Textile Art Exhibitions

Sunday 30th August turned out rainy, so we (my brother and I) decided to abandon the idea of another excursion into the countryside, and instead visited the Art Museum and the Textile Museum in town; which were both still showing exhibitions of textile art connected to the past summer's Art Biennial. (I did not get round to visiting either museum on my own during the summer.) To further enhance the holiday feeling we also had lunch at the restaurant in the same building as the Art Museum.

Kulturhuset = Cultural Centre; with art museum, library, theatre and café
(My own photo from July 2024)

  

 

From our table in the restaurant/café we could look out on the nearby Gustav Adolf Church from 1906. (The yellow tables are outdoors, and you can see why we preferred to stay indoors on this day...)

Me sitting in the grand foyer in between café (left), library (behind you), theatre (right) and art museum (entrance in the background).

 

 

Don't ask me what the textile "work of art" behind me is supposed to symbolise - I have no idea!  

 

 On the upper floor, a selection of objects from the museum's own collections are on display. This sculpture was one I could not recall having seen before: A tiled stove lying down - and serving as tunnel for a small car with lights lit. (Again, I have no answer to "why"... The best I can come up with is something to do with climate - but if you have a better suggestion, feel free to share!)

 

(My own photo from August 2021)

 From the Art Museum we went on to the Textile Museum, incorporated in the Textile Fashion Center, together with schools and businesses related to textile industry as well.

 

The official poster for the art biennial

 

 

 

From the big exhibition hall at the Textile Museum

Somehow I managed to forget to bring my phone with me on that day. The colour photos above were  taken by my brother; while the two black&white ones are my own, from the past. (Edited to b&w to tune in with the grey weather we were having now.) 

PS. In three of the photos I'm wearing the green rain jacket that I bought the same weekend. 

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.

Through My Lens

 

Yesterday I walked all the way back home from my visit to the charity shop; and passed by the Textile Fashion Center again, with this tree or bush in bloom in front of the building. (I'm afraid I don't know its name, in any lanauge.)  

I also snapped some photos at the back of the building. There's also a big mural on a wall there that it's easy to miss as it's off the main street.

 

 

Looking the other way from the bridge, there is a block of student flats built across the river. I've never been inside, but it must be quite a nice view for those living there! 

Linking to Mersad's Through My Lens No 386

An Artsy Saturday Afternoon

Besides today being Election Day in Sweden, it's also been Art Gallery Weekend in Borås. Alas all the art galleries open and buses running in a loop between them doesn't mean I've got the energy to visit them all... So I settled for a walk to the Textile Museum (and back), Saturday afternoon.

 
In the entrance hall, I noticed this new 'bench', shaped like a clothes peg. Rather clever!

One of the exhibitions upstairs, about a local wallpaper company, was the same as on my last visit back in March.

 

The new exhibition is entitled 'Pattern-Mania' (Swedish: 'Mönstermani') and is about 20th century Swedish Textile Design - especially printed patterns from the 1920s onward, through the 1990s.

 I arrived in the middle of a guided tour going on, and sort of kept on the outskirts of that - hearing some of it, but at the same time moving along at my own pace... All photos taken with my mobile, as I didn't have my other camera with me.

Many of the patterns were displayed in the home environments they were designed for - like kitchen, living room, bedroom etc.

Other displays focused on special holidays or time of the year:

 

This wall of clothes reminded me of how I loved to play with paper dolls as a child :-)

Speaking of childhood - did you wonder about those coloured balls in front of the building in the first photo? I had a closer look at that installation on my way back - and found it rather 'disturbing'...

 

They're made of castaway soft toys! A sign nearby says that the thought behind it is to make us think about what becomes of the things we throw away...

" TEDDY ORBS. - Do you know where your old teddy bear is? (Most people don't, so don't be ashamed!) This work of art consists of old teddy bears that have been deconstructed and reconstructed to a collection of colourful spheres. The purpose of this work of art is to provoke the viewer to think about where their old teddy bears are, and how they get rid of them. / Felicia Hansen, Instagram: @felicia_oh."

I'd recommend parents and grandparents with young children in tow to give this outdoors installation a wide berth if they don't want to end up in trouble, though... Back in my childhood, we were patiently persuaded to let worn-out cuddly toys be respectfully sent to retirement up in the attic, with lots of assurances that they'd be much happier there!

Across the road from the Textile Fashion Center is the University. They've recently had a new mural painted to replace an old one that had to be removed in connection with necessary repairs of the wall. The old mural (also an eagle) was so popular that they hired the same artist to do the new one, though. He made the new one similar but still a bit different. For comparison, if you like, have a look at the old mural here. (Post from 2015.)