OUR PROJECT
   Verdensveven/Weave World Wide - 2009-2013

FOUR WOMEN'S FIVE YEARS LONG TAPESTRY PROJECT
Winter 2009 our project, Verdensveven/Weave World Wide, started. It lasted for five years and consisted of three parts: Exhibitions, workshops and website.

EXHIBITIONS
We intended to have at least one exhibition each year for five years. In 2009 we had two shows, the first one at Røros in winter and the second one in Namsos in summer.
In spring 2010 our third exhibition took place at Stiklesatd, one of the most historical places in Norway. King Olav was killed there in 1030.
The next gallery we visited, was Galleri Hans which is next door to the Hannah Ryggen Museum at Brekstad. This happened spring 2011.
In summer 2012 we exhibited in the gallery at Norsk Skogmuseum (National Museum of Forestry), Elverum.
And, finally, in October 2013, we had our sixth and last exhibition in the WWW project, at Rød Herregård in Halden.

WORKSHOPS (and our 55 x 55 tapestries - imprints of the present)
Ahead of each exhibition we have arranged a workshop for ARAKNE's members. The purpose for these gatherings was do preparatory work for a series of tapestries seized 55 cm x 55 cm. For each new ARAKNE exhibitions we have made a new series.
The four small pieces were mounted, one by one, separately on the wall, in a group. To support the idea behind the tapestries, a written statement was presented next to the woven piece. Previous series were exhibited next to the new one.
Some workshops had a common theme. Others were open for each one of us to choose. The chosen subjects were presented and discussed. This process created associations and ideas that would lead us to the preparatory work for our 55 x 55 tapestries.

We mainly worked with collage and scraps, but the third workshop, which was ahead of the exhibition at Galleri Hans, was different. The name of the gallery comes from Hans Ryggen, Hannah Ryggen's husband who was a painter. Hannah and Hans spent most of their lives at Brekstad.

On Friday, the first day of the workshop, we went by boat to Brekstad to visit the Hannah Ryggen Museum and to see the gallery. On Saturday we spent hours in the Hannah Ryggen Hall at The Museum of Arts and Crafts in Trondheim. A major collection of Hannah's tapestries are to be seen there. Indeed a unique well for inspiration to our 55 x 55 tapestries. Our studies in the two museums were completed by an ARAKNE conversation and discussion about Hannah's life and work, her importance for The Art of Tapestry and her engagement in society.
We decided that the 55 x 55 series for Galleri Hans would have the title "A Tribute to Hannah".

Wiew pictures

Part og Hannah Ryggen's tapestry
"Ja vi elsker"
Photo: Randi Heitmann Hjorth

The website is supported by Bildende Kunstneres Hjelpefond.