Abstract

I want to talk about tactile experiences, words that extend beyond touch. A full-body experience of space that begins with the senses, creating a collective understanding when everything is combined. We step in unbeknownst, activating our senses through the shapes and textures that enthral us. With our eyes, we access the dynamic of the room. 

The foundation of my work is texture, so I explore the surface through it and textile is my chosen material because it allows me to do just that. By distorting, adding and pulling apart I can always get a new experience of it. In this project I work with three-dimensional patterns on the surface of the textile, and with subtle changes in volume I try to capture the light that falls on it and emphasis the texture to make the experience of it even richer.

This paper explores how craft in general, and the tradition of machine knitting in particular, can act as support and an alternative method within healing processes connected to stress and burn-out. The paper uses creative writing and an intimate approach to reach for and highlight metaphors and epiphanies within the making of craft, discussed from micro and macro perspectives. The search for the garden of fiber delights includes discussions and reflections about the artistic practice in relation to thinkers as sociologists Bruno Latour and the actor-network theory, and Hartmut Rosa, and his theory about an accelerating society and the need for resonance. Some of the artists referenced in the paper are Hilma af Klint, Yayoi Kusama and Niki de Saint Phalle. The main wonder of this project and paper is: what will happen when I as an artist start to respond to the seed of resonance within, and not follow the norms and expectations emerged by capitalism causing stress? How can this knowledge be applied in the meeting with other people in need of healing and rest?

Jag definierar mig som mode - och textildesigner och som aktivist. Som examensprojekt har jag designat en vegansk modekollektion där jag har använt mig av tyger som jag målat och färgat själv. Jag lyfter hantverket i en modekontext och vill visa styrkan i det handgjorda. Att skapa veganskt mode betyder att jag inte använder mig av djurs kroppar, hud eller päls. Jag avstår alltså helt från att använda skinn, siden, ull, päls, dun och fjädrar. Jag vill visa att det går att skapa mode utan att utnyttja och döda djur i processen. Kollektionen presenteras dels som en konceptuell konstfilm men också i form av modefoton. Jag ser uppsatsen som ett sätt att upplysa, utbilda och skapa debatt kring vilka djur vi äter och vilka vi bär på kroppen. Uppsatsen är också en del av gestaltningen. Konstfilmen är inspirerad av surrealism och är en utopi och dystopi på samma gång, med flera världar i en. Den är ett experiment i hur en kan kombinera mode, koncept, konst och djurrättsaktivism i ett och samma projekt. 

I have made an investigation in how I can encourage curiosity in textiles with a specific interest in its structures. I have found that repetition is one efficient way to make a separate building element disappear into its own mass and instead be viewed as a surface. I researched how different surfaces are created by experiment with materials and techniques and looked into the big role tactility plays when curiosity in textiles are created but as well realized that a haptic experience can be reached not only with skin but through the eyes.

The experiments and elaborations I made took my ideas beyond my starting point and further than I first could imagine. I explored and questioned hierarchies and values of materials by the way I used and combined them. By doing so I realized and discussed the dilemma of being positive to the idea of letting people experience my work through touching and the issue with sustainability, duration and demolishing the patterns while doing so. 

Through this paper I aimed to find a definition for what fiber art can be today. I didn´t find one or totally uniform answer but it seems to me that it´s a movement that stretches over diverse material fields and has an underlying power to push boundaries and traditions and break free from classifications.

I'll make a big, yellow tapestry.

In the project I'll examine textures and surfaces in a monumental tapestry, and the translation of an image into a tapestry through reliefs and materials.

I'm a tapestry weaver, and in this project I'll work with structures and the sculptural aspect of weaving in an abstract tapestry. My aim for my textiles in general is to give the viewer a sublime feeling when they meet my work.

In an extended scene this is a textile version of a photography. When I look at something for a long amount of time, it'll turn into structures, then the image itself is not so important anymore but the memory of it. This is a tapestry where I have turned this memories into structures in textile material.

This project is a research in many various woven structures and techniques, which is arranged intuitively. It doesn't have a specific message but to re-create the sense of many and complex feelings. The different structures portrays the process of memories, like solitude, fears, tenderness, abstraction/imagination and concrete reality. This tapestry is the result of many experiments with the form and structure.

I Fångsten och fången har två av mina främsta intressen förenats: handarbete och skärmaktiviteter. Jag har lekt med tanken om skärmen som en samtidens nyckel till ett tanklöst tillstånd människan på olika sätt alltid eftersträvat. Med hjälp av textila metoder har jag materialiserat och manipulerat (upcyclat) digitala filer för att understryka likheter och skiljaktigheter mellan det digitala och det textila. Arbetet har resulterat i ett undersökande av hur ett nöje kan utvecklas till en fångenskap.

“Urban Memories” encapsulates a personal journey in Berlin. This master's thesis embarks on a captivating exploration of the fluidity of home and the passage of time in the vibrant urban landscape. Spanning the years 2007 to 2022, the streets of the city serve as both canvas and storyteller, capturing the transient nature of homes and the fragility of moments. Through the innovative medium of embroidery, fragments from a personal diary in 2012 intertwine with literary insights from German authors in different eras such as Christa Wolf, Dörte Hansen, and Jenny Erpenbeck.

The narrative unfolds across four chapters, each delving into different facets of the author's experiences and reflections. Looking at historical aspect like the reconstruction of Berlin after World War II and the symbolic significance of disappearing houses, the thesis explores the profound connection between memory and location. It navigates through temporal contexts, examining societal attitudes and the evolving spirit of Berlin across different eras.

The thesis also dives into the art of crafting stories, drawing parallels between textile craft and comic drawing. In the final chapter, it explores street art's role in shaping public spaces, highlighting the transformative potential of embroidery. As banners flutter on construction site fences and embroidered memories find a place in the public realm, the thesis invites contemplation on the intersections of art, memory, and the evolving identity of the city. 

Through this interdisciplinary exploration, the thesis weaves a tapestry that not only captures personal experiences but reflects the collective memory of a dynamic and ever-changing city.

Our value of people and craft are linked. With the rise of fast production 

industry, and the lack of transparency when it comes to a role of consumption, we have become detached from making processes. This detachment is 

detrimental to our understanding and empathy for other people but also to ourselves. It perpetuates disposable ways of living and keeps us reliant on 

disposable consumption. 

Craft is an undervalued tool which can be utilised in historical learning as well 

as anthropological study today. In doing so, we are able to understand more about humanity by inspecting craft through the ‘three facet’ lens. We are then 

able to develop empathy for other people and other cultures, through the non- tangible space created during the process of crafting. For those who do craft, 

this recognition is empowering and enables cultural ownership. It also empowers us as individuals, when we are able to produce something ourselves 

and physically see the learning process. 

This means we can recognise who has made our objects, and appreciate the 

time, skill and commitment which goes into the undertaking. This encourages us to appreciate objects, to consider our ways of living and move away from 

disposable consumption. 

Through a comparison of the relationship to craft that is held in Peru, with that 

of the relationship we hold in the UK, and broadened by my experience living and teaching in Sweden, I conclude that industrialisation and colonialism has a 

role to play, but ultimately, the power and potential of craft, is physically in our own hands. 

I propose using the ‘three facets’; Utility, Aesthetics and Connectivity, as a way to break down the information documented through craft, to analyse, at a deep 

level, what can be gained from craft appreciation. 

In this paper I investigate the emotional benefits of textile crafts in general and embroidery in particular. How can embroidery be used to express love and care for others? Can embroidery be used as a therapeutic tool? Using my own embroidery project Flower heart as a starting point, my research goes into craft as a manifestation of love, from handmade gifts in the 18th century to contemporary art, and crafting as a therapeutic medium, from rehabilitation of soldiers after WW1, to a recent study on 92 Finnish craft makers. My material is based on research on (textile) craft, research on occupational therapy, interviews with contemporary embroidery artists Michelle Kingdom, Alexandra Drenth and Willemien de Villiers, as well as my own experiences with the project Flower heart. My conclusions are that there are many emotional benefits to textile crafts. Our crafts can comfort us from sorrow, help us deal with pain, both physical and mental, make us connect to one another, provide meaning to our lives, anchor us in the present and live on long after we are gone as a manifestation of our lives and our love.

Mest av allt önskar jag att det var mitt namn som stod på dörren. Då skulle jag måla väggarna randiga och köpa husdjur. Känna mig fri. Men jag orkar inte vänta 10,5 år i bostadskön, så nu skapar jag min egna bostads-utopi. Jag har flyttat fjorton gånger och det räcker nu.

I mitt examensprojekt använder jag färg och textilt konsthantverk för att ifrågasätta Stockholms bostadspolitik. 

Utförande, realiserandet av en omformad tanke, en viktig del av ett processuellt arbete som handlar om något som allting egentligen balanserar på, det handlar om bearbetning i stunden och en lekfullhet som är starkt bunden till känslan som får mig att påbörja något, fortsätta med något. En strävan att uppnå ett visuellt bevis på vad jag har varit med om, så att jag kanske kan få se på dig vid ett senare skede och komma ihåg hur det var när vi hade vår tid tillsammans, och se framåt mot en tid med någon annan som liknar dig, där momentets rörelse ändrar tempot på utförandet och påverkar känslan i verket jag slutligen har framför mig. En viktig, om inte den viktigaste aspekten som påverkar det som händer i tankarna, är hastigheten som spelar en viktig roll då den kan orsaka en omedelbar och inte sällan impulsiv förändring eller ha ett tempo som är mer resonerande och mindre impulsivt och mer betänkt; jag tycker om när jag låter det pendla mellan det betänkta och impulsiva. Det skapar en behaglig rytm i skapandet. Tänk dig att åka på motorvägen men sen byta till en landsväg där du bara får köra trettio, vägarna upplevs helt olika, vilket sätter tonen, avgör rytmen, rörelsen. Att repetera de olika momenten på varierande vägar, underlag. I det finner jag att känslospår kan visa sig, när jag tar ett steg tillbaka, ser på det jag har gjort. Dom olika stegen i en process slutar all- tid med sorgen för mig, då vet jag att tiden är inne, att det är klart och det är dags att ta distans, för att få perspektiv på vad som har skett. Att låta akten formuleras i ord, någon gång.

Ett undersökande arbete om subtilitet, fotografi, text och konsthantverk. Om tydlighet, otydlighet, att upplösa och omforma.

I create to heal wounds – personal, emotional and social. I create to break the patriarchy  and normative systems that excludes people of different genders, sexualities, colours and bodies. I make human wear – fashion for bodies of all sizes and genders. I want people to be comfortable with themselves and their bodies and that is the goal with my brand EKLUND EKLUND. 

The fashion world today consists of “his and hers”, size zero, “wear and tear” and sexist ads, all of which maintains heteronormativity and sick beauty ideals. Clothes are made for “women” and “men” in size XS-XL, leaving everyone outside of those norms excluded. 

I will research the gender - and beauty norms in western media and fashion and how it affects people and their self esteem. How can I make fashion inclusive and socially sustainable? Can I make clothes that fits all? 

I’m gonna make a One Size Queer Couture Collection to include different expressions and bodies to change the norms of gender and size. One Size that adjusts to different shapes and sizes, Queer as in genderless for everyone and Couture as in hand-made fashion. 

I will achieve this through experimental pattern making, non-normative design and a presentation of the clothes with and for people confronting norms of gender, sexualities, beauty and colour.  

The increasing ecological impact of textiles and textile overproduction creates both local and global environmental concerns. Through the theoretical framework of speculative realism and the concept of alienation this paper investigates how textile art can be used to discuss the dark emotions connected to climate change. The project uses a method of material exploration to find new life to waste material from textile industry in Sweden. Through the zombie metaphor the life and death of waste is discussed. The paper finds that by giving material new life, creating zombie weaves; the darkness within the topic can be reached. The tactile qualities of the work bridges to counteract the alienation created from the lack of insight and understanding of material values. The project finds that embracing the darkness and getting to know the monster can make room for new solutions to the ecological crisis.

No. 1-2-3-4! (Motoric Key) consist of a weave series and a printed edition. Each piece with the outline 21x21 cm, a size similar to a hand, or a handkerchief, generic in the relation to a blueprint of a weave sample or a leaflet; a utilitarian object to use and be used. An economical outline that enables a mobility and simplicity of direction. A one made as one, one, one, through two years. A handkerchief tool. Potential efficiency, tunes and characters, stating the importance of listening as a way of working.

I weave figurative tapestries, working with themes regarding our relationship to the wild, both in nature and ourselves. I dye my yarns with mushrooms and plants I pick in the forest. I go through this trouble because I want the material to carry a story within itself, I see it as giving it life. This method makes the work divided in three main steps: the foraging, the dyeing, and the weaving. 

An imitation of an Elvis impersonator, the echo of the long gone American dream that got flush ed away, singing karaoke-versions of those so well known songs.An investigation of the human greed and longing for abundance, the capitalistic need of constant rebirth.

"- We can't build our dreams"

An Etern al Shrimpfeast served as the last supper and as the Four Flamingoes of the Apocalypse overindulges themselves in the leftovers, you starting to wonder if you've reach heaven or hell. But as the rhythm from the karaoke machine and the jerking movements of my hips rocks you into seduction, the simple answer is that you are just stuck in Limbo.

"Make the world go away And get it off my shoulders Say the things you used to say And make the world go away" 

A project around loss and absence. This work is a reflection on tradition, mourning and the importance to remember. Based on how crafts relate to society in ceremonial contexts by being a tool to communicate with others.

By having a reflective relation with tradition this fiber works intend to transfer the innate poetic language of symbolic materials used in rituals around death and commemoration in Mexico into new forms through specific repetitive actions in the making.

Delving into the unique physical qualities of onion skin, sugar, beeswax, corn husks and paper. Seeking to evoke an emotion by diverting our perception of ordinary materials.

In this paper I have investigated the role of the weaver, from my own perspective as a weaver. I have discussed weaving in relation to function and painting, and how the weaving process and the collaboration with the loom have a great impact on what I create. I have found it difficult to believe in the future as a weaver, and with this project I wanted to find a meaning with weaving that I can lean on. 

 All five weaves are woven on the same warp, I call it a warp family. Every weave is a try and a failure to weave a rug. Instead they have all turned into different characters, portraying my ongoing struggle with, and love for, the warp.  

 I’ve come to the conclusion that for me the rug is a symbol for honesty in making, and that it’s function is to remind us about values that often are neglected. The visible process, the human presence, is then more important than aspects like functionality or perfection.

My aesthetic preferences was shaped by the jumble of pop culture from the 80´s and 90´s. Also Archie comics, Wham-songs, musicalfilms like Annie and Fame, even the colourful racing suites worn by swedish downhill skier Tomas Fogdö in 1993, seems to have had an impact on my taste for glitter and strong colours.   This is something I´m always carrying with me and it echoes in my drawings and embroiderys

Your will weave six anxious and amazing rugs! The rugs will speak about different things. They shall be many and big to take up space, be seen and heard but that they should be ashamed of! The rugs shall be woven fast, because everything have to be fast.

Do I want people to feel sorry for me? That is what I really don’t want! Have to look over how I formulate myself. But if I say, don’t feel sorry for me, I put words in the mouth of the receiver. How am I to formulate that I think it is right that it is hard, that my behavior leads to self-hatred. Self-hatred that I should feel to change.

WEAVING PAST INTO PRESENT revolves around contradictory feelings towards, on the one hand, the lure of a mythic past, and on the other hand its absurdity and potential danger. This is done by stating that craft and weaving is inherently conservative, closely connected to nostalgia and claimed as something more authentic and pristine. In continuation used in the creation of an idealized and romanticized past generating a separation between an “us and them”. These problems are created by the main quest and question of this work, to weave the past into present and then ask; which past is woven into the present presence of the tapestries?

The paper then continues to describe the methods and considerations used and made in this time-translation. Looking at the sketch and the collage as ways of materializing and enmeshing the transient flow of time through cacophonies of ephemera and threads. Concluding that I, just as the ones creating mythic pasts, am not weaving a past at all. But merely weaving a sketch trying to highlight the feeling and fear of loss apparent today in encountering the accelerated present, the eerie future, and the desirable progressive changes towards equality

I mötet mellan den traditionella delsbodräkten och vår samtid vill jag konkretisera en idé om att tradition är i ständig förändring och att denna förändring är en förutsättning för att folkkultur ska kunna leva vidare.

Om binär kod, vävda bilder och Vǫluspá.

