Textile public art in a new exhibition

Velvety lianas in a concrete house, a wild horse at the Police, a pillowcase for dreams at a workplace for socio-economic analyses, and a figure rolled up in a mattress at the Employment Agency. The exhibition Make it Grow – Textile expressions as public art highlights textile works for public spaces and opens at the Public Art Agency in Stockholm on 10 September 2024.

We can all relate to fabric, but what expressions does it take in art? In the exhibition, Agneta Flock’s large-scale textile sculpture Det skall växa – Sammetsdjungel (It shall grow – Velvet jungle) is in dialogue with around 40 textile works from the Public Art Agency’s collection and production of public works. The works express moods and temperament through the handicraft, materials and motifs, created by artists who sensitively and with great knowledge pursue and develop traditions, or eagerly move outside of conventions to explore new forms of production. The artworks in the exhibition are a small selection of all the textile works represented in the Public Art Agency’s collection and of textile public artworks made for specific environments.

The exhibition borrows its name from Det skall växa – Sammetsdjungel by Agneta Flock from 1975, which was created on behalf of the Public Art Agency for the then newly built parts of the Garnisonen quarter, which emerged on Östermalm in Stockholm. The work has billowing, colourful plants and is made of soft materials such as silk and velvet – a contrast to the raw concrete of the huge office complex, which with its brutalist concrete architecture stands in sharp contrast to the older urban development around Karlavägen. The tropical foliage of the velvet jungle meanders far beyond conventional notions of what forms and expressions textile as a public expression usually assume – both literally and figuratively speaking, this has been a guiding-star for the selection work.

Agneta Flock’s Sammetsdjungel was developed in collaboration between the artist and experts at Handarbetets Vänner (Friends of Handicraft), with whom the Public Art Agency has collaborated for nearly 90 years. The exhibition period coincides with the Handarbetets Vänner 150th anniversary.

Works by the following artists are shown in the exhibition:

Maria Adlercreutz, Sarai Alvarez Riveros, Gert Aspelin, Rut Beskow, Eva Björkström, [krig] – Karin Bäckström and Jon Perman, Moki Cherry, Birgitta Dahlström, Vera Danielsson, Maj-Britt Engström, Erik Thulén, Elisabet Eriksson, Agneta Flock, Margareta Gelin, Anita Graffman, Sigrid Hansson, Petter Hellsing, Göran Hägg, Ingela Ihrman, Sandra Ikse, Moa Israelsson, Sten Kauppi, Karin Keisu and Josse Thuresson, Lisskulla Lundqvist, José Luis Martinat, Esse McChesney, Kaisa Melanton, Elsa Montell-Saanio, Valeria Montti Colque, Gunwor Nordström, Anna Persson, Majlis Persson, Marga Persson, Kajsa af Petersens, Tuula Savolainen, Anita Ullerstam, Karin Widbom, Ludvig Ödman

Curators: Annika Enqvist, program manager, and Niki Kralli Anell, producer
Exhibition team: Nilo Amlashi, Vera Halla, Paul Kokamägi, Linda Nykopp and Therese Segerstedt, Anna Wallgren, Eva Malm Öhrström