Visiting the Art Museum

Yesterday I decided to visit the Art Museum. The distance is probably about the same for me as to the Textile Museum (about ½ hour walk), but it feels longer (partly perhaps because the last bit is uphill...) The museum is located in the same building as our town library and theatre; and since they changed the bus lines (not much use to me now), I've rarely been there.

 Our "Culture Center" - Art Museum, Library, Theatre (and a café).

The main entrance; across a square from this church (the largest in town, from ~1900):

The sculpture outside the church is one of the works included in the Art Biennial.

I went inside for a short touristy visit (although I've been there many times before).

Have to say that most of the current exhibitions within the Art Museum were of the kind I find it rather hard to relate to. My brochure tells me that the artist behind the video installation above is Hicham Berrada, from France, and the title is Présage (Omen) - set in "an aquatic world" with a "mineral flora" of "chemical substances reacting to an electric current in the water". ("Is this what it might have looked like at the beginnng of time, an event spanning millions of years?")

This (above), also a video installation, may have been by the same artist, but I'm not sure. The theme seemed very similar, anyway. (Creation, beginning of time, whatever...)

This (above) made even less "sense" to me. There was a long row of photos of hour glasses on the opposite wall though, so probably still something to do with time (?)

In one room they were showing various portraits from the museum's collections. The only ones I can say I was really interested to see again were some exquisite 18th century miniature portraits by Peter Adolf Hall - born 1739 in Borås, and died 1793 in Liège, France. They used to be in a separate exhibition in a room of their own, but that was changed a number of years ago. So I've seen them before, but not recently.

I included my own hand in one of the photos , just to give you an idea of the size of them.

I do also quite like this little figurine of a woman vacuuming. (To compare with classic ballerinas and shepardesses or whatnot...) I remember this one from some earlier exhibition as well. ("Live as usual" by Gittan Jönsson, 2009)

Walking back downtown from the art museum, I went through an underpass that has been getting a new mural in connection with this year's art biennial. It turned out to consist of a number of separate panels rather than being painted directly on the wall, though. Won't end up on my list of favourites - but of course a big improvment on grey concrete and random amateur graffiti, which is usually all that most such places have to offer...!

More from the Textile Museum

At the Textile Museum (link to a previous post) there is also a permanent exhibition of old machinery used in production of textiles. Borås is an old textile industry town, and there used to be lots of textile factories here. Nowadays much of the production takes place abroad even if we still have a lot of focus on both fashion design and mailorder here. 

I snapped some random photos of various machines on my recent visit, but I don't have any details about them, so just enjoy the photos (if you like).

 

 

This display I think is to remind us of the fact that nowadays most the production takes place in poorer countries - just so that we here in the "western world" shall be able to buy too much, too cheap...

And this is to illustrate what one might have expected to find in a teenager's wardrobe in 1950 vs 1980 and 2010. Personally I suspect that this development has continued, and that teenagers 2024 must be having difficulties fitting all their clothes and footwear into just one wardrobe... What do you think?!

For my own part, I have to confess that I fill all of the wardrobe space I have in my flat all by myself (plus some extra storage down in the basement)  - which makes me wonder sometimes how families living in similar size flats (or smaller) manage their situation...

Weekend Reflections

On my way to the Textile Museum on Tuesday, I also (again)* passed by these works of art currently on display in/on the river for this year's Art Biennial (in Borås, Sweden).

Cf two previous posts from June: Adrift  /  Optical Illusions

 

 The Wind is Turning Towards the East by Heli Ryhänen, Finland

 

 

Disrupting Ebb and Flow, 2023 by Elin Stampe, Stockholm

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 Weekend Street/Reflections #183

Visiting the Textile Museum

On Tuesday the weather here turned out better than expected, and after lunch at home I decided to venture out on a walk stretching a bit further than my immediate neighbourhood. I was not quite sure of my goal until I was half way there... But I ended up visiting the Textile Museum to have a look at their current exhibitions. 

This installation meets you at the entance just now and I think it is part of a new permanent exhibition called Reboot Fashion, which "explores the path towards a circular textile future through innovative production methods, while also inviting individuals to engage and influence change". The sign below was on display nearby:

This huge textile sculpture by artist Diana Orving, which stretches over two floors in the museum, is entitled What could be touched and that beyond (2023). It fits in with the theme above but is also part of this summers Art Biennial.

"In this particular case, her choice of textile is one that hardly ever is associated with the glamour of the fashion world: jute. The material is brown and has coarse structure; it is cheap and durable and has been used for centuries to package all kinds of things that are necessary to life, such as grain, turnips and beans. The woven, thich fabric is used and reused and might travel around the world several times. [---] Orving reminds us of the global nature of the textile industry..."

A temporary exhibition upstairs is entitled Printed Positions.  

"Since the turn of the millennium, pattern design has undergone a technical and aesthetic revolution, to a great extent spurred on by the development of digital technology. In Printed Positions, contemporary textile-pattern design is explored through works by 14 Nordic designers and artists."

This installation in the middle of the huge exhibition hall gives the impression of a ship, and there were also other textiles in the background to underline the marine theme.

As for the rest, I soon gave up on trying to "interpret"...!

In the smaller room on the same floor was an exhibition showing works by this year's graduates from the Swedish School of Textiles at the local University.

This is the building from outside.

