Kari Steihaug
—Kari Steihaug collects woollen garments and unfinished knitting projects. She finds her themes in the work of hands and lives lived, history and memory, the private and the collective. The installation at Fiberspace Gallery, The Seamstress in Trastevere consists of a knitted image, a film, sound, yarn, woollen garments that unravel, and are patched and repaired.
Kari writes:
«Rome diary, February 2010: Walking past the Seamstress in Trastevere and her embroideries. They brighten the grey cement wall. She sits in rapt concentration, small stitches on light even-weave. Rapid steps on cobblestones, and I have a whole month here at Circolo Scandinavio. She reminds me of the seamstress in a painting by Helene Scherfbeck, or Vermeer’s lace-maker. She’s in the state of mind I myself seek: concentration and flow in time. But most of all she’s in hard reality. She’s the one I see in all cities, on many street corners, in all types of weather. Some knit or sew, play music or polish shoes. Some just sit. Every day.»
