This monumental tapestry by textile artist Kari Dyrdal is a prominent feature of the new Aula at the University Museum of Bergen, Norway. The design is based on cross-sections of rock formations around Bergen. The challenge for the TextielLab and the artist was to create a textile with a strong tactile presence that also has an intellectual dimension.
The University Museum of Bergen is undergoing extensive renovation until 2019 to restore it to its former grandeur. The museum was founded in 1825 and is one of Norway’s oldest. Following a closed competition, Dyrdal was commissioned to make a new work for the university’s Aula.
She wanted to base her piece on the natural sciences research conducted at the museum and university. As she wrote in her submission for the competition: ‘The natural sciences reveal patterns and structures, and I wish to use these as the basis for a large, woven surface.’ The tapestry covers most of the back wall of the Aula, forming a magnificent backdrop for ceremonial occasions.
The tapestry was woven from various lightfast materials. As a starting point for the image, Dyrdal used photographs of cross-sections of rock formations around Bergen, Norway. The photographs were distorted and reflected through digital manipulation.
The work comprises five suspended panels. The large dimensions of the piece presented a number of challenges. The design had to take into account how the panels would be combined as well as the (colour) progression across the panels. Dyrdal wanted to use red yarn to add accents to the design without making it too red.
Dyrdal (Oslo, 1952) lives and works in Norway. She studied textile design at Bergen Design School and Croydon College of Art and Technology in London from 1974 to 1978. She is a professor of textiles at the Bergen Academy of Art and Design. Describing her work, she says that they all place themselves between representation and abstraction, reality and illusion. They are included in a number of public collections, among them the National Museum in Oslo, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and the KODE/Vestlandske Kunstindustrimuseum in Bergen.
