I am continually motivated by fiber artists who stage outdoors the box. Knit artist Isabel Berglund is someone who colours outdoors the lines and styles by her possess rules. Her exclusive installations toy with perception and reality, triggering the viewer to concern the interactive environment she generates.
Berglund studied layout at Denmark’s Structure College, Copenhagen and Central Saint Martins University in London. Her installations and sculptures have been featured internationally in museums and galleries such as Copenhagen Arthall in Denmark, Museo Poldi Pezzoli in Milan, and Museum Bellerive in Zurich.
Berglund hand-knits her parts in an hard work to concern the requirement of categorizing art sorts. She says “[her] operate is designed to position itself in between groups these kinds of as style, art and trend. It thoughts when a operate belongs in a sure category, and why.”
1 of her items, titled Closet Knitter, is a substantial white closet designed from yarn. Inside, there is a sweater that appears to be a chair, and a wig that seems to be a light-weight fixture. The closet, sweater and wig are all built from the identical white yarn, earning the distinctive characteristics of the piece blur jointly. It forces the viewer to question the actuality of the piece and talk to: is the sweater really a chair? Is the wig a gentle fixture? Is the closet a home? Berglund’s sculptures and installations build a new tale with widespread fibers. She produces surprising realities from daily images.
One more piece by Berglund, A Social Task, results in an unpredicted actuality. The exhibition is a little household included in vibrant pink yarn. In its place of getting in a museum, the piece is subsequent to a row of related residences. The moment all over again, Berglund has us questioning her artwork. Is it supposed to be a household, or a display of knitwear? For Berglund, it seems to be each. Her mixture of the two different entities is a present, intended to demolish existing societal strategies. The get the job done demonstrates that it can be artwork, a big knit, and a house it will not will need to just be a person. Berglund constantly obliterates common definitions with her while-provoking art. Her piece Social Undertaking echoes the challenge she provides with Closet Knitter, and further reveals that her work cannot, and ought to not, be categorized.
The exceptional parts Berglund results in are innovative and conceptual. I admire her skill to bend visual actuality with her work and blur the lines involving various art kinds.
