SIRI BERQVAM

Alien Fungus

2 May- 23 June 2024

Siri Berqvam's work evolves and grows. She works with textiles, yet her techniques evolve in accordance with various works or projects. The artist comments on contemporary issues with needle and thread within the textile universe where seriousness and humor intermingle. In recent years, she has presented several large installations. Common among these is a fascination with the networks to which we are all connected - from the body's internal organs to nature's own branches, the hyphae of fungi in the forest's underworld, and the linkages to digital human-made networks. Often, she creates offshoots of the installations, allowing them to creep into nooks and crannies, or out of the gallery itself through windows and doors.

Superstition and phantasms often have roots in the wildness of nature. Berqvam is concerned with what we cannot control, and thus her works can be seen as a kind of fungus or organism pressing out and forward into otherwise controlled environments. Fungus has the potential to branch out further, much like nature and humanity do. The artist is fascinated by the uncontrolled wildness of the forest in relation to the body and our own internal chaos. The brain is a labyrinth one can get lost in, much like in old and untouched forests.

In the exhibition at Format, she presents a new installation titled Alien Fungus. This consists entirely of hand-sewn and hand-dyed lace fabric. The white translucent material seeks to blend into the gallery's other whiteness, where a flesh-colored "organism" emerges. This organism has eight arms, like the intelligent octopus, our own earthly alien. The alien – as the title refers to – can denote both something exotic and alluring, as well as something invasive. Humanity itself has become an invasive species expanding into new lands and territories, taking over the homes and resources of animals across the globe. The title also refers to art itself on a meta-level; whether it is welcomed or received as an uninvited guest.

Siri Berqvam graduated from the Bergen Academy of Art and Design (MA 2004-2006). Since then, she has exhibited her works in a wide range of solo and group exhibitions, including Haugar Vestfold Art Museum, the Autumn Exhibition at Kunstnernes Hus, KODE Bergen, Trondheim Art Society, Haugesund Art Gallery, Astrup Fearnly Museum, Møre and Romsdal Art Centre, Contextile 2022 in Portugal, Østfold Art Centre, and KHÅK Kunsthall Ålesund. In 2020, she was awarded a 10-year working grant for established artists from the Norwegian Arts Council.