Karen Kviltu Lidal

My Architecture

Gallery spaces on the 1st floor

11.08. – 11.09.2022 

Karen Kviltu Lidal works with weaving, performance, installation, and drawing, with textiles as the most important point of reference. Through weaving, Lidal researches the interplay between thought, logic, and bodily experience, as well as how architecture relates to the body, gender, the individual, and the social.

Lidal’s exhibition at Kunstnerforbundet consists of a series of sculptures in the form of wooden frames with and without hand-woven coverlets, åkler, placed around the space. Woven in linen and wool, these striped textiles correspond to the dimensions of the artist’s own body, whilst the frames match the standard measurements of a Norwegian door. The work has been realised as an installation, forming walls and openings in the exhibition space. For the artist, the textiles are themselves spatial delimitations, flexible places full of references, culture, and time.

The title of the project, My Architecture, refers to the connections between architecture and the body, standardisation and the subject. Lidal investigates historical ideologies in architecture in which the measurements and dimensions of the human body — often the male body — are a point of departure. This is rooted in the desire to find a harmonic standard, a common ground. But standardising excludes disparity and does not take into account our individual bodies.

Textile crafts have through history been a way women have been able to express themselves, communicate, and share knowledge with each other. Imbued in such work are women’s knowledge, creativity, and reflections on local and global events. Whilst men had the possibility to use their bodies and minds to express themselves and build in the public space, the home and interior has traditionally been the woman’s domain. Her knowledge and constructions, her technical skills, and her soft architecture are the textile.

Karen Kviltu Lidal (b. 1979) lives and works in Oslo and Berlin. She completed her MA at Oslo National Academy of the Arts (KHiO) in 2008. Previous solo presentations include Bauen Wohnen Denken at Tegnerforbundet, The Body and the Map at Moss Kunstforening, and Soft City Pieces at Window Box/Galleri Pushwagner. Group shows include, amongst others, exhibitions at The North Norwegian Art Centre, Sørlandet Kunstmuseum, Kunstnernes Hus, Soft, and National Museum, Oslo. Lidal’s work is included in the collection of the National Museum of Decorative Arts and Design, Trondheim and KODE, Bergen.

The exhibition is supported by Arts Council Norway, The Bergesen Foundation, and Billedkunstnernes Vederlagsfond (Norwegian Visual Artists’ Fund).