Wednesday morning in Oslo

Our plan was to see a bit more of Oslo while also picking up something at a shop for Jorunn and seeing the Museum of Decorative Arts and Design (Kunstindustrimuseet). The shop was still closed when we got there, so we went to the museum. We had already checked out of the hotel and left our bags in the locked luggage room.

The museum was the first to charge us admission, but that included the special Kunsthåndverk 2011 exhibit, plus admission to 2 other museums. I opted out of the other museums, there's just so much culture I can cram into my head in a few weeks.

These pictures are from that exhibit, I'll cover the permanent collection in the next blog.

First picture is familiar to you South Park fans, and yes - he's writing in the snow.

Next is a detail and then full shot of a 6' x 5' or so fiber piece, with burn-out or devoree technique which takes away the patterned fabric and leaves the net base.

The brightly colored wall hanging is called Mondrian and is made with woven bands.

The next 3 are tapestries, the first 2 are computer assisted. The landscape one was woven with reflective yarn and had a light shining on it with moving cloud images. The 3rd was somehow appliquéd with different fabrics. There was no way to tell how the layers were attached and the edges were very "dithered".

The last two were part of a very powerful anti-war piece. The flag draping the coffin was knitted, with white stockings(?) representing the 9 Norwegian soldiers killed in Afghanistan. The figure standing nearby is wearing what seems to be a death version of a bunad, the traditional dress of Norway. On a shelf alongside were reprints of sweater patterns printed during WWII, with a new version for the Afghan war with a pattern consisting of the crosses as are put on graves.