I bought an ice cream at the café before I started on my walk back. (This is their outdoors terrace by the main entrance, but I ate my ice cream sitting in a comfortable high back armchair indoors...) 
 

Jaume Plensa's sculpture House of Knowledge has been sitting outside our Textile Fashion Center for 10 years now. I blogged about the installation of it back in May 2014. And there have been more photos of it now and then over the years since then as well... I can hardly ever resist snapping one whenever I pass it, even though I know I have plenty before! (In this one, you can see a couple of people sitting inside it, there is a bench there.)

On the other side of the road, there is this mural on the wall of the University to look at.

 

I also have some photos from an older permanent exhibition of machinery etc + some more photos from my walk there and back, but will save those for other posts.

I Beg Your Pardon...

 

Yesterday afternoon was a bit too hot for comfort for me, and I ended up sleeping through most of the afternoon (indoors). (But then not very well in the night...) 

 

This morning was a bit cooler and overcast, but not yet raining, so I went for a walk into town to stock up on tea in my favourite tea shop at the main square. On my way home I passed by the Rose Garden in the town park, which as usual offers a lovely variety of colours in late summer. 

 

 

In the afternoon it started raining again - and forecasts say we can expect quite a lot of  showers throughout the rest of the week. I guess I'll just have to take it as it comes...

I beg your pardon
I never promised you a rose garden
Along with the sunshine
There's gotta be a little rain sometime
When you take you gotta give so live and let live or let go

Seeking Shadow

 

The sign says: "Groceries - Fruit & Vegs"

A small convenience shop in my neighbourhood has made a niche for itself in later years by offering a wide assortment of fresh fruit and vegetables, in spite of not much space inside. In summer they make use of their outside space as well, as you can see in the photo.  

While I do the bulk of my grocery shopping online with home delivery from a supermarket every fortnight, I also appreciate having this shop only 5 minutes walk away for some supplementary shopping in between. Today I bought nectarines, bananas and strawberries (all looking good and fresh) - feeling thankful I did not have to walk all the way to the supermarket for them... After a rainy period, we're having a sunny and warm (even hot) weekend. Instead of a long and hot walk along busy streets with no shadow, after having brought my bag of fruit home, I could just go for a quiet, leisurely and "unburdened" stroll in the shadow of big old trees in the nearby cemetery instead...

Old Friends

 or "How Terribly Strange to Be Seventy"... *

Among the old papers I was sorting over the weekend (cf previous post) were also some letters written by myself to my parents after I had moved away from home, up to Karlstad, at age 20. I lived in that town for about 10 years - first studying (1½ year of secretarial college), then working for a few years, then back to university for more studies. Out of those letters, most of those that I decided to keep were to do with things like starting a new course, or a new job. After secretarial college I first had a couple of short term temporary jobs, then worked for about a year for a company constructing machines for pulp and paper industry, and after that I was recruited by a consulting firm in the same line of business. There I came to remain for three years - even though the company itself went through some changes of ownership etc during those years. Anyway I worked there long enough to make a couple of long-lasting friends among the engineers, whom I continued to meet with now and then even after I quit that job. They also came to visit me in Borås in the summer after I moved here (back in 1986); and with one of them + his wife (K+M) I'm still exhanging Christmas cards, and the wife and I are also Facebook-friends, so keeping track of each other a bit that way. But it struck me as I was reading my old letters, that a very long time  has passed since we actually last met in person...

Then, yesterday evening, a totally unexpected private message suddenly dropped in from M, saying that they were going to be in Borås the next day (i.e. today), and could we meet up? She suggested meeting at some café in town. This put me in a dilemma, though, as I had the laundry room booked today... I went down to check but there were no free time slots for days ahead. So I texted back and asked if they could visit me at home instead? They could, and they did. (They were on a holiday trip by car and had spent the night in smaller town not very far away.) Around 10:30 am today, they turned up at my door; bringing some pastries bought on the way. Luckily I had a new jar of instant coffee in my fridge (bought fairly recently and never opened). (I only drink tea, but keep instant coffee for guests. It's been a while since I last had anyone here for coffee, though!)

We wasted no time but chatted away for 1½ hours in a strange mix of agreeing that it must be no less 38 (!) years since we last met in person... and yet it kind of felt like yesterday! (Or at least not all that long ago...) I also told them of those letters I'd been reading only a couple of days ago - stirring up memories of how and when we got to know each other in the first place - so that for me, their sudden suggestion right afterwards to meet up actually felt like sort of thought transference...!

They left at noon to do some touristing in the city on their own - and I got on with my laundry as planned...

We took some photos before they left, but for the blog I feel more comfortable just asking Bing for an illustration. K does not have a beard, and M does not have hair long enough for a "bun" on the top of her head - but otherwise it's not too bad... ;)

Afterwards, this old song by Simon & Garfunkel came to mind:  

 

Old friends, old friends
Sat on their park bench like bookends
A newspaper blown through the grass
Falls on the round toes
Of the high shoes of the old friends

 

Old friends, winter companions, the old men
Lost in their overcoats, waiting for the sunset
The sounds of the city sifting through trees
Settle like dust on the shoulders of the old friends

 

Can you imagine us years from today
Sharing a park bench quietly?
How terribly strange to be 70

Old friends, memory brushes the same years
Silently sharing the same fears

* (I'll not turn 70 until next year, but all three of us are "around there" now.)