【Taipei·DunRen】 【Taipei·RenAi】' Sew up'── Kari Anne Helleberg Bahri Solo show 2022.10.08- 2022.12.11

Exhibition

 Trailer

藝術家訪談影片

Exhibition Tour

Installation

Bluerider ART

「縫合 Sew up」
卡里．安妮．赫勒伯格．巴赫里Kari Anne Helleberg Bahri
亞洲首個展 台北．敦仁｜台北．仁愛 雙館呈現

Kari Anne Helleberg Bahri (Norway, b.1975), graduated from the National Academy of Arts in Oslo. Growing up in an environment full of creativity in childhood, Kari Anne escaped from the typical Norwegian minimalist style, inherited the melancholy and cold temperament of Northern Europe, using old clothes, rags, and fragments of fabrics, restitched them and created her own language in textile art. Focusing on the theme of limitations, expectations, regulations, and isolation, these are the subject the each individual confront in the collective society. Kari Anne had exhibited in Kunstmuseet Nord Trøndelag, Danubiana Meulensteen Art Museum in Norway, and Socle Du Monde Biennale in Denmark. Her works are permanently collected by Kongsberg Municipality, Den Norske Husflidforening and many other important institutions.

Kari Anne Helleberg Bahri's childhood came from a poor family. Her mother, a tailor, often used old clothes and other easily available fabrics to create designs, transforming decay into magic, which deeply influenced Bahri's interest in fabrics. The untimely death of her father left her in isolation, silence, self-doubt, and a feeling of being trapped in her own body. Through the process of creating by weaving, patching, and sewing together fabric scraps, she found a way to express herself. Her mother's inspiration as a medium and her father's imagery frequently appear in her creative content. She once said: "I use clothes and fabrics as a language of communication to liberate their function of packaging the body." Fabrics are materials with warmth. Clothing, as an object to cover the body, has the most intimate contact with personal skin. Once it is new, After clothing is worn, it is no longer in a new state. A person's mental state and emotions will leave traces of time on the clothing. It is a private dialogue with oneself, and it is also an individual's external image of himself in society.

Bahri makes good use of hand sewing methods and spends a long time with the collected fabrics to explore the details of the fibers.Using natural materials such as cotton, linen, and wool, Bahri often chooses white or neutral colors for presentation. She believes that art often reflects the heavier aspects of life. The use of neutral colors allows the artwork to be free from the influence of either pleasant or sad emotions. It liberates the confined body, transcending the limitations of self-imposed constraints and thereby creating a unique life story.Using weaving thread as a paintbrush, her creations explore issues such as Limitations, Restrictions, Expectations, and Isolation in current society. Through the reinterpretation and recreation of the chaos, abandonment, flaws, decay, and imperfections of ready-made objects, she allows viewers to escape from their own circles. , reflect on the memory experience from an objective position, and from this position stimulate the process of self-dialogue, identification, and compromise of "who I was in the past," "who I am in the future," and "who I can be."

In the textile art of the 20th century, artists used the toughness of fibers and the intimacy of fabrics to connect the body to express their own positions and differentiate themselves from traditional weaving techniques. Anni Albers, a German-American artist, was the first to break the boundaries between art and craft. She used the characteristics of fabric fibers to incorporate natural materials, synthetic threads, and metal plastics into tapestries to study the geometric layout and composition of the picture balance.American artist Judith Scott is renowned for her use of textile wrapping to create a series of everyday objects. The linear, entwined forms suggest a process that alludes to rituals and games.Contemporary Japanese artist Chiharu Shiota uses installations composed of wool and ready-made objects to guide viewers to experience the journey of life and completely record the fear of death.Kari Anne Helleberg Bahri's works, in contrast to representing the individual experience of life through weaving, involve old fabric traces, hand-sewn threads, and stitching together fragments of time. Her art serves as a counterforce against the societal values impacting individuality, offering a more profound and nuanced interpretation.

