Sidsel Palmstrøm
New work
10 March - 30 April 2022
Sidsel Palmstrøm works conceptually with textile installations and objects. One of her main interests is to explore the narrative potential of textile materials used in everyday life. She seeks a balanced tension in the encounter between an idea, a material and a technique. It is a space of exploration between the concrete and the ephemeral, between the tangible, the recognisable and the invisible, where something pointing beyond the material emerges and gives life to thoughts, associations and aesthetic perception.
In recent years Palmstrøm has used rough rope and natural fibre in combination with elements of wood and stone in a series of works and site-adapted installations. A common characteristic of the series is to use rope to explore gravitational effects such as stretching and weight and to create situations where something is at stake and in a state of tension. For the exhibition at Format, she presents new works, some of them scaled down in size and involving twine rather than rope. The tube-shaped nets, which are handmade from hemp, are set in motion, and the shadows that arise become part of the work.
It’s said that rope, string, cordage and the like are older than the wheel. They have many uses in activities ranging from manual labour to large industrial projects. In the exhibition, hemp string is tied into a grid that can be experienced as a formal exploration of lines, repetition, rhythm and size. There are obvious references to nets as traditional fishing gear and to hunting and gathering, but also to sports and play. The knots form small points there where one line crosses another, rather like when one thought hooks up with another and creates a network of new connections and contexts. Visible and invisible networks are constantly being created by us, inside us, between us, between nature and ourselves, and, not least, through modern technology.
A net can also represent our desire for order, or it can be a picture of the desire to hold on to something. Just as important as the net’s construction are the empty spaces between the lines. They can summon the feeling that something is missing; a thought that seemed clear blurs into a vague reflection or idea.
Sidsel Palmstrøm (b. 1967, Trondheim) lives and works in Oslo. She studied at the National College of Art and Design, Oslo (1991-95). She has held numerous solo exhibitions in her home country and participated in collective and group exhibitions in Norway, Sweden, Turkey and Poland. Her work have been purchased by the National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design in Oslo, KODE in Bergen, the National Museum of Applied and Decorative Arts in Trondheim, the Research Council of Norway, and the City of Oslo Art Collection. Since 2016, Palmstrøm has been an associate professor of textile art at Oslo National Academy of the Arts, Art and Craft Department.
The exhibition is developed with project support from Norsk Kulturfond.