Entrée is proud to present Ljospost (Light Post), Marthe Minde’s first solo exhibition in Bergen. The exhibition features new works in which textile art is extended into the sculptural and the lyrical. Rooted in Western Norway, and with thread as both tool and conceptual figure, Minde develops an artistic language that brings together material knowledge, existential experience, and belonging.
In 1897, Frida Hansen patented a weaving technique for the upright loom known as the transparent technique. By using a wool warp and leaving parts of the warp unwoven, she created textiles through which light could pass. Inspired by Hansen’s technique and artistic practice, Minde has spent the past ten years exploring different methods for weaving three-dimensionally and transparently on a manual floor loom.
In the exhibition at Entrée, Minde weaves the outdoor lights she sees from the kitchen window of her childhood home. One lantern hangs on a wall beneath an overhanging roof, the other stands on a stone pillar. In the woven works, the wall has been erased, and only the top of the stone pillar remains. The works function as gentle investigations into the boundaries of belonging, and into what is lost in memory – yet finds its form again through the hand.
The lanterns are woven flat and can be unfolded into spatial forms once released from the loom. The material is hand-spun wool from Norwegian short tailed sheeps. The lantern glass and parts of the wool are coated with spruce resin. The warp threads from which the objects are woven envelop them like a veil of heavy Western Norwegian rain – thin threads holding everything together, whispering of fragile belonging.
The works in this exhibition are part of Marthe Minde’s ongoing artistic research project at the Oslo National Academy of the Arts. In her PhD, she searches for new techniques for three-dimensional weaving, explores local weaving materials, and investigates lyrical texts in dialogue with woven works.
Marthe Minde (b. 1984, Bergen) is a PhD fellow in Artistic Research in textile art at the Oslo National Academy of the Arts (KHiO). She holds a Master’s degree in Medium- and Material-Based Art (KHiO) and a Bachelor’s degree in Fashion and Costume Design (KHiO). Minde has held solo exhibitions at Galleri Format, Galleri Hans, and Trafo Kunsthall, and has participated in group exhibitions at Rundetårn in Copenhagen, Risør Kunstpark, the National Museum of Norway, and the Hannah Ryggen Triennale in Trondheim. Her works have been acquired by the Nordenfjeldske Kunstindustrimuseum and the National Museum of Norway.