這次在Bluerider ART登場「縫合」(Sew up) -卡里．安妮．赫勒伯格．巴赫里Kari Anne Helleberg Bahri亞洲首個展，亦是Bluerider ART 首次代理、展出織品藝術Textile Art，展場聯合台北．敦仁、台北．仁愛雙館，將展出其歷年來的系列代表作品，從牆上到大型集合裝置。展名「縫合」(Sew up)具有多重意義，外在現成織品的纖維解構與縫補，內在喚起個人時間碎片記憶的共感，並對單一個體在整個社會群體中關於限制、秩序、期待、孤立的對抗與和解。台北．敦仁展出作品 Circus (2017) 記憶中父親工作的既是小丑裝，也是馬戲團帳篷，勾起人前歡樂人後悲苦、笑中帶淚的共感經驗。作品Inception (2016)選用舊麻布袋縫線縫製而成，暗喻著懷胎過程的辛苦與新生的喜悅。作品Sleep tight (2014)將衣物束縛在盒中，一方面呈現身體受包裹的安全感，一方面也形成限制身體的無形框架。作品 General People (2013)則用各式不同的襯衫及外套組合的群體，表現社會集體的心理狀態，看似可愛的造型背後隱含質疑的反差。台北．仁愛則展出大型集合裝置Garment Bags (2016)，由80件衣架衣袋組合，向著同一個方向整齊排列。人們對於什麼時期應該做什麼事有著共同的觀點，進而觸發某種期待亦是限制，表現其實人都害怕被孤立，也為符合社會期待而遵守秩序。


「縫合 Sew up」
卡里．安妮．赫勒伯格．巴赫里Kari Anne Helleberg Bahri 亞洲首個展
VIP Opening 開幕式 (藏家預覽)
10.8 Sat. 2pm – 5pm
Open to public大眾開放
10.8 Sat. 5pm – 7pm

展期
2022.10.8 – 12.11
地點
Bluerider ART 台北．敦仁Tue.-Sun., 10am – 7pm
台北市大安區大安路一段 101 巷 10 號 1F
Bluerider ART 台北．仁愛Tue.-Sat., 9am – 6pm
10F., No. 25-1, Sec. 4, Renai Rd., Taipei

Artist

Kari Anne Helleberg Bahri
卡里．安妮．赫勒伯格．巴赫里
（Norway , b. 1975 )

Kari Anne Helleberg Bahri (Norway, b.1975), graduated from the National Academy of Arts in Oslo. Growing up in an environment full of creativity in childhood, Kari Anne escaped from the typical Norwegian minimalist style, inherited the melancholy and cold temperament of Northern Europe, using old clothes, rags, and fragments of fabrics, restitched them and created her own language in textile art. Focusing on the theme of limitations, expectations, regulations, and isolation, these are the subject the each individual confront in the collective society. Kari Anne had exhibited in Kunstmuseet Nord Trøndelag, Danubiana Meulensteen Art Museum in Norway, and Socle Du Monde Biennale in Denmark. Her works are permanently collected by Kongsberg Municipality, Den Norske Husflidforening and many other important institutions.

  • 2022 Sørlandsutstillingen, Annual exhibition for the southern region, Norway.
  • 2021/2022. Danubiana Meulensteen Art Museum, 6th “Textile art of today” , triennale , Slovak Republic, Hungary & Polan
  • 2021 Socle Du Monde Biennale, Herning, Denmark
  • 2021 Socle Du Monde Biennale, Herning, Denmark
  • Collective Oslo, performance The Vigeland Park

  • Collective Oslo, performance The Vigeland Park

  • 2020 Royal Society of Sculptors Summer Exhibition , London, UK
  •   2019 “Østlandsutstillingen 40 år” Kongsberg Kunstforening ,Konsberg
  • 2017 Uncontaminated, Mellomstasjonen, The National Museum
  • 2017 Uncontaminated, Mellomstasjonen, The National Museum

Kari Anne Helleberg Bahri's childhood came from a poor family. Her mother, a tailor, often used old clothes and other easily available fabrics to create designs, transforming decay into magic, which deeply influenced Bahri's interest in fabrics. The untimely death of her father left her in isolation, silence, self-doubt, and a feeling of being trapped in her own body. Through the process of creating by weaving, patching, and sewing together fabric scraps, she found a way to express herself. Her mother's inspiration as a medium and her father's imagery frequently appear in her creative content. She once said: "I use clothes and fabrics as a language of communication to liberate their function of packaging the body." Fabrics are materials with warmth. Clothing, as an object to cover the body, has the most intimate contact with personal skin. Once it is new, After clothing is worn, it is no longer in a new state. A person's mental state and emotions will leave traces of time on the clothing. It is a private dialogue with oneself, and it is also an individual's external image of himself in society.

