By Robbie LaFleur
Ann Cathrin November Hoibø, “Dreams Ahead”
Norway has an excellent program for placing art in public spaces, KORO. Recently, Ann Cathrin November Hoibø was commissioned to weave a large tapestry for the Norwegian Embassy in Washington D.C. Dreams Ahead is Hoibø’s reflection of nature in Norway.
The artist and her process were described in an interview published on the KORO site, “To Reach the Top of a Mountain.” Hoibø was influenced by the scale of the weaving, and working on an enormous loom that was new to her. She couldn’t help but react to the politics of the day and the pandemic that changed all our lives. Weavers enjoy reading about process, and this essay is rich in detail. Reading some of my favorite excerpts will whet your appetite to read the full essay.
[From the introduction] Naturally gray wool forms the background of the abstract tapestry – a coarse, uneven surface that can be experienced almost as a gray wall, with large fields of unbleached white and charcoal gray pressing in from the sides, not unlike Norwegian skerries in springtime, when these small rocky islands are sprinkled with areas of snow that contrast with the dark rocks…The tapestry is without doubt the largest November Høibo has ever woven, measuring 216 in. high by 119 in. wide (5.5 x 3 m.). She made the work by hand all by herself, without any help from assistants – a quest that took her seven months of daily labor at the loom. The artist also had to rent a larger studio in order to produce on such a large scale.
Following Norwegian tradition, Hoibø used a plain fork as a beater. She explained, “It’s a simple tool and easy to get hold of. I take whatever fork I can find. It’s just important that it’s not too heavy. Also, I need to have a lot of them, because I leave them all over the place. At lunchtime, the other people who have studios in this building can seldom find a fork.”
Anne Cathrin November Høibo, “Dreams Ahead” (detail)
When you weave such a large tapestry, whole seasons go by. Hoibø describes shifting life outside her loom during the creation of Dreams Ahead. “The tapestry takes in life. I respond to my environment – the seasons, the light, and my shifting moods. There are many emotions lying in these threads. Some days it’s incredibly good just to sit here and work, while other days it’s very lonely and frustrating and boring. It feels different to work on this after Christmas and after the U.S. election. It was quite draining in late autumn, when everything was dark, gloomy, and somehow very chaotic – it’s reflected in the dark colors at the top of the tapestry. Now the colors are brighter but cooler. We haven’t had this kind of white winter here for many years, with crisp snow, an unchanging blue sky, and a bracing breeze. The snow has made its way into the tapestry and it’s also possible to see the clear sky and colors. And soon it will get warmer…”
Hoibø relates interesting details about weaving on such a large scale. “This tapestry is so vast that it forces me to work in a different style. Previously, I worked more hectically, but these days I allow myself to use a whole day to roll up the tapestry onto the cloth beam, and to tie and untie all the knots for the weights one by one. And I tell myself that this is enough for today, so I keep my strength to continue again tomorrow. It’s a grown-up approach; it feels healthier.”
Dreams Ahead was woven on a loom with history, one that was used in the well-known tapestry workshop run by Else Halling in the middle of the 20th century, A/S Norsk Billedvev (A/S Norwegian Tapestry). When the essay was published in book form, it included more information on the loom, reprinted here with permission. Hoibø borrowed the loom from Per Hoelfeldt Lund, who wrote about its history. It’s interesting that Hoibø’s 21rst century tapestry is woven on the same loom used to weave reproductions of Renaissance-era historical Norwegian tapestries.
It is a loom designed and built for the workshop A/S Norsk Billedvev and the workshop’s manager Else Halling. [From t]he Norwegian Museum of Decorative Arts and Design, where the director Thor B. Kielland, in the 1940s, established a workshop on the top floor of the museum building.
Here reproductions were woven of our oldest textile treasures, and [tapestries were woven from] new cartoons by our leading artists for the decoration of Oslo City Hall and other commissions right up until the 1960s, when the workshop was closed down and Else Halling was awarded the King’s Medal of Merit for her outstanding work.
When the workshop was to be emptied in 1967, my mother, Lily Hoelfeldt Lund, was asked if she could take care of the largest loom, in view of her links with the handweaving community and her production of yarn spun from the wool of spelsau sheep. I was studying in Oslo, and was dispatched to dismantle the loom, and I loaded it into Fuhr’s truck, which had delivered wine to the Wine Monopoly and otherwise would have driven empty to Grimstad.
After several years in storage, we had extended our main building, so that we had a room of 645 sq.ft. (60 sq.m.) on the upper floor with plenty of space for the loom, which was put into use, initially for several years by my mother.
Among other things, she wove a replica of Leonardo’s Last Supper, which was her gift to Eide Church following its restoration. Wenche, my wife, wove a number of exciting tapestries in the following years.
And now we are lending it to the artist Ann Cathrin November Hoibø in connection with her commission for Norway’s new embassy in Washington, D.C. Source: Per Hoelfeldt Lund, 21 September 2020
Ann Cathrin November Hoibø should be commended for her striking tapestry and her successful commission. And her interview is inspiring for tapestry weavers—to learn about her thoughts and weaving decisions while Dreams Ahead was underway.