the Storting’s previously, works by Hannah Ryggen work can start from any point, it the 1960s and 70s by Polish artists collection of 800 works of art, we had been exhibited at Documenta, does have an underlying chrono- highlighted the autonomous status also find lesser-known works by the world’s most prestigious art logical structure. The first section is achieved by textile art in Poland,

136 MATERIALETS TALE MATERIALETS TALE 137 which in turn helped to boost its New materialism artwork should depict something would seem to be a start. In Goshka recognition in Norway. 7 The recent «turn» in the visual arts else. In contrast, new materialist Macuga’s textile work The Fable of towards the tactile and the material, theory suggests that the material the Wolf, the Polar Bear, the Reindeer But it was in the 1970s that textile art, and a renewed interest in the ma- that a work of art is made from has and the Cosmonaut (2018), which including weaving as an independent teriality aspect of art, has emerged its own effect, and this effect is not was recently produced for the Stor- art form, gained recognition, while at after a long period of dominance necessarily something that can be ting, we are witnesses to a complex the same time becoming a medium by conceptual art. New materialism subsumed by, or subordinated to, scene in an ancient, unmistakably for political agitation in the work of is a theoretical movement that has the concept that is also attached to Norwegian, forest, where a group of artists such as Elisabeth Haarr and made an impact in the art world in the work. Art produces its own form people dressed as animals (a wolf, a Else Marie Jakobsen. Expressions of various contexts internationally. Of of knowledge. The «language» of the reindeer and a polar bear) seem to political agitation recur in Jakobsen’s these, the most influential have been materials is accommodated, precisely have gathered after participating in Dromedary tapestries of the 1980s documenta 13 in 2012, curated by in order to avoid continuing the dua- a political action or demonstration. and 90s, at a time when there were Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, and the list approach that divides the subject Banners bearing environmental and many major public art commissions exhibition conceived by the Italian (the observer) from the object (the political slogans stand and lie around available for textile artists. The pole- curator Massimiliano Gioni for the observed). the group. In the landscape behind mic form is maintained. Venice Biennale 2013, where the the forest we can see the ocean with main theme was the conceptual From the perspective of new materia- two 1980s-style oil rigs, and a coast- One would have to read very sele- status of materials. New materialism lism, the object is viewed as being on line where we can glimpse Eidsvoll ctively not to realize that the history is characterized by an interest in the a par with – rather than subordinated Manor and the Sámi Parliament. of textile art in Norway has been material and the tactile, and by poetic to – the subject. New materialist An abandoned space capsule has a influenced strongly by its exclusion yet scientific investigations where the theory emphasizes that the object central place in the composition, and from what are traditionally conside- object is re-introduced, while at the embodies its own experience, its a cosmonaut appears to be leaving red the «fine arts», and its struggle same time the relationship – and the own time and history that exist inde- the scene. The lofty pine trees in the for recognition as an art form. From dualism – between the subject and pendently of the subject. Accordingly, ancient forest divide the compositi- the 1970s onwards, this exclusion the object is challenged. new materialist theory can see an on vertically, while dead, fallen tree was highlighted and articulated very artwork as an independent reflective trunks act as framing devices. Nevert- clearly through the establishment It is difficult to categorize artistic entity alongside – not superior to – a heless, younger pine trees mitigate in 1972 of the Textile Group within movements that are close to us subject that is engaged in reflection. the dystopian atmosphere – some the UKS (Young Artists’ Society). In and still current, and perhaps it is In philosophy this is viewed as a things are still growing. many ways, the Textile Group was the no longer even desirable to search form of «posthumanism», or the forerunner of Norwegian Textile Ar- for evidence of minor and major idea that the human is no longer at People in animal costumes, some tists, a professional organization that paradigm shifts within an active field. the centre of experience, and this more realistic than others, look far was founded five years later. Among Even so, it is reasonably