– Harry Martinson, from the collection of poems Natur (Nature) (1934)
In his poem Fairytale Land (Sagoland), Harry Martinson describes the sun as a radiant disc, a giant egg and an eternal fire. When we read these words, certain images are conjured up, and it is these impressions that Synnøve Anker Aurdal has developed in her work Solen (The Sun) from 1968.
From the mid-1960s, based on depictions of natural impressions, poetry or music, Anker Aurdal created large tapestries with pronounced shapes and colours. The technique and materials she used were essential to the expression that she wanted to create. In making her tapestries, she experimented with new materials, such as copper wire and wool in this work, and metal chains, mirrors, polyester balls and steel beads in later works. She blended these with traditional yarns and nylon that she dyed herself.
During the age of modernism, Anker Aurdal was at the forefront in establishing the role of textile art as an independent means of expression. By breaking with the traditional nature of tapestry, she created a bridge between textile’s historic role a functional object and the visual arts. She created textile works that could be considered to be independent aethetical expressions on equal terms with painting and sculpture.