The Eternal Smile

What does design mean to you – in terms of form, materials, and techniques?

Ever since I was a little girl, I dreamed of becoming an artist. After graduating from design school, I was often asked whether I considered myself a textile and fashion designer or an artist. To me, those categories have never felt separate. Everything is connected, and I have always existed somewhere between clothing and painting without thinking too much about definitions.

Over time, I became increasingly interested in exploring what textiles can communicate when they stand on their own. I have often felt both nowhere and everywhere at the same time, and that sense of in-betweenness is something that runs through my work.

Materials and the process of working with them are essential to me. I enjoy transforming materials and making them my own, giving them new expressions and meanings. The same goes for techniques. I am constantly experimenting, pushing and challenging them. Sometimes I even need to destroy something in order to rebuild it again.

What story or feeling do you hope people experience through your design?

I want room for people’s own interpretations and stories, but I hope the work leaves an impression that encourages reflection on how we live.

I’m very drawn to questioning what we’re actually doing here, what kind of world we’ve created, and why we’re on earth at all, knowing that we’re going to die in the end. These bigger existential questions about life are something I often return to in my work.

What other artists inspires you?

When I’m creating something myself, I actually find it important to forget about others. Otherwise it becomes a limitation for me.

There is already more than enough inspiration simply in being alive. I often close my eyes and turn my attention inward.

What’s the inspiration behind the exhibition The Eternal Smile?

The exhibition is called The Eternal Smile, a title taken from the book The Eternal Smile by Pär Lagerkvist (1920), which was my father’s favourite book. He lost his sight some years ago, and I recorded the book for him. Ever since then, I’ve thought that one day I would create something using its title and was so lucky that the Lagerkvist family allowed me to do so.

However, the inspiration does not come from the book itself, only from the title. The exhibition is conceived as a life journey through memories of a lifetime: birth, falling in love, fertility, motherhood, old age – all  stages of life are represented.

It includes embroidery and painted textiles. Some works are very loosely sketched, while others are highly detailed embroideries. Life is constantly in motion, and that is why I also worked with pieces in movement. They hang unmounted and move freely in the wind inside the museum.

How is this interpreted in the carpet design?

The carpet is designed to create a sense of wholeness in the space and a continuous harmony throughout. It helps bind the room together around the artworks.

It extends up onto the walls so there is no clear edge between the floor and the textiles, allowing the carpet and the works to flow into one another.

The design of the carpet is inspired by textiles I have previously painted and its colours connect to the artworks colours at the exhibition.