Untouchable, monumental and intimate: on feminized mysticism and occult weaving


2018

MA degree project in textile art, Academy of Design and Crafts, Gothenburg


This project revolves around the connection between weaving and spiritual séances, with starting-point in a study of four female mystics: Helena Blavatsky, Annie Besant, Mechthild von Magdeburg and Hilma af Klint. With weaving as my method, I want to put attention to affective, emotional and bodily forms of mysticism that through history has been associated with women.

The result consists of an installation of weavings in silk, copper, steel, silver and nickel, in an iron spiral construction. The shell is a shelter and a protection, expanding inwards at the same time as outwards. Not possible to overview, neither to pass though. The shell lives in a thick present, where thoughts are things and passionate constructions of webs of connections are growing, widening, appearing through the act of weaving.