A two day pleating and shibori workshop arranged by Kost&Mask, Den Kongelige Teater.
I just love sharing my passion with form fixation techniques with others. Hear a group of amazing tailors from Norway, Sweden, Finland and Denmark.
On a sunny day in May I went on a 2 hour walk in the Nørrebro area (Copenhagen, Denmark) with twelve playful people in the age from three to sixty. Below are some impressions from our walk captured by Agnes Saaby Thomsen.
An intens and inspiring three day (May 2023) residency at Gylleboverket. Together with Gylleboverket and their artistic-duo Etta Säfve and Jona Elfdahl, we explored the relationships and (inter)connections between our practices, between us and nature and between different kind of materialities. Our explorations went in multiple directions and fostered multiple lingering embodied dialogues between us.
Below a variation of images from our explorations.
Legen og sam-skabelsen i og af kunsten, i og med naturen. Som i naturen, der altid er i organisk bevægelse, således er KVAS-projektet. KVAS er en processuel undersøgelse af de kvasmaterialer, som findes i naturen. KVAS er et aldrig færdiggjort og et evigt foranderligt værk. KVAS en legende sam-skabelsesproces med performance kunstner Linh Le.
Bunker flyttes og samles. Bunker skabes af kvaset i landskabet. Huler bygges af bunker. Bunker skabes af huler – i hulens kvasbunker kan vi gemme os for forbipasserende. I hulen leger vi underfundige kvasnings-lege, som får kvaset til at knitre højlydt. Under legen sanser vi, at vores kvasninger forandrer hulens bunkninger på organisk knase-sanse vis(ninger).
KVAS bunkinger og kvasninger: Linh Le og Charlotte Østergaard
KVAS var en del af udstillingen ”Hej Planter”, april 2023. Udstillingen var initieret og kurateret af Bess Kristoffersen.
KVAS is a performative process that are inspired by Donna Haraway’s concept of “making-kin”. In the book “Staying with the trouble: making kin in the Chthulucene” Haraway suggest that making-kin is creating relationship with non-human entities such as plants and animals in order to build new forms of communities and kinships that goes beyond the traditional human-to-human relationships. Making-kin involves recognizing our (humans) interconnectedness with all living things and aims at working toward more sustainable relationships with the environment. Dedicated to Bess Kristoffersen’s invitation Løvspring (the season that is renewal of planetary life) KVAS is a performative attempt to awaken our senses towards and to acknowledge our interdependency and connections with nature.
Billeder, tekster, videoer og video-redigering: Linh Le og Charlotte Østergaard
Sammen med kvartetten NJYD var jeg på et meget inspirerende fire dages residency (april 2023) på Godsbanens Åben Scene i Århus, hvor vi undersøgte krydsfeltet mellem musik og tekstiler. På residensen undersøgelse vi af bl.a. hvilken lyd og musik der findes i samspillet mellem musikerne (med og uden deres instrumenter) og de tekstile (evigt foranderlige) rumlige (scenografiske) kompositioner.
Musical investigations in the boundary between costume and scenographic textile compositions
Together with the quartet NJYD, I was on an inspiring four-day residency (April 2023) at Godsbanen’s Open Stage in Aarhus, where we investigated the intersection between music and textiles. At the residence, we explored for example, the sounds and music(ality) that exist or emerge in the interactions between the musicians (with and without their instruments) and the textile (ever-changing) spatial (scenographic) compositions.
Kvartetten NJYD skaber kunstneriske koncertformater i et krydsfelt mellem komponeret (klassisk) musik, performance, improvisation og multimedie. Den utraditionelle instrumentation med fløjte, saxofon, guitar og slagtøj danner grundlaget for eksperimenter, der fører til helt nye lydudtryk.
NJYD består af MARIE SØNDERSKOV fløjte, ANJA NEDREMO saxofon MIKKEL EGELUND NIELSEN guitar og JONAS WEITLING slagtøj
I am (over time) in the process of developing a co-crafting practice. In different sessions with different numbers of people participating – I invite my fellow crafters to craft in a way that makes sense to them and/or as a responce to what is already crafted (that include responding to the materialities at hand). The textile pieces (that have been crafted so far) contain multiple crafting techniques and/or traces of (crafters) hands that have crafted in different ways. The co-crafting practice ‘force’ me to listen and learn from to how my fellow crafters craft and challenges me let got of control of the artistic expression/outcome.
This post shows images from a of the co-crafting few sessions. More info will follow!
Co-knotting sessions that I hosted at a residency at Inter Arts Center, Malmø (2021). The wonderful participants was Agnes Saaby Thomsen, Carlotta Broglio, Svea Thelin and Eva Hedblom, Ranin George Souliman, Jenny Wallengren Bergquist.
This video from a “textile sampling workshop” that I hosted at HJEM – kunstrum (2021). The co-crafted craftings was made Ann Vibeke Wissing Nielsen, Connie Eirod, Katja Crevar, Tanja Hylling Diers, Mads Brauer, Maria Bjerregaard and myself.