This paper describes my work with a historical craft and my attempt to find new ways to look at it, work with it and present it. I use the embroidery technique Hardangersaum which is all white, and where selected threads of the woven fabric grid are removed while others are wrapped and embellished. The artistic research leans heavily on the traditional craft but tries to isolate it from its historical baggage. I turn my focus to the grid of the fabric and I present some viewpoints from Rosalind Krauss and Hannah B. Higgins. I describe questions of scale and presentation that have emerged and show how digital animation has played a major role in the development and the communication of the embroidery work.

Nostalgin har länge fascinerat mig. Det är en återkommande, stark och för mig melankolisk känsla som jag är intresserad av. Hur fungerar den och vad gör den med mig? Framförallt: Varför blir jag allt som oftast nostalgisk över just svåra polära perioder i mitt liv som jag dessutom idealiserar? Varför har jag svårt att släppa taget om just dessa?

In this project I explore the consequences of inventing traditions and the empowering effects of textile making. By looking at Swedish textile history, Finnish coffee packages, a 91 year old woman and a 31 year old aspiring textile artist I come to the conclusion that trying to control history trough traditions can have dire consequences and I am left wanting a more inclusive approach.

On 5th June 2012, I woke up paralysed and in that moment my body became my enemy. I haven’t been able to trust it ever since. I’m afraid it might betray me again. I feel stuck inside it, and yet, I feel alienated from it. Now it’s time to reconcile, find peace. I’ll try to find this peace through wool, because wool is safe. It reminds me of my mom and reminds me of Iceland. Wool means home. In this project I want to confront my fear, the alienation from my body, and hopefully find beauty in it. I want to create a place where I feel as if I am surrounded by my own body, where I can look at it, touch it, and see that it’s not as frightening as I thought

With a background in ceramics and graphic designI have developed my thoughts about craft as a combination of verbal and nonverbal communication, but in textiles. With the written word as one of my main materials this project looks into class and material hierarchies filtered through autofictivestories from my life. This paper explores themes that impact my decisions in the making process, choosing materials, motifs, texts and words, politics and poetry. It deals with all the information I push into patchworking, shirring, tufting and sculpting textiles, with the goal to paint a picture of an often unwanted section of society. To discuss this I have chosen references dealing with sloppy craft, text based art, graffiti and craft traditions, in a mix with news articles and economy. Through all parts of the project I am on balancing line between chaos and perfection, truth and fiction. 

My work is a tribute to the disintegration of built environments, and the chaos and disturbance that it brings into the idea of what a city should look like.

An ode to the ruins that are witnesses to destructive social and economic systems and that tell the stories of the life that once inhabited them.

A comment and critique on humanities way of ruining everything: world that we live in and our self; a destructive behaviour that we refuse to admit we have, and desperately try to hide. We polish the façades and fake our appearance in order to keep the illusion.

I am discussing the concept of ruin romanticism, comparing the garden ruins of the eighteenth century to the urban exploration of abandoned places of modern society, the fascination for what once was, but are no more and the different feelings these places might arouse.

I describe how I through experiments with dying, deconstructed screen printing and distressing, manipulate fabrics to create an illusion of brick walls. And how I through experiments with display, sound and light explore solutions for creating the dystopic atmosphere of abandoned places in a textile installation.

My biggest inspiration is the inevitable downfallof the urban landscape and I am romanticising the imperfections and the flaws. I take what is understood as ugly by the rules of aesthetics, make it beautiful, and put it on a pedestal.

In a dialogue with Catherine Dormor’s book, A Philosophy of Textile (2020), this paper argues that knitting has a unique position in the sphere of textile. To understand the technique as both practice and theory is not only to acknowledge its potency as expression and reflection, but also to perceive textile in a broader perspective.

Starting with the article Offset, Buch- und Werbekunst (Offset, Printing, and Commercial Art) written by one of the key figures of the Bauhaus weaving workshop, Gunta Stölzl in 1926, I outline the historical context, and justify the significance of my research.

Employing the concept—championed by the artist/psychoanalyst Bracha L. Ettinger—, the Matrix, in particular together with (Inter)relationship, Techne as Dormor suggests, I navigate knitting in general as well as my own practice. By closely inspecting knitting as a mode of both making and thinking, this paper proves that knitting has a capacity to embody multiple layers of time and space, and by doing so, becomes a meaning-making device whose production questions, challenges and overturns hierarchical and binaristic modes of thinking.

Howdoyoudo (HDYD): How do you do, Howdy!