Bahri makes good use of hand sewing methods and spends a long time with the collected fabrics to explore the details of the fibers.Using natural materials such as cotton, linen, and wool, Bahri often chooses white or neutral colors for presentation. She believes that art often reflects the heavier aspects of life. The use of neutral colors allows the artwork to be free from the influence of either pleasant or sad emotions. It liberates the confined body, transcending the limitations of self-imposed constraints and thereby creating a unique life story.Using weaving thread as a paintbrush, her creations explore issues such as Limitations, Restrictions, Expectations, and Isolation in current society. Through the reinterpretation and recreation of the chaos, abandonment, flaws, decay, and imperfections of ready-made objects, she allows viewers to escape from their own circles. , reflect on the memory experience from an objective position, and from this position stimulate the process of self-dialogue, identification, and compromise of "who I was in the past," "who I am in the future," and "who I can be."

In the textile art of the 20th century, artists used the toughness of fibers and the intimacy of fabrics to connect the body to express their own positions and differentiate themselves from traditional weaving techniques. Anni Albers, a German-American artist, was the first to break the boundaries between art and craft. She used the characteristics of fabric fibers to incorporate natural materials, synthetic threads, and metal plastics into tapestries to study the geometric layout and composition of the picture balance.American artist Judith Scott is renowned for her use of textile wrapping to create a series of everyday objects. The linear, entwined forms suggest a process that alludes to rituals and games.Contemporary Japanese artist Chiharu Shiota uses installations composed of wool and ready-made objects to guide viewers to experience the journey of life and completely record the fear of death.Kari Anne Helleberg Bahri's works, in contrast to representing the individual experience of life through weaving, involve old fabric traces, hand-sewn threads, and stitching together fragments of time. Her art serves as a counterforce against the societal values impacting individuality, offering a more profound and nuanced interpretation.

Kari Anne Helleberg Bahri uses Textile art as a storytelling medium. On the surface, she manipulates chaotic elements such as rags, fabrics, threads, and fragments. In fact, she deeply dissects the memory temperature felt by clothing traces and the psychology hidden in the profound inner world. State, through creation, she presents a microcosm of human nature with emotions of joy, anger, sorrow, and joy. Her art is a critical reconciliation, and it is also a concern for the depths of the soul.


Press

作品 Works

Art Critique

Clothes are something everyone has a relationship with and which is intimately connected to our bodies. Textiles have different degrees of softness, but they must be comfortable and characterized by being mobile and adapting to the body they surround. In Kari Anne Helleberg Bahri's sculptural clothing objects, the clothes have stiffened and the bodies are absent, but they have often left a clear imprint. Bulging shirts and jackets recur in several works, placed close together either directly on the floor, mounted on a pedestal or on the wall. The repetitive shapes are typically kept in light colors of beige and white, and even though they are objects we easily recognize from everyday life, they give a feeling of unheimlichkeit. "Das Unheimlich" is an expression the psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud used to explain a disturbing feeling of unease at things that otherwise feel familiar and homely, and this can be said for much of Bahri's art and which is also reflected in the themes she deals with.

身心健康是Bahri 多年來一直致力於研究的主題。透過“服裝般”的雕塑、假肢雕塑和織品裝置，她以藝術指涉從嚴重精神疾患到形塑我們行為方式的文化社會結構等議題。她關注人際關係、規範和規則如何限制、塑造我們，她將限制描述為她藝術實踐的觸發因素，並以防止移動的衣服及類似假肢的物體來呈現生理或心理的限制 —— 可能來自自身或社會。透過她的雕塑實踐，Bahri 審視了社會環境、人類同胞或社會規範限制或癱瘓個人的案例，關於與眾不同及遵循規範的差異。

In connection with the exhibition "I dress /ergo am I?" at Akershus Art Center in 2018, one could read "Bahri's clothesobjects describe thoughts and feelings that a person can have in various situations, such as pondering identity, existence, finding one's place, uncertainty, pressure and chaos, but also optimism, humor and finding ones place. The highlights are not given space in this room, Bahri rather highlights the more tired, everyday and tragicomic that life after all primarily consists of. The objects visualize components of a person's life, unpolished and personal". Based on the human situations Bahri works with, she creates works of art that are clothing-like in form or material.