obvious that concept has been explored in several more two- than four-legged. The other things, the Textile Group played minor and major artistic manifesta- fields of study. Relevant philosophical «Wolf» lies casually on an old turf hut a key role in ensuring that the jury tions and exhibitions have articulated movements here include object-ori- with a banner bearing a quotation for the annual Autumn Exhibition this interest in the material in artistic ented onthology (OOO), a school of that originates from the author encompassed expertise in textile art. practice over the past five-ten years. thought whose proponents include James Bovard: «Democracy must be Nonetheless, the status of textiles But how is the influence of new Graham Harman, among others.10 something more than two wolves in contemporary art is characterized materialism expressed in art? Haven’t If what one might call the «meaning» and a sheep voting on what to have by many interconnecting narratives artists always experimented with of art now lies in the material from for dinner.»11 Democracy cannot of the impacts of individual artists, materials as well as with form? which it is made, rather than in the only be about voting, it should also the trends embraced by educational This project follows the lines of this abstract thinking of the subject expe- be about recognizing rights, and it institutions, the role professional as- inquiry: what does it look like when riencing it, this triggers a hierarchical should be more than the rights of the sociations, the availability of places to the artist allows the actual activity of change. But what does this mean for strongest, or the majority. The Arne display works, and new providers of investigating the materialism of art to our experience of a work of art? What Næss quotation on the other banner commissions. It is outside the scope become the main ingredient in – or kinds of questions are being posed seems to enlarge on Bovard’s: «The of this project to discuss this complex the basic component of – a work.9 in these works? As we will see in the differences between us and animals history – or, more accurately, these relevant works, they are characterized do not give us more rights, but more histories – which are just beginning The concept of new materialism – by multi-faceted approaches and obligations», while the polar bear, to take shape with several significant also known as «neo-materialism» interests. representing a species at risk of exhibitions and book publications.8 – was not born in a vacuum, but extinction, holds a banner with the This project poses a different set of emerged in the 1990s in the social Environment and climate slogan «It’s hot in here». questions: what roles do textiles play sciences to describe the theoretical Many commentators have suggested as a material component for artists move away from the so-called du- that the current move towards The juxtaposition of symbols of te- today? What is it that artists today alism underlying modern humanist materialism represents the necessary chnological progress, protest banners, find interesting about incorporating traditions. If one were to undertake critical engagement we need to nature, and humans dressed as ani- these materials as a significant to explain the significance of the tackle today’s environmental and mals, injects some confusion into the element in their work? What kinds of «new» in new materialism in relation climate challenges. That we must scene, undermining the clarity of the artistic possibilities lie in the current to the movement’s influence in the quite simply look at the world anew, message. It is also unclear whether trend towards the material and the visual arts, one would obviously in order to look after it better. Step- the scene is happening in the present, tactile? point to the rejection of the idea that ping down from the sovereign status past or future. Often the familiar the primary function of art is one that humans have enjoyed over their and traditional strategy of depicting of representation – the idea that an surroundings, including over animals, animals to convey desirable or less

