Christina Forrer: Grappling Hold

Exhibition Website

Mar 29 2017 - Apr 23 2017

Christina Forrer’s tapestries are disquieting scenes in which naïve, wide-eyed figures are depicted in emotionally fraught situations and cartoonish conflicts. For Grappling Hold, Forrer has created several newly commissioned works that vividly illustrate anxieties and violent struggles.

Forrer’s textiles pay homage to the work of German painter Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (1880-1938) and in particular, the luminously hued tapestries he made in collaboration with the Swiss artist Lise Gujer (1893-1967). In her depictions of brutality, however, they also draw from the unflinchingly dark works made by Swedish textile artist Hannah Ryggen (1894-1970), known for her woven responses to the horrors of fascism. This balance of light and dark, warp and weft, is reflected in the title of the exhibition, Grappling Hold, a wrestling term for grips, pins, locks and other forms of fighting holds, which may also summon a clinging embrace.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website.

  • Fiber Arts
  • European
  • Contemporary
  • Textiles / Basketry / Quilts
  • Christina Forrer

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