The clothes we wear constitute a boundary between the private and the public, "(...) between the individual and an external world. Despite the thin, fragile nature of the textiles, they constitute a significant boundary and protection" (Bahri). This boundary between the inner and the exterior can be seen, among other things, in the way Bahri treats the textile itself, with large coarse stitches, she sews shirt sleeves to the body of the shirt, she sews several garments together into unrecognizable sculptures, assembles and transforms cloth into strange mutations.

The textile sculptures can be attached to hard steel structures or exhibited in glass vitrines to create or cross boundaries between internal and external structures to an even greater extent. Thoughts quickly turn to Louise Bourgeois and her series of cell installations. Where Bourgeois used her own personal background to create complex psychological installations that dealt with relationships between the psyche, women's work, bodies and living conditions, Bahri has a more sociological approach to these subjects. By putting the safe and the disturbing into play through various forms of boundary situations, Bahri creates art that challenges and opens up for reflection on elementary human experiences.

撰文者：馬爾特・丹尼爾森・約爾博 Marte Danielsen Jølbo

知名藝術策展人、作家。被任命為挪威國家藝術機構 KORO 的策展人。

Clothes are something everyone has a relationship with and which is intimately connected to our bodies. Textiles have different degrees of softness, but they must be comfortable and characterized by being mobile and adapting to the body they surround. In Kari Anne Helleberg Bahri’s sculptural clothing objects, the clothes have stiffened and the bodies are absent, but they have often left a clear imprint. Bulging shirts and jackets recur in several works, placed close together either directly on the floor, mounted on a pedestal or on the wall. The repetitive shapes are typically kept in light colors of beige and white, and even though they are objects we easily recognize from everyday life, they give a feeling of unheimlichkeit. “Das Unheimlich” is an expression the psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud used to explain a disturbing feeling of unease at things that otherwise feel familiar and homely, and this can be said for much of Bahri’s art and which is also reflected in the themes she deals with.

Mental health is a subject that Bahri has worked on consistently for many years. Through “clotheslike” objects, prosthetic sculptures and textile installations, she processes everything from serious mental disorders to cultural societal structures that shape the way we behave. Bahri is concerned with how interpersonal relationships, norms and rules limit and shape us. In this work, she describes restrictions as a triggering factor for her artistic practice. Physical limitations are actualized through items of clothing that prevent mobility and constructed prosthetic-like objects. The restrictions in the objects can also mirror psychological restrictions – implemented either by oneself or by the society around one. Through her sculpture practice, Bahri investigates cases where the social environment, fellow human beings and society’s norms limit or paralyze individuals, it is about being different versus following norms.

In connection with the exhibition “I dress /ergo am I?” at Akershus Art Center in 2018, one could read “Bahri’s clothesobjects describe thoughts and feelings that a person can have in various situations, such as pondering identity, existence, finding one’s place, uncertainty, pressure and chaos, but also optimism, humor and finding ones place. The highlights are not given space in this room, Bahri rather highlights the more tired, everyday and tragicomic that life after all primarily consists of. The objects visualize components of a person’s life, unpolished and personal”. Based on the human situations Bahri works with, she creates works of art that are clothing-like in form or material.

The clothes we wear constitute a boundary between the private and the public, “(…) between the individual and an external world. Despite the thin, fragile nature of the textiles, they constitute a significant boundary and protection” (Bahri). This boundary between the inner and the exterior can be seen, among other things, in the way Bahri treats the textile itself, with large coarse stitches, she sews shirt sleeves to the body of the shirt, she sews several garments together into unrecognizable sculptures, assembles and transforms cloth into strange mutations.

The textile sculptures can be attached to hard steel structures or exhibited in glass vitrines to create or cross boundaries between internal and external structures to an even greater extent. Thoughts quickly turn to Louise Bourgeois and her series of cell installations. Where Bourgeois used her own personal background to create complex psychological installations that dealt with relationships between the psyche, women’s work, bodies and living conditions, Bahri has a more sociological approach to these subjects. By putting the safe and the disturbing into play through various forms of boundary situations, Bahri creates art that challenges and opens up for reflection on elementary human experiences.