138 MATERIALETS TALE MATERIALETS TALE 139 desirable human traits has a comical architectonic context. The colours to the deadline, and actually in the dualism by emphasizing interaction effect. In this assemblage of images, are sky blue with shades of coral and space where the work will be realized, and mutual dependency. absurdity is also an active ingredient, rose pink, evoking thoughts of sun- this commission was a somewhat but with a serious, political intent. sets, clouds and the sky. The work do- different process. When Passero How humans and non-humans By dressing themselves as animals, minates the otherwise sober space, was invited to produce a new work, co-exist is ultimately a political the demonstrators have identified which is characterized by subdued, the building in Prinsens gate was a question, and a growing solidarity themselves as animals, and in doing contrasting colours. The handwoven construction site, so there was for a with the non-human seems to be the so have distanced themselves from material is uneven with an organic long time no or limited access to the answer’s political expression. Graff the destruction and animal suffering appearance, thicker in some places actual space that could inform the ar- often uses multidisciplinary methods caused by humans. and thinner in others, rather like the tistic process. In an interview, Passero that include perspectives from the colours, of which several coats were has said that whatever work she is human and natural sciences, as well Macuga was born, and grew up in, Po- sprayed onto the woven nylon. The working on incorporates the seeds of as the visual arts. Many people will be land, but has lived in London for the 50-square-metre textile is divided her next work; that is, the distinctions familiar with her beautiful and highly past 25 years. In 2016, Macuga was into six woven panels, which are between her completed works are detailed pencil studies of animals commissioned to create a new work suspended in two vertical rows from perhaps not as great as they seem and materials. The works acquired specifically for the outer reception the top of the wall and down five when they are realized in different for Prinsens gate are so-called area of Prinsens gate. Due to its loca- storeys. The work can be seen from spaces. In the period before the textile paintings, where the textile tion, the work is also seen easily from the adjacent inner meeting rooms realization of Coral Visions, Passero – hand-painted silk – is draped over, the street. Over the course of several and the walkways on each floor. was working on her exhibition Silvery and sewn onto, canvas. The different meetings during 2016 and 2017 we Actions, which opened at the Vige- patterns emerge through the use of discussed what directions this kind In Coral Visions, Passero has woven land Museums in May 2018. Here the different printing techniques, such as of work could take, and it gradually her own canvas, which she has artist exhibited new, sculptural works woodcut and screenprint. Chemicals became clear that Macuga wanted allowed to form the starting point for within the museum’s very characteris- are also applied to the fragile material, to address issues to do with nature, her painterly decisions. In her earlier tic architecture. One of the works was which is dipped, painted and printed the climate and sustainability. At the works, her painterly choices were drawn out into the gallery, hanging on multiple times, a process that can artist’s request, visual materials were often influenced by an organic and from the ceiling, a device that was result in something that is more like supplied from the Storting’s picture process-driven approach to colour also long under consideration for this traces than patterns. Traces of actions archive, including photographs of composition. This is also the case project. In Coral Visions, the decision and activities. Each of the three works demonstrations in Eidsvolls plass, the here, but the woven fabric seems was made to hang the textile surface is the same height as a person, a cha- square in front of the main Storting also to have become more sculptural along the wall, in order to emphasize racteristic that emphasizes the theme building. We also supplied more and varied. Nylon, a form of plastic, the work’s surface rather than its of Graff’s investigations. general images of Norwegian nature, is a cheap material that is often sculptural quality. with a particular focus on forests, associated with pollution, overpro- animals, and the sculptural forms duction and excessive consumption. Subject, object, thing A new material relationship of oil rigs. In autumn 2017, Macuga In our own time plastics are also According to Ane Graff, visualizing Like Graff, the Sámi-Finnish artist Outi met the Storting’s art committee to linked to catastrophic environmental how all materials exist in complex Pieski investigates the status of ma- present her underlying theme and problems, as the world’s oceans relationships is a primary objective teriality in artistic practice, but an em- early photo-collages for the work she have become the final destination of her artistic practice. From this phasis on the significance of textiles wanted to realize for Prinsens gate. for this non-biodegradable material. perspective, Graff is perhaps the artist as the carriers of references may The presentation aroused unani- The linking of nylon to the historical in the Prinsens gate art project who best characterize Pieski’s four works mous enthusiasm from everyone