Textile designer and artist Grethe Sørensen proves that craftsmanship and digital technology go hand in hand. She regularly uses the looms in the TextielLab to convert her photographic pixels into large tapestries, inspired by the city and nature. The optical mixing of colours ensures depth and colour intensity in her work.
For the exhibition ‘Traces of Light’ in the Rundetaarn in Copenhagen, Sørensen designed three series of wall hangings in collaboration with the TextielLab: ‘Rush Hour’, City Light’ and ‘Times Square in a Rush’. Video recordings of artificial light at night form the basis of the series. In the darkness, physical things disappear and illumination from head lights, traffic lights, neon signs and advertising boards trace their own patterns and shapes. Sørensen filmed in various cities, including Shanghai and Copenhagen. She reduced the images she selected from the films to a limited number of colours that she mixed optically on the loom.
According to the publication that accompanied the exhibition, ‘The unfocused camera transforms the realism of the car head lights into patterns of lit, circular, half-transparent surfaces. They arrange themselves in levels of varying transparency and colour effect. A well-known theme from the world of film and the poetry of the living image with its slowly streaming movement.’
‘Sørensen’s creative intuition led her to devise a different way to construct her designs, resulting in the structure she calls ‘random weave’. The source image is reduced to a limited number of coloured pixels that correspond to the coloured threads to be used in the weaving. Operating on the same premise as eight-colour printing, or the use of coloured pixels on a computer screen, the visual mixture of the coloured thread can be used to produce a full spectrum of colours that transition smooth from one to the next.’ (Grethe Sørensen & Bo Hovgaard. ‘Spor af Lys: Traces of Light’. Copenhagen: [s.n.], 2012. Library reference: Eu-dene 787.8 SORE)
Sørensen studied design at Kolding Design School in Denmark and traditional tapestry techniques in Switzerland and France. She established her own studio in Vamdrup, Denmark in 1979. Originally trained as a hand weaver, she now uses computer-controlled looms. She designs large tapestries that are inspired by motifs from the city and nature. Her focus is firmly rooted in an understanding of materials and construction processes derived from her skill and artistry as a hand weaver.
Her work shows that craftmanship and digital technology are not incompatible; rather, craftsmanship is essential to working well with new technology. She has won numerous awards, including the 'Nordic Award in Textiles 2017'. Her work can be found in the collections of the Designmuseum Danmark in Copenhagen and The Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum in New York.
