Through the Threads

"By combining traditional craft techniques and the language of painterly abstraction, Synnøve Anker Aurdal (1908–2000) reinvented tapestry-making and created a new space for modern textile art. Her works took on a singular and effervescent character by featuring materials such as copper thread, polyester, fiberglass, nylon, metal chains and—most controversially—synthetic dyes. Despite a thriving career and frequent media presence in Norway, the fact that Anker Aurdal was a woman with no academic artistic education, working in feminized artistic media, shaped her trajectory and the reception of her work. As the most comprehensive monograph on Anker Aurdal’s work to date, Through the Threads writes a new, and sorely missing, chapter on the oeuvre and six-decade career of this pioneering artist. The book compiles newly commissioned texts by Lars Bang Larsen, Marit Paasche, Jenni Sorkin, Leire Vergara, and an interview by Solveig Øvstebø with Siri Aurdal, Anker Aurdal’s daughter. Included as a book-within-the-book is Poems to Synnøve Anker Aurdal, a collection of newly commissioned poems originally published for the exhibition at Astrup Fearnley Museet. The book is richly illustrated with images from the exhibition and archive photos of Synnøve Anker Aurdal. Through the Threads is a printed sequel to the retrospective exhibition Synnøve Anker Aurdal, held at Astrup Fearnley Museet in 2022 and curated by Solveig Øvstebø."