In her work, Anna Nordström utilises a wide range of textile techniques, mainly patchwork, quilting and embroidery. The traditional ways of creating are adapted to manifest thoughts on work, labour, status, value and (lack of) professionalism. Nordströms signature technique is a pixel patch-working that she developed during her education at Konstfack 2007-12.

Nordström exposes social, commercial and political structures in contemporary popular culture by merging worlds of sensitivity and mass production. What new messages are generated when funerary inscriptions from 600 B.C. are mixed with the contemporary language of skin care copy and commercial slogans? Are we talking about women or lotions? It is a method of looking back several thousand years in an attempt to see one self slightly more clearly.

Nordström elaborates:
“What interests me the most about Greek history is how things were made, how people were idealised in that period of time and how objects and craft production reflected that idealisation. I want to compare the ideals of history with the ones of the 21th century. To tie a thread between their graves and the hyper commercial agora of today.

As a textile artist I’m aware of the ephemerality of my craft, and textile archeology emphasise that notion of rotting away. It is seldom the fabric fragments themselves who survive to tell, but we have to go to the hard objects for information. I’m talking about loom weights, spindle whorls and painted vases. If we find a bead, maybe that hole tells us that string was in play during the time that bead was made. In conclusion, textile history is extremely inspiring to me, literally and conceptually.”

Working with textile as Nordströms main material her works are in direct contrast to the images of corporate logos, advertisements and self-help books which function as the artistic starting point of her practice. Her humorous aesthetic accentuates the irony in which she treats her work and preserves the unpredictability and improvisation between work and viewer.

The expression of the materials play an important part and are chosen based on specific qualities and connotations. Often purchased on sale, often saying something about femininity.

Anna Nordström
 was born in 1984 in Gävle, Sweden. She has an MFA in Textile in the Expanded Field from Konstfack, Stockholm and was educated at MICA, Baltimore.

FIND OUT MORE:
https://www.nnnrdstrm.com/