Feelings of Light on a Dark Night in Tokyo

Galerie Maria Wettergren is delighted to present its third solo exhibition with the Danish textile artist, Grethe Sørensen (born 1947). Recognized worldwide as a pioneer in the field of art weaving in association with the digital world, Sørensen is inspired by optical light phenomena, which she transforms into large wall tapestries. In 2017, Sørensen received the Nordic Award in Textiles, and her works are held in the permanent collections of major museums, including the Smithsonian Cooper Hewitt Museum in New York, USA, 21C Museum Hotel in Cincinnati, USA and Designmuseum Danmark in Copenhagen, Denmark.

The works in the exhibition Feelings of Light on a Dark Night in Tokyo emerged from the artist’s personal experience with city light after nightfall in Tokyo. In the Light Reflection tapestries, Sørensen transforms the Nippon metropolis and its busy traffic lights, into soft, pulsating dreamscapes. Their ample, semi-circular lines and vibrating colors on dark backgrounds derive from headlights and traffic lights, reflected on an aluminum wall plate on the side of one of Tokyo’s bustling roads. Fascinated by the rich and ever-changing patterns and colors of light, Sørensen first recorded the scenes in video together with her partner, film director Bo Hovgaard, before meticulously translating the pixels of light into subtle patterns of woven threads on a Jacquard loom at the Tilburg Textile Museum in The Netherlands.

Grethe Sørensen

Grethe Sørensen’s desire to approach textile art from an optical, technological perspective has resulted in a series of fascinating Jacquard weavings inspired, since 2005, by various light phenomenon derived from nature as well as computer technologies. Sørensen’s ability to see possibilities in new technologies is manifest in the video animations she creates together with film director Bo Hovgaard which she displays in the exhibitions next to the large-scale wall tapestries. These videos play a double function both as sketches for the unique weavings, which are made by the artist at the Tilburg Textile Museum, as well as independent works dialoguing with the tapestries.

Grethe Sørensen is considered as an important pioneer in the field of contemporary textile art. Her works have been exhibited internationally, notably at the Museum for Applied Art, Copenhagen, Denmark; Musée des Arts Decoratifs, Paris, France; Museum of Art, Ein Harod, Israel; Nagoya, Japan; Museum of Art, Sao Paulo, Brazil; North Dakota Museum of Art, Grand Forks, USA; Museum of Decorative Arts and Design, Ghent, Belgium; and the Academy of Art & Design, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China. Her works are housed in several important museum collections, including the Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum, New York, USA; Textilmuseet Borås, Borås, Sweden; Designmuseum Danmark, Copenhagen, Denmark; The Danish Arts Foundation; Trapholt Art Museum, Trapholt, Denmark and 21st Century Museum Hotel, Cincinnati, USA.

Feelings of Light on a Dark Night in Tokyo: GRETHE SØRENSEN

Installation shots

About the artist

Grethe Sørensen

Exhibition Catalogue

Feelings of Light on a Dark Night in Tokyo

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