The shimmering, shifting spectrum of color emanating from the nine-story interior solarium is Astrid Krogh’s Lightmail, a three-part fiber optic tapestry woven on a loom in the artist’s Copenhagen studio. Renowned as a leading innovator in the intersecting fields of textile design, technology, and architectural intervention, Astrid Krogh anchors her designs to new technologies by weaving lengths of optic strands into iridescent tapestries that glow and illuminate in a rainbow of colors. The fibers are connected to monitors that radiate the lights in sequence, creating an ever-changing flow of colors, which are further enhanced and altered by changes in atmospheric light in the surrounding environment. Krogh designed

Lightmail in response to the dramatic vertical space of the solarium, as well as to the patterns of sunlight and darkness to which the work is directly exposed.

I begin each commission by traveling to the site to look at existing light, the flow of human traffic, and the general buzz around it,” says the artist, “I set out to truly integrate my work into the space so that it becomes a part of it. Each building has a unique atmosphere; every space has its soul. My work is born out of feeling, yet, takes shape according to the physical characteristics of the space ».

Lightmail is one of Krogh’s most ambitious site-specific works; it both transforms and connects the building’s spaces—both vertically and horizontally—and heightens viewers’ awareness of the natural and built environments. Krogh reinterprets an ancient craft with new materials and techniques to create an array of ever-shifting, interactive experiences that are both magical and mysterious.

  • 2000 
Weaving in optical fibre 
150 x 700 cm 
Unique piece made for the exhibition at the Trapholt Museum, Denmark

    Lightmail
    2000
    Weaving in optical fibre
    150 x 700 cm
    Unique piece made for the exhibition at the Trapholt Museum, Denmark

  • AK

    Born in 1968, lives and works in Copenhagen, Denmark

    After graduating in 1997 from the textile faculty at The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, School of Design, Astrid Krogh established her own studio the following year, where she started using optical fibers  to create woven textiles, thereby weaving with light itself. As colored light is transmitted through the fibers, the textiles change appearance and transform the spaces around them. Krogh’s point of departure from conventional textile design was not merely her fascination for light, but also her attraction to shape-morphing objects and shifting colorways. “I use light as both a material and a technology”, Krogh explains. “The presence of light is an essential component of my work. Light enables my textiles to pulsate, change patterns and create an entire spectrum of ever-changing colorways”.

    Few artists speak this refined language as fluently as Astrid Krogh, who uses light to describe aspects of nature that words simply cannot. The lingua franca in Krogh’s world describes the feelings evoked by the beauty of the dawn, and the emotions stirred when the sunset streaks extraordinary colors across the sky. Her vocabulary is nuanced by sensory experiences, which are articulated through a lexicon of color and light. Krogh’s vernacular encompasses the ripples that cause sunlight to sparkle on the surface of a lake, and the surging, blue tinted waves that change color as they break on the shore.

    Widely recognized as one of the most pioneering Scandinavian artists in the field of light installations and textile art, Krogh is working at the intersection between art, architecture and design. Krogh’s works have been exhibited in various international institutions, such as the Boston Fine Art Museum; Le Musée Eugène Delacroix, Paris; Tournai International Triennial of Contemporary Textile Arts, Belgium; Malmö Kunstmuseum, Sweden; the Tefaf Maastricht Fair, Holland and Design Miami/Basel, Switzerland. Krogh’s works are included in important museum collections, such as the Designmuseum Danmark and the 21C Museum International Contemporary Art Foundation. Krogh has been making monumental light installations and site-specific commissions for private and public collections, such as the 21C Museum International Contemporary Art Foundation in Cincinnati, the Danish Parliament in Copenhagen; the Longchamp Flagship store in Paris; the Danish University Center in Beijing, China, and the Maersk building in Copenhagen. Krogh’s pieces are published in important books about contemporary textiles, architecture and design, and the artist has won several prizes, including the Thorvald Bindesboell Medal, the Inga & Ejvind Kold Christensen Prize, the Annual Honorary Grant of the National Bank of Denmark, the Finn Juhl Architecture Prize and the CODA Awards.

     

    Artist’s Resume

     

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