Mona Strand

I have studied clothing design and costume design at the Oslo National Academy of the Arts and I have a master's degree in sculptural hats from 1993. Before that I was a hairdresser and most of the assignments in my study also seemed to move towards the head. I like to form felts, materials and straw over hat blocks, and then shape the materials in different ways. My wearable artworks have always revolved around the head, the neck and sculptural hats. I am now working on further developing the collar as an artistic expression.

Q&A

Artist Statement

I work in a space that is in the transition between a hat shop and an art studio. I have many hat blocks, a stock of materials with fabrics, beads, buttons, flowers, ribbons and organic materials from nature.

What craft do you work with?

I have studied clothing design and costume design at the Oslo National Academy of the Arts and I have a master’s degree in sculptural hats from 1993. Before that I was a hairdresser and most of the assignments in my study also seemed to move towards the head. I like to form felts, materials and straw over hat blocks, and then shape the materials in different ways. My wearable artworks have always revolved around the head, the neck and sculptural hats. I am now working on further developing the collar as an artistic expression.

What inspires you to work with this craft?

I am inspired by material exploration and related working methods. My working methods are to stretch, bend and shape textiles into objects. I find it very fascinating that I can bend something that is flat and soft and stiffen it up with liquid materials and steel wires. I am inspired by the form language and contradictions found in nature; from chaos to order: networks – threads – roots, transitions, materials that dissolve. I like to use materials like felt, organza, straw, velvet, thread, silk and various forms of fiber.

How do you start your creative process?

I have always been very interested in old craft techniques and cannot do without them. I have old equipment for making flowers that I inherited from someone who ran a shop selling craft equipment. I build objects with materials, hand sewing, tearing and modeling.

How would you best describe your workspace and what tools could you not do without?

I work in a space that is in the transition between a hat shop and an art studio. I have many hat blocks, a stock of materials with fabrics, beads, buttons, flowers, ribbons and organic materials from nature. I have always been very interested in old craft techniques and cannot do without them. I have old equipment for making flowers that I inherited from someone who ran a shop selling craft equipment. I build objects with materials, hand sewing, tearing and modeling. My works can be directly related to the body, wearable art, or be like a sculptural object in the room. When someone dress with the sculptural objects, I experience that the works come to life from the inside and take on a new dimension. The body is therefore also a work space in itself, a work space that is available wherever there are people.

Are there new techniques you would like to try?

I want to explore different techniques around materiality in objects and how people are affected by what they wear or have around themselves. I want to explore how the material in works creates a unique contact with the physical world, the sense of our connection to materiality, nature, through the beauty in the materials’ shape and color but also how materials that dissolve are a kind of reference to the transience of of life.

What have you learnt or the best advice you have received that you would like to share with fellow crafters?

My artistic plans for the future are to further develop my projects into new exhibitions, an artist book and presentations in several arenas. I think it is important and exciting that wearable art has such a character that it can be shown in different contexts. I want to continue working within my concept ‘Herbaratorium’ which is again a further development of the project ‘Greenhouse’, an art installation that I did in the National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design in 2014, where I set up a greenhouse with elements from my hat workshop. The greenhouse was a reference to my craft work and Slow Fashion: to slowly grow rare species, and rare objects, like a gardener does. My artistic plans include further development of both sculptural hats and collars. Collars have a historically interesting past, and the collar is still relevant. For example the American Supreme Court Judge Ruth Ginsburg had a collar collection that was famous, and she was happy to show it off. She fought for women’s rights and deliberately used various spectacular white collars on black judges’ robes. Collars have a special meaning in relation to speaking straight out, being silenced, choked, or to stand out in a certain way. In the long run, I want to continue with exhibitions, and various forms of presentations. I have been purchased at several museums and institutions and will work to create separate or duo exhibitions related to these viewing arenas.