A new link to Inger Johanne Rasmussen world. I wrote about her here once before. You would think once should do. I mean, she still does the same. She still uses the same technique: hand-stitched textile puzzles, same material: hand-dyed felted fabric, same size: mostly huge, same mind: utterly fascinating. I can't get enough of these carpets. So when she gave me this link to her updated website with lot’s of new work, I was lost for hours. Make sure you have plenty of time when you open the link; it’s a wonderful website.
There is something about her work that appeals to me on so many levels. Her material; felted wool is prosaic as such, but to me it speaks of winter, childhood and clever women. I remember wool was durable, often hard also warm and had unlimited potential in the hands of creative women. Her colours lift me. Her patterns, the geometrical, reassure me of piece and order and the floral; how I thrill that she shamelessly uses flowers for what they’re worth. Pure immodest beauty. To me, that’s pretty daring. Never cute, but beautiful and intriguing, as thought provoking details materialise by closer look. Inger Johanne’s carpets bring about memories I cannot recall by will.
The compositions are complex and layered. Virtually thousands of pieces of felted wool, cut and coloured are painstakingly sewn together in a perfect fit, like intarsia work. Stitch by stitch, by hand!
How doe she do this? When does she eat and sleep?
I can’t shake off a feeling of fairytale magic. Like the millers daughter in Rumpelstiltskin who spins straw into gold night after night. But the millers daughter has magic help. Inger Johanne says she loves to sew and that she is somewhat impatient throughout the process, so anticipation at the result and eagerness for the next project drives her to finish each stage. That seems to work well too.
She makes it sound easy but this is monumental work in size and numbers. What also fascinates me and what I admire, is her unfaltering energy and incredible will to see something through. In these carpets I find a personal take on reality, a reality of rearranged fragments held together by millions of small stitches.
Uncannily close to magic.
There is something about her work that appeals to me on so many levels. Her material; felted wool is prosaic as such, but to me it speaks of winter, childhood and clever women. I remember wool was durable, often hard also warm and had unlimited potential in the hands of creative women. Her colours lift me. Her patterns, the geometrical, reassure me of piece and order and the floral; how I thrill that she shamelessly uses flowers for what they’re worth. Pure immodest beauty. To me, that’s pretty daring. Never cute, but beautiful and intriguing, as thought provoking details materialise by closer look. Inger Johanne’s carpets bring about memories I cannot recall by will.
The compositions are complex and layered. Virtually thousands of pieces of felted wool, cut and coloured are painstakingly sewn together in a perfect fit, like intarsia work. Stitch by stitch, by hand!
How doe she do this? When does she eat and sleep?
I can’t shake off a feeling of fairytale magic. Like the millers daughter in Rumpelstiltskin who spins straw into gold night after night. But the millers daughter has magic help. Inger Johanne says she loves to sew and that she is somewhat impatient throughout the process, so anticipation at the result and eagerness for the next project drives her to finish each stage. That seems to work well too.
She makes it sound easy but this is monumental work in size and numbers. What also fascinates me and what I admire, is her unfaltering energy and incredible will to see something through. In these carpets I find a personal take on reality, a reality of rearranged fragments held together by millions of small stitches.
Uncannily close to magic.
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