Gallery ROM, 1.November 2016

Curators: Eva Bakkeslett and Ola Sendstad

Producer: Henrik der Minassian, Galleri ROM

STOPP: About darning and about time and ware, and about repairing the word that got lost. 

 

As part of Gallery ROM’s exhibition POTENTIAL, artist Kari Steihaug held a unique workshop about reviving the dying art of darning holes in wool garments. The Norwegian word for darning is to stopp, so the word has a double meaning – to darn and to stop – to reassess, reclaim, remember and revive.

Kari likes repairing to make the holes more visible, like jewellery made with lovely colours and perhaps darned with a golden thread. The act of mending and the story behind the holes become lifted and visible and the garments are once again in one peace but perhaps more beautiful than before.  

The workshop at gallery ROM was the first in a series of STOPP workshops where Kari reclaims the lost art of darning. Reuse and recycling are central elements but Kari also poses important questions about time and stories. Where has the time gone to repair our broken clothes? What are the stories behind the holes and how can these become the subject of conversations? How can we create spaces to darn socks and at the same time stop and dwell on time and wear? Does our ability to darn our socks also have a connection with sustainability and climate change?


The artist Kari Steihaug works with installations and found objects. Time and mortality, history and crafts are central themes. She adds and subtracts and explores moments and memories, the collective and private, the intimate and monumental.

Potential was an exhibition about aesthetic expressions inspired by repair. The show was the second part of Gallery ROM’s exploration of aesthetics, ethics and pragmatics of REPAIR and was also part of Tegnebiennalen 2016: Skissen. 

DETAILS

REPAIR was a project I co-curated for Gallery ROM in Oslo exploring how personal commitment and architectural, artistic and other creative and performing arts practices can influence the shaping of society and the physical world around us. An interdisciplinary profile and the audience as participants were important ingredients.

REPAIR is about seeing new opportunities in a world of transition – through transformation, repair, restoration, reconstruction and addition. REPAIR is also about finding inspiration and acquiring new skills to participate and influence the process of change. Through tangible and imaginative ideas, and through making and thinking we seek to create engagement, action and knowledge for change. Our aim is not a quest for perfect, universal or eternal solutions, but about the possibilities and qualities in the continuation of something already existing.

In the project period 2016 and 2017 we curated the following interdisciplinary exhibitions:

Little Norway, Potensial, Occupy/Resist/Produce and the event Reparer mer.

Curators:

Eva Bakkeslett, Artist and curator

Ola Sendstad, Architect, cultural conservationist and curator.

REPAIR was produced by Henrik Minassian, director at Galleri ROM.


Press:

Arkitektur N 1/2017, Ingerid Almaas


 

Aftenposten 27. februar 2017, Kjetil Røed


 

Arkitektktnytt 15. september: Frykten for det banale

“Et høydepunkt på årets arkitekturtriennale befinner seg utenfor hovedutstillingene på Doga og arkitekturmuseet. På Galleri Rom fortelles historien om den norske paviljongen på verdensutstillingen i Chicago i 1893, en stavkirkepastisj bygget på ferdighusfabrikk i Orkdal og sendt over havet som byggesett.”


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NRK Østlandssendingen 8. september.


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NRK Trøndelag 4. september: The Norway Building endelig hjemme.


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Nasjonen 14. september: Bygda som rieser en stavkirke på dugnad 

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