HJEM – kunstrum are initiated, curated, arranged and hosted by Tanja Hylling Diers. Video: Agnes Saaby Thomsen. Musik: Mads Brauer
The co-knotting session are sometimes situated in private homes. Here a session with Agens Saaby Thomsen and Tina Saaby (2022).
This co-crafting session is with Aune Kallinen, Alexandra Gustafsson, Patrik Kumpulainen, Sara-Maria Pirhonen and Tobias Klemets (that included multiple sessions) was part of a collaboration with professor Aune Kallinen and the Swedish acting program at UniArts/Theatre Academy.
The craftings became part of the performance “Gertrude-material” shown at Helsinki Art Museum (2023). Below images of Tobias Klemets and Ragni Helena Grönblom-Jolly from the rehearsal process.
Text and directing: Aune Kallinen. MA acting students Alexandra Gustafsson, Jesper Fransson, Walter Ruokolhti, Patrik Kumpulainen, Sara-Maria Pirhonen, Kristiina Karhu, Tobias Klemens and actor Ragni Helena Grönblom-Jolly. Paintings: Hamilton Membir. Sound composition: Nicolas Rehn. Movement and co-directing: Seppo Kumpulainen.
A while ago I was contacted by Linh Le from Becoming Species since she and they were interested in my knotting practice. We meet and knotted together.
I could not be happier – now the knotting practice has a life of its own. If you are interested in the development of the knotting practice please follow the tag #coknotting
I have made this video “Knotting Ecosystems” for Becoming Species as an open source tutorial. The video contains images from “knotting ecosystems” events hosted by Becoming Species and Extinction Rebellion Denmark.
You can find upcoming events on Becoming Species and Extinction Rebellion Denmark Facebook sites.
I hope you will be inspired to knot together with others and please feel free to share the video in your network.
In the video tutorial I use dummies as the ‘base’ for my knottings. But knottings in-process can be placed on tables, chairs and human bodies.
Remember my way of knotting only one of many. I invite you to develop your technique. Knotting can be done in multiple ways – the only limit is the imagination.
Entanglements is an artwork that I, as artist, suggest is placed in the borderland between textile object, spatial entity, and wearable art. I suggest that the artwork is an object with a performative human and more-than human material-spatial potential. Entanglements are exhibited at MATERIAL THINKING – 1st International Contemporary Material Art Biennale, Tsinghua University, China (02.12.2022–27.01.2023)
This artwork Entanglements build on Donna Haraway’s notion of ‘making kin’ and Jane Bennett’s concept of vibrant matter. ‘Making kin’ suggests that I, the artist, create a relationship to and with the materialities that I craft. When I craft a dynamic tension occurs between me and the vibrant materialities. Through crafting I must listen to and follow the complexity of the materialities. Therefore, I must be sensitive and openminded towards the materialites’ ‘voices’ and ‘wills’. I must listen to how the materialities including their colors wants to be combined and composed. When I craft, I drift and dwell with the materialites. I led them guide me and while crafting Entanglements I came in a mediative state.
At some point in the process and without realizing, my crafting had become quite specific. It was like that I, in my meditative state, began to control the materialities. It was like I forgot our vibrant relationship. I had to stop and re-create the dynamic tension between me and the materialities. I needed help and therefor I decided to invite colleagues like designers, dancers, and choreographers to join me to co-compose and co-embody the composition in multiple ways. In different sessions and with different colleagues, I and we explored other ways of ‘making kin’. We co-explored human-material-relationships, human-material-movements, and material-compositional-potentialities. Our embodied explorations expanded the meaning of ‘making kin’ and awoke my sensibility towards the materialities in unexpected ways. Co-crafting, co-embodying, and co-moving with the crafted materialities became ways of ’making kin’ – actions that left traces of human interaction. Traces of human bodies that have affected, informed, re-formed, composed and re-composed Entanglements. And now dear audience you meet Entanglements and I invite you to leave your traces – and I when I meet Entanglements again, I hope that there are new traces of other bodies.
At the immersive days in november 2022 composer Yann Coppier and I in our presentation “inside out – outside in” reflected on how world-costume and sound can co-create immersive experiences. One of our questions are how does Yann compose textile and how Charlotte designs sound – or – how does sound inform textile and how does textile inform sound?
In the presentation we immersed ourselves in word-costume or entalgled through spatial textiled-costume.
During the talk the audience engaged and tangled with us – which became playful embodied explorations.
I am so please to be selected to participate with the paper “Ethical Dilemmas of listening through and with costume” and the video “Costume connections” at Critical Costume 2022.
Video abstract: This Critical Costume exhibition presentation derives from the twelve-hour costume-based ‘performative-walk’ Community Walk (2020). The frame for Community Walk was a bright yellow costume that physically connected two wearers. In Community Walk I, the researcher and costume designer, placed myself ‘in the centre’ of the co-wearing entanglements. For twelve hours I co-wore the costume in the central area of Copenhagen, DK connected to twelve different co-wearers. One hour with each co-wearing participant. In the video I share some of the values that are the foundation for my artistic practice and research – hence, for this project. I unfold aspects of the co-wearing experience. For example, that the costume orientated the co-wearers towards each other and that they as a connected pair had to navigate and negotiate the costume, by-passing spectator(s), and urban environment.
The video