Waulking (Òrain Luaidh)

Text by curator Hannah Ingvoldstad

Presented in the library of Bonniers Konsthall, the exhibition Waulking muses on the Gaelic Scottish tradition by the same name – the final stage in the creation of tweed in which women would gather to soften the woolen fabric. The process was accompanied by song and rhythmically hitting the textile, washing it with stale urine and soap. The songs would ease the brutal labour, while also providing coordination for the team. Waulking became a forum for sharing stories of love and loss through song and community. A song-less web (cló bodaich) was considered unlucky – thereby, the process of waulking transforms the fabric into a holder of stories inaccessible.

The exhibition presents the work and practice of Hedvig Bergman (b.1988) and Isabelle Sahba (b.1994). Bound together by an interest in the inherent potentiality of materiality and its ability to expand on narratives of belonging, tradition and creation. The exhibition arose through conversations between the curator and artists regarding subjects similar to those discussed in waulking song. The exhibition is presented therefore as a talisman of probings of artistic intention, the familial, love and loss.

Hedvig Bergman is an artist deeply reliant on her intuition and impulse as the driving force of her work. Each sculpture is simultaneously independent and deeply connected to the previous. One of the sculptures exhibited Tick Tock, Tick Tock (2024) is inspired by the tactility of the brush and brush binding. In the creation of brushes, the eye becomes redundant as the rhythm dictates the movement – similar to waulking. As part of her research into brush binding techniques, Bergman visited the brush bindery Iris Handtverk in Enskede, Stockholm. All of the craftsmen are visually impaired – the binding driven by tactile knowledge. The brush-like sculpture exhibited is made of black oak that has been underwater for over 3400 years and horsehair bought from the last remaining horsehair wholesaler in Europe. The artist has also tied 600 strands of her own hair into the sculpture, working while cradling her newborn.

The work and process of Isabelle Sahba is less impulsive – driven by meticulous research and a considerate exploration of the depths of the material. The work Bildstorm (2022) is an intertwined probing of Sahba’s familial history and materiality. Inspired by a stamp found on an old letter addressed to her father in Sweden from a relative overseas. The artist reckons with the power of symbolism by creating a new stamp with remnants of the old. The artist chews the stamp, breaking down the fibers of the paper, spitting it out, pressing and drying the paper to create a new stamp. The image of the found stamp is no longer accessible – but exists as a phantom in the material along with the artist’s own genetic constitution.

Waulking is an exhibition that takes the audience on a journey through materiality and facilitates an investigation of the stories that lie within, as well as the ghosts of its creation. Through the narrative of waulking, the exhibition explores presence – just as much as absence by highlighting the process and labour as just as crucial as the final work exhibited.

Biographies

Hedvig Bergman (b. 1988, Stockholm) is an artist working with sculpture and installation. Her work is characterized by an enchantment for traditions and the bodily, the volatile, and the eternal. Bergman earned her MFA at Konstfack in 2023, and a BFA from the Academy of Fine Arts in Trondheim, Norway. She has exhibited her work in Sweden and internationally including in Norway, France and Japan and has received both public and private awards and grants for her work. Recent exhibitions include Intuition at Hand, Silvermuseet Arjeplog, Within & Against, Nobel Week Lights, Kungsbro Strand and Slow Stretch, Occasional Gallery.

Isabelle Sahba (b. 1994) is an artist and architect from Stockholm. She holds a BSc in Architecture from the Royal Institute of Technology (2018) and currently studying a BFA in Fine Art at Konstfack. Her practice is characterized by a research-oriented and material-based approach, incorporating element such as text, sculpture, and spatial compositions. Central to her work is the concept of belonging, as she delves into questions surrounding identity, heritage, and connection to place. Recent exhibitions include Afterlife, Hägerstensåsens Medborgarhus and Within & Against, Nobel Week Lights, Kungsbro Strand.

Program

Opening
Wed 5 June 5–8 pm
Inauguration of the group exhibition Waulking.

Artist talk
Sat 8 June 2–3 pm
Here the artists Hedvig Bergman and Isabelle Sahba about the group exhibition Waulking. Moderated by the exhibition’s curator, Hannah Ingvoldstad.

Free entrance, no pre-registration required.

The exhibition is presented in collaboration with: