STEMMER - VOICES

The exhibition Stemmer (“Voices”) at Galleri Salhus shows work by three artists: Daniela Bergschneider, Gro De-Martine and Kwestan J. Bawan. All three have clear and strong artistic voices, and they work with themes and styles that it has been intriguing to place next to and up against each other.

Bergschneider's (b. 1986) sculptural works in ceramics and textiles spark associations to something organic, alive, and appear as active and present shapes in the room. They are recognisable and unrecognisable at the same time. They may just as well give associations to futuristic creatures as to
archaeological findings from the past. There is something bodily about them, but it it is not a human body.

De-Martine (b. 1981) works with e.g., cross-stitch embroidery with figurative, suggestive, and expressivemotifs. The meticulous and slow, almost meditative work process contrasts with the “loud” and expressivemotifs. In De-Martine's work, we encounter an intimate experience of being human in our time, in constantconflict between inner and outer expectations from oneself and from society/culture. It is about findingone’s place, and being in one’s body.

Bawan (b. 1965) works with quite abstract motifs, where she for instance embroiders lines and shapesusing hair as embroidery thread, or with the needle as a pencil. She collects hair from the women in herown family, and the work grows over time. The material and time that the work takes, contributes to asense of intimacy and a bodily experience of the work. Bawan also shows several works painted in ink andacrylic on non-woven fabric. This results in an artistic expression that is soft, organic, fluid, fleeting.

In Bawan’s works, the use of hair as a material is what connects them to the body.

All three artists bring something organic and bodily into their work, and it is almost as if the works drift intoeach other a little, creating a flow through the exhibition space. The different works also provide richassociations beyond themselves; Bergschneider, De-Martine and Bawan all create artworks with a strongidentity and a clear voice.Creating is not only a one-way process where the artist plans and executes a work; it is also a dialogue theartist has with the materials involved and with the idea of the future work. Slowly but surely, the workacquires its own “voice” and can enter into a dialogue with each individual that visits the exhibition.

Anneli Belsvik Aras – curator
Deputy branch manager at the Textile Industry Museum and curator at Galleri Salhus