tradition of handweaving puts our is closest to the project’s prima- at Prinsens gate. The paintings are present. It’s important to note that usual priorities in jeopardy. The cheap ry concept. The investigation of framed by knotted silk threads that the meeting was not arranged in becomes strikingly beautiful, elevated materiality through science, art and clearly refer to the threads edging the order to approve Macuga’s project, as and valuable. philosophy is not only the subject of shawls that are part of Sámi women’s the artist had already been given her Graff’s research fellowship project at traditional dress. The paintings can be mandate in the form of the commis- Like several of the works in this the Oslo National Academy of the seen as either abstract or figurative, sion. The meeting took the form of project, Coral Visions breaks with a Arts, titled «Why Matter Matters», while the titles of the work draw us an initiation into the artistic processes homogeneous view of genre. Coral but also the shared starting point for in: they are Sámi place names. Pieski and thinking that lie behind the Visions can be interpreted both as a her works purchased for Prinsens has also used montages of Sámi development of this kind of work. sculpture and as an installation, and gate, Throw, Soft Outer Cover and symbols in other works, often in the also as a textile work that challenges Through Stone (all 2015). In particular, bottom part of her paintings. Aurora Passero consistently develops the distinction between painting Graff is interested in the interwoven a non-figurative visual language in and textile art. The work’s active relati- relationship between materials and In her article «On the Substance of her artistic practice, with materials onship to the space is the dominant humans, that is, the relational and Matter» Milja Liimatainen suggests often consisting of hand-dyed and feature, nonetheless, and it is this processual reciprocity between mate- that adopting the kind of relationship handwoven nylon. In her work Coral spatial composition that is Passero’s rials and humans. Can human beings that indigenous peoples have with Visions (2018), which was created signature. In its expansive physicality, be understood differently if they are materiality and nature, along with a especially for this art project, it is once the work represents the precise total read as non-distinct and processual? more holistic world view, could be again this material that dominates an of all the artistic decisions that have Can an understanding of materiality the start of a change of course from 16-metre-high interior space at Prin- been made. Like Macuga, Passero be re-articulated as deeply entangled our current situation.12 For this artist, sens gate. The work is Passero’s most was invited to create a new work for with humans, where the latter do not the idea that a new relationship with monumental so far, and as always Prinsens gate. For an artist who is have control? Graff’s artistic practice materials can be both liberating and with Passero, it relates actively to the accustomed to working almost up seems to challenge human-material enlightening is a constant theme. She

140 MATERIALETS TALE MATERIALETS TALE 141 often combines powerful defences of almost nothing, to see,» wrote Ina new paintings accomplish and in the building. This does not mean Sámi materials, traditions and places Blom about the introversion of works accentuate this direction in her that gender is an insignificant factor with a performative element. Pieski’s that drew their inspiration from a artistic practice. It will be exciting in curating, and acquiring works for, work Leagi vuoigna/Spirit of the Val- trendy and often obscure subcultural to see whether this distinction important public collections. If the ley (2015) is installed at the Sámi Par- visual. Blom’s concern was to find becomes an enduring and central project The Materials Speak, which liament in Karasjok.13 Pieski engaged new, more productive platforms for feature of her art. includes works by Ida Ekblad, Ann 12 Sámi women, all experts in duodji interpreting early works by Gardar Cathrin November Høibo, Aurora to make the materials for the textile Eide Einarsson. In this text from Passero, Ane Graff, Outi Pieski, installation. They spent several mont- 2004, written in connection with Else Marie Jakobsen was a student Goshka Macuga and Else Marie hs knotting silk threads, an important Einarsson’s solo exhibition at UKS of Hannah Ryggen, and Ann Cathrin Jakobsen, performs a corrective cultural activity associated with Sámi Young Artists’ Society in Oslo, Blom November Høibo had Jakobsen as function in a collection which is traditional dress. The assembling and articulates the often contradictory her mentor. Jakobsen’s articulate overly dominated by works by positioning of materials