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Woven Connections – Bolon x Katarina Löfström

Swedish artist Katarina Löfström transforms sound and material into immersive experiences. In her most recent exhibition, Loops and Lamentations at gallery Andréhn-Schiptjenko, she reinterprets Karin Larsson’s The Four Elements through abstraction with music and motion. The installation includes a floor work created with Bolon’s Riff collection, weaving together art and design. In this conversation, Katarina Löfström shares her thoughts on identity and the beauty of collaboration.

Loops and Lamentations expand your video work The Elements into a full-room installation. What was your vision for creating such an immersive environment?
I see my video work as extended musical pieces, and I wanted to further expand the idea of the film The Elements into the gallery space. As an artist, I often work with bigger room installations, settings, and set-like environments to invite the viewers into my audio-visual world.

The work reinterprets Karin Larsson’s tapestry The Four Elements almost like a remix. What drew you to deconstruct and reassemble this piece of Swedish heritage?
Growing up in Falun, near Lilla Hyttnäs/Carl Larsson-gården, I was from an early age fascinated by a section from Carl Larsson’s painting Azalea (1906), of which a reproduction hung in my childhood home. In the painting, Karin Larsson’s tapestry The Four Elements can be seen, still on the loom, and this part of the work created a seemingly abstract section in the otherwise figurative painting. For me, it came to constitute an abstract loophole in a figurative world. As an artist, this experience stayed with me, and this exhibition is a way for me to explore the border between abstraction and figuration in an image.

You also weave in Narcissus’ “I cannot escape,” running as Morse code through the space. How does this dialogue between myth and heritage speak to identity today?
The blinking of the sculpture Lover’s Lament (metal) and in the film The Elements is the Morse-coded full version of Narcissus’ declaration of love addressed to his own reflection, taken from Ovid's Metamorphoses. By forging together an image which in many respects is part of a collective “Swedish” identity, with the myth of Narcissus and his inability to escape his own reflection, I use the code to examine the collective self-image of our time.

Music is central, with Marcus Price composing the soundtrack and performing live at the opening. How does his sound interact with your imagery?
Marcus Price released a record in 2023 called Beats På Svenska (Beats in Swedish), where he made tracks based on tunes from a Swedish folk music archive. I thought this angle was very interesting in relation to my project. I was thrilled when he accepted to write and weave the soundtrack for the film with me.

This installation includes a floor-covering work created with Bolon. What role do material and surface play in shaping the visitor’s experience?
The floor-covering work made in collaboration with Bolon, using the Riff collection, was a way for me to ‘tie the room together’ and make the space harmonious and immersive. In the same way as Karin Larsson’s tapestry The Four Elements stands for something typically Swedish, I think Bolon flooring is interesting in the same way, shaping the look of what we think of as Folkhemmet, extending into the stunning flooring of today. The actual weft squares of the flooring further emphasise the weaving idea of the film and the soundtrack, and the 3D quality of the material marries well with my idea of bringing the animation of the film into the actual space of the exhibition.

Finally, what do you hope audiences carry with them after stepping inside Loops and Lamentations?
I’m hoping that they see the musicality in the materials and feel invited to listen with their eyes as well as their ears.

Haastattelut

Woven Connections – Bolon x Katarina Löfström

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