KRISTIN TINSA SÆTERDAL

Seen trough tears

From Tapestry Topics,

A Quarterly Rewiew of Tapestry Art Today

ATB6 Artists on “Transition”

By Linda Rees

“Seen trough tears #6” by Kristin Sæterdal

of Norway, presenting a subtle two color movement, woven on an oval frame of her own construction. Once she has cut the frame, she uses a computer drawing to indicate where to cut slots for for evenly spaced warps. The frames portability gives her freedom to work anywhere. Kristin begins weaving the tapestry from both sides, using a needle in the middle where the two met. Her warp is linen with the traditional long fibered wool weft, which she dyes with chemical dyes for a longer lasting color.

Orange Seen-Through-Tears by Kristin Sæterdal
Orange Seen-Through-Tears by Kristin Sæterdal

I use the traditional joins because I want a tight solid fabric. The slow graduation of the color is a meditation on how little or how much is enough to make an interesting picture. It is like a close up, or a fragment, and I think of it as both figurative and an abstract motif. It is about continuity and peace. The technique gives the weaving a precise expression, rather than as a peace of cloth. I call these works “wall-jewellery”.

I am dealing with themes like perception and communication, considering the way we relate to our physical environment. We observe the surroundings through different filters.

The title “seen through Tears” refers somewhat to a picture by Edvard munch, which we say has been “painted through tears”. The round format represents a lens through which a straight line becomes curved in a special way. The lines are transformed from straight to curved, like a miracle! How can a straight line and a curved, so basically different, be the same thing?

The perfect circle is a shape that is easily distorted or transformed. To be perfect it has to be seen from a precise point on the line going out from the centre of the circle. If the viewer moves just one bit to the side, the circle becomes an ellipse. We can find the circle in the window of a sub marine or a spaceship. Perhaps it can be like a peephole into a slightly different world?

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