can also be expectations for «good artworks»: political engagement is incorpo- male artists, this is a positive result. linked to the idea of repatriation, of that they should offer something rated in her works both through The main objective for this project moving «home» materials that have to experience, something more to the inclusion of signs (quotations, has been to give an opportunity for been exiled or relocated against see, than, in Einarsson’s case, replicas repetitions of her own initials), different artistic practices that right their will. Pieski’s artistic practice also of prison benches. Works carrying and of woven fields depicting her now are investigating material sen- has links with «craftivism», a form multiple references, including subcul- own and other artists’ sidelined sibility to be seen alongside each of activism centred on the practice tural appropriations, have formed an practices. This institutional critical other, with their own operative in- of «domestic crafts» and associated active backdrop for the generation of attitude emerges in different ways vestigating intact and open for the with anti-capitalism, feminism and artists to which Ida Ekblad belongs, in her tapestries, but is never far audience and visitors who will have environmentalism. The central idea and to view Ekblad as at the vangu- from Jakobsen’s work. In the work the pleasure of seeing the new art of this political movement is that ard of a still ongoing turn towards of her student Høibo, this critical project in Prinsens gate 26. domestic crafts represent a form the tactile is both risky and indicative. attitude emerges somewhat dif- of empowerment that has cultural, Nevertheless, it is indisputable that ferently. The materials available to social and historical value. Several of Ekblad’s material-oriented expressio- Høibo are individually manipulated Pieski’s works involve associations nism was early and influential. before being assembled in new with activities and kinds of work that «Just Audio» was produced especially combinations, where so-called Notes can strengthen Sámi culture. for the inner reception of Prinsens «contemporary materials» (yellow Pieski’s four works in Prinsens gate gate. The artist’s response to the Dr. Marten’s shoelaces, plastic 1 From the art plan adopted in have a powerful sense of place. invitation to participate in this project rails) are combined with wool 1991. In 1990, the Praesidium Places and geography play a major was to create two new works. The dyed in colours that give a nod established an «advisory commit- role in her artistic practice, and are visually «wildest» of the two, «Just to Hannah Ryggen’s home-dyed tee for artistic decoration in the often combined with studies of Audio» was chosen. The central motif woollen threads. The work that Storting». See Stortinget og kunst- details that, according to the artist, are is a kind of lotus flower surrounded has been acquired for the Storting en (Thiis Evensen/Solem Winge/ intended to evoke the atmosphere by ornamental and repetitive flower Untitled (Diptych) (2017) consists Aamold), 2000. or awaken memories of the relevant motifs and suspended, or arranged, of two woven panels, hung from place. This is the case with the four textile fragments – cotton and two plastic rails. The work was 2 See e.g. Frank Falch’s article paintings at Prinsens gate: but they linen – covered in a characteristically made especially for the exhibition «Billedvev og engasjement» in create a constant displacement of the Ekblad-esque material, puff paint. Entangled: Threads and Making at Else Marie Jakobsen Billedvev og geographical detail, the micro-object, Her brush strokes emphasize and the Turner Contemporary, where engasjement, page 58. and the unobstructed views that are accompany the ornamental, creating Høibo’s work was exhibited along- only experienced in the artist’s home a rich and intense visual expression. side works by Sidsel Paaske and 3 Emile Zola’s open letter was an landscape around Utsjoki. With her In her new three-metre-by-two-metre Marianne Heske, as well as Hannah attack on the prosecution of the fringed frames that are loaded with work for the Storting, this material Ryggen’s textile work 6 October Jewish army officer Alfred Dreyfus, cultural references, Pieski creates a almost grows out across the traditio- 1942. Høibo’s Untitled (Diptych) who three years earlier had been unique form of aesthetic expression. nally restricted shape of the canvas. was created as a direct response to sentenced to life imprisonment for Hands are another shape repeated in Ryggen’s political textile work. allegedly spying for Germany and Ida Ekblad, Aurora Passero and Ann this work, as in Else Marie Jakobsen’s deported to the infamous prison Cathrin November Høibo share a The Dromedaries and Textile Art, It was never the intention