Kari Anne Helleberg Bahri (born 1975) has an education from Oslo Academy of the Arts, Department of Clothing and Costume. She has also studied aesthetics at the University of Oslo and art at the Interdisciplinary Art Institute (Bærum). Recent exhibitions include “I dress /ergo am I?” at Akershus Art Center and part of the Kunstvisitten tour (2018), “Uncontaminated” 2017 – art and fashion festival at Mellomstasjonen, National Museum in Oslo (2017), “Constraint were placed on the circulation of clothing” at Oppland Arts Center (2016), “Inside – Extra” at Buskerud Kunstsenter (2016), “Close(d)” at Bærum Kunsthall (2015) and “Needless” at Trafo Kunsthall (2015). Bahri lives and works in Kongsberg, Norway.

Author: Marte Danielsen Jølbo

Marte Danielsen Jølb is a curator, writer, editor and art mediator.She has recently been appointed curator at KORO in Oslo.

Tactile narratives

by Gunhild Horgmo

In recent decades, we have witnessed a flourishing of textile art. The traditional art form has also been the subject of increased interest in Norway. This tendency has arisen as a contrast to the conceptual approach that has characterized art from the 80s. Textile art has often been considered something feminine, because the material is so closely linked to needlework and clothing. In Kari Anne Helleberg Bahri's works, however, the soft material is used as a medium in an idea-based way of thinking, and expands the framework of understanding for the art form. Instead of soft lines and smooth surfaces, the expression is rustic and characterized by an anti-aesthetic. The material is found and collected, then processed into new textile objects. For the artist, clothing and textiles close to the body represent the human being, and in the process she creates clothing objects that become narrative carriers of human history. The bright, light materials are contrasted with coarse fabrics sewn together with a strong needle. The patches and stitches in the fabrics become visible signs of life lived. It is about immobility and restrictions for the individual, and moving away from the template we must adapt to. About the fear of falling and falling out from the society ( if you exe: loose your job, you can`t provide for yourself and so on ). In this exhibition, the textile objects are framed in large wooden structures. As separate tableaus, they tell about important events in human life. As a whole, the installation is a visual composition that takes you on a journey from birth to death. Through the shape of the textile sculptures and the tactility of the material, the works say something about who you were, who you are and who you can choose to become.

Author: Gunhild Horgmo 岡希爾德·霍格莫

Gunhild Horgmo 為知名藝術評論家及作家，她擁有奧斯陸大學的藝術史學士學位，曾在KUNST、Billedkunst、Kunstforum、Kunsthåndverk、scenekunst.no等挪威主要藝術雜誌及網站發表文章，並於2010年起成為挪威報紙媒體Telemarksavisa 的專欄藝術評論家。

Tactile narratives

by Gunhild Horgmo

In recent decades, we have witnessed a flourishing of textile art. The traditional art form has also been the subject of increased interest in Norway. This tendency has arisen as a contrast to the conceptual approach that has characterized art from the 80s. Textile art has often been considered something feminine, because the material is so closely linked to needlework and clothing. In Kari Anne Helleberg Bahri’s works, however, the soft material is used as a medium in an idea-based way of thinking, and expands the framework of understanding for the art form. Instead of soft lines and smooth surfaces, the expression is rustic and characterized by an anti-aesthetic. The material is found and collected, then processed into new textile objects. For the artist, clothing and textiles close to the body represent the human being, and in the process she creates clothing objects that become narrative carriers of human history. The bright, light materials are contrasted with coarse fabrics sewn together with a strong needle. The patches and stitches in the fabrics become visible signs of life lived. It is about immobility and restrictions for the individual, and moving away from the template we must adapt to. About the fear of falling and falling out from the society ( if you exe: loose your job, you can`t provide for yourself and so on ). In this exhibition, the textile objects are framed in large wooden structures. As separate tableaus, they tell about important events in human life. As a whole, the installation is a visual composition that takes you on a journey from birth to death. Through the shape of the textile sculptures and the tactility of the material, the works say something about who you were, who you are and who you can choose to become.

Author: Gunhild Horgmo

Horgmo has a bachelor’s degree in art history from the University of Oslo and freelances as an art critic and writer. She has published in, among others, KUNST, Billedkunst, Kunstforum, Kunsthåndverk (the main artmagazines in Norway) and scenekunst.no, contributed to the book about Seljord og sogene, and was a regular art critic in Telemarksavisa from 2010 and more.

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