Howdy (HD): Howdy, Howdoyoudo!

HDYD: Vi ser ut att få en fin dag idag, tycker du inte? Synd att den måste befläckas med det vanliga smutsgörat. En efterlysning har kommit in.

HD: Det har hänt igen?

HDYD: Ja, det är samma visa varje gång. En luststyrd elev som oaktsamt klivit in på högskoleterritorium och inte tänkt på konsekvenserna... men räkenskapens tid kommer till alla: textförklaringen måste fram.

My work explores aspects of the hierarchy between animal and human. I aim to find out how we as humans act, and how we treat animals in a not very humanised way. How would it look like if we would change place with the animals?

To explain the different aspects of humanity, the work includes a symbolic language. I use different human coded objects, that works as an index that I’m creating during the master education. Among these objects are for example a hotdog, pommes frites and a bowl with cereals. During the process, another aspect has been added to the specified objects; the children perspective. Since children are more open minded and haven’t learned the structure of society yet, they are a great inspiration for me to learn how to look beyond the hierarchies in society. How do we as humans think before we learn how we should be thinking? 

One of the symbols I use is the cow, that works as a symbol for the animal. I have chosen to work with the cow since it is an animal that we use as humans to get milk and meat from, yet the cow is assisting and accepting us no matter what we do to them. I feel sorry for the cow, being a calm animal with no intention to do harm, at the very same time as we as humans kill them with no mercy. As a symbol for the human, I use Leif GW Persson. He is a Swedish TV personality taking and getting a lot of space in everyday society, for example in Swedish television.

This project has an ambition to find out more about the hierarchies between different species (including the human). In order to tell the story through children, I have had workshops with them and gotten influenced by their ideas in the making of the installation and embodiment. This is a way for me to get “dehumanised” since children has less time living as human beings and haven’t yet learned how they should behave. 

The workshops works as one method in my project, while another method that I’m using is the sloppy craft. Through this method I aim to both show a more childish and naive way of working with textiles, to make it be looking more as if a child would have made it. It’s also a way for me to question the traditions within textile craft, and to challenge the hierarchic system between fine art and the craft field. Furthermore, it’s of importance to me challenging traditions of personal reasons, since I have always been very law-abiding in general and a so called “good girl”, wanting to be accepted by everyone. Through my artwork I am breaking these rules and that is also a big reason why I’m doing what I’m doing. The most important message in my work is still to highlight the hierarchy between animal and human, and I aim to do it with the help of sloppy craft and children.

This paper presents my project of working with an inherited collection of textile materials. It also presents the links my work has to aspects of Femmage, the term coined by artists Miriam Schapiro and Melissa Meyer in the 1978 article Waste Not Want Not: An Inquiry into What Women Saved and Assembled-Femmage. Working with this textile tradition I explore ways in which to develop my own visual language, where intuition, play and rhythm are key methods and collage, appliqué and print are the main techniques. 

My master work is an installation of hand embroidered images.

The theme of my work has been the feeling of belonging to a new environment and the process of a place becoming a home. I explore the perception of a place and pick fragments to translate into embroidery.

The key question is: how can I communicate a state of mind and perception of a place with embroidered images?

With this body of work I also explore the hierarchy of places in a city. I use a large amount of hours working on one specific fragment and through the chosen slow technique I discuss the value of it.

In this research I examine, mainly focusing on representation in storytelling, how certain aspects of a persons identity in relation to the social environment gives us different modes of discrimination and privileges. I have interviewed individuals around Sweden, during 2020 to 2022, between the age span of 4 to 80 years old concerning societal and familial upbringing. I choose to focus on upbringing since how we reflect about what has shaped us tells a lot about a person and the society.

What struck me during the research and the interviews is that we live at the same time, at different places, with different identities, resources and capacities giving us different experiences and views of the world. With vastly different lives: what makes us able to relate to each other? Is it our ability to feel? To feel joy, irritation or loneliness. That no matter how one's life is we all have feelings, that perhaps gives us a chance to recognize, mirror and to empathize with each other?

The project resulted in six textile sculptures and eighteen photos of the textile sculptured fictional characters each photographed in their own everyday life, in “their own reality”, in different places around Sweden. The sculptures, their individual jobs, studies, unemployment and places are inspired by the interviews and the research.