to colony of Devil’s Island off the free and non-hierarchical relationship which is displayed in the same room. develop a curatorial concept for coast of French Guiana in South with historical and contemporary the artworks at Prinsensgate that America. From the start the case materials. Ekblad’s individual artistic In the same year that she created would attach importance to an caused deep divisions in France, investigations over the past 10 years «Just Audio», 2018, Ekblad created artist’s gender. The fact that all the with Dreyfus enjoying only limited in many ways constitute a narrative several large-scale works that were artists in the project are women support initially. With the help of that can be translated to a wider area shown later in the year at Karma was not a curatorial starting point, investigations conducted by Zola of art. The trend towards sensitivity to International and Kunstverein but a result of the investigative and other supporters, however, it materials and the tactile can be detec- Braunschweig. Here there is a new processes around materialism gradually became clear that the ted in any number of artists’ work in finely-tuned, thoughtful quality to that took place in the dialogue Dreyfus affair was a miscarriage this period, but for Ekblad this change the possibilities offered by painting, with the art committee, where of justice, motivated largely by was discussed and assessed in public combined with the playfulness that other components also manifested anti-Semitism, and that the actual at an early stage, becoming part presenting a painting in a non-con- themselves: the works’ envisaged spy was a different officer. of the artist’s biography. «Too little, ventional fashion can entail. Ekblad’s reciprocal dialogues and situations

142 MATERIALETS TALE MATERIALETS TALE 143 4 «Hold stenhårdt fast på greia di. too narrow and restrictive, and Norwegian art and feminism pigeon-holing artistic practices is 1968-89», curated by Eline Mugaas not the aim of this project. and Elise Storsveen, Oslo Kunsthall. Artists: Synnøve Anker Aurdal, Siri 10 The term «object-oriented Anker Aurdal, Anne Breivik, Ingegjerd philosophy» was coined by Graham Dillan, Jeannette Christensen, Lill-Ann Harman, the movement’s founder, Chepstow-Lusty, Brit Fuglevaag, in his 1999 doctoral dissertation Elisabeth Haarr, Morten Juvet, Per Tool-Being: Elements in a Theory Kleiva, Berit Soot Kløvig, Sonja Krohn, of Objects. Eva Lange, Wencke Mühleisen, Sidsel Paaske, Elsebet Rahlff, Terje Roalkvam, 11 The quotation from Bovard Zdenka Rusova, Willibald Storn, and refers to an older quote from others. Benjamin Franklin, «Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on 5 See e.g. Frank Falch’s article «Billed- what to have for lunch. Liberty is a vev og engasjement» in Else Marie well-armed lamb contesting Jakobsen Billedvev og engasjement. the vote!»

6 In 1953, the National Gallery 12 Milja Liimatainen’s article purchased Hannah Ryggen’s The «On the Substance of Matter» in Use of Hands (1949), from the solo the book Outi Pieski, edited by exhibition «Hannah Ryggen» held at Liimatainen, Lilja, Miller, Wiik, 2018. Kunstnernes Hus in Oslo earlier the same year. This was the first textile 13 Outi Pieski’s work Leagi vuoigna/ work acquired by the National Spirit of the Valley (2015), was r Gallery, and Ryggen viewed the pur- ealised in connection with the chase as important affirmation of her construction of an extension to the status as an artist. See Marit Paasche’s Sámi Parliament building, designed PhD thesis Forhandlingen med his- by the architect Stein Halvorsen. torien Hvordan en arkivstudie over Halvorsen also designed the Hannah Ryggens kunstnerskap ga prizewinning original Sámi grunnlag for kritikk av det normative i Parliament building, completed kunsthistorien (2018). in 1996. The author of this article was curator of the art project, 7 See e.g. Runa Boger Magdalena which included newly produced Abakanowicz og Norge: Stilskaper work by Pieski. eller frigjørende effekt. En drøftelse av Abakanowicz´ betydning for norsk tekstilkunst 1960-1980.

8 In connection with the 40th anniversary of the founding of Norwegian Textile Artists (NTK), Ode til en vaskeklut, hymne til en tiger was published 2017. The publication provides a very useful introduction to understanding the role of textiles as both method and material in the art world today. Edited by Ingvill Henmo, Lise Linnert and Sidsel Palmstrøm.

9 It was an interest in neo- materialism in contemporary art that characterized the curatorial approach, and this investigation also structured our dialogue and profes- sional discussions with the Storting’s Art Committee. This does not mean that the artists selected for Prinsens gate 26 are «new materialists». Such a categorization would be

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