A textile in bright streaks of gold, blue, and red.
“Oeuvre: Ikat III” (2011) by Astrid Krogh. (Photo: © Torben Eskerod. Courtesy Galerie Maria Wettergren)

These Radical Textiles Grew Out of Focused, Open-Minded Attention

Provocative woven works are the focus of Maison du Danemark’s upcoming exhibition, “In a Slow Manner.”
By Tiffany Lambert
January 30, 2021
2 minute read

Textile designer Anni Albers, who was born in Berlin at the turn of the 20th century, brought a modernist touch and experimental spirit to the ancient art of weaving. She wrote extensively about the craft; a line from one essay, written in 1941, informed the title of the upcoming exhibition “In a Slow Manner,” the first presentation at Paris’s Maison du Danemark since it completed an extensive renovation. Opening Feb. 3, the show (which will debut online, due to a recent uptick in Covid-19 cases, and be followed by a physical iteration at a to-be-announced date) brings together the work of 10 emerging and established artists who reimagine the future of fabric by giving it the sort of focused, open-minded attention that Albers championed.

Each individual takes fiber to provocative ends: Danish designer Astrid Krogh’s vibrant installation combines countless strands of paper yarn with illuminated optic fiber threads, while a thick mass of bright-pink material, placed inside a Plexiglas box by fabric artist Anne Fabricius Møller, celebrates the nuances of folding and form. Copenhagen-based designer Ditte Hammerstroem covered the top of an ash chaise lounge with dozens of tiny mohair-wrapped foam spheres, and pulled the excess material through holes on the seat’s surface—juxtaposing the fabric, which hangs down from the chair’s underside, in loose and upholstered variations. Together, the works attest to the capacity of textiles, when given careful consideration, to shape-shift and comment on time, structure, and space.