Emelie Röndahl (sweden)

// BIO

Emelie Röndahl (b. 1982 in Sweden. Lives and works in Falkenberg) is a weaving artist who for several years works with figurative rya, a traditional Scandinavian weaving technique that historically has been used to weave blankets that imitate sheep skins where the hairy part lays against the body.

Central to her practice is the two-sidedness of the technique. The hairy, or shaggy rya-side juxtaposes the smooth underside, and the works are often installed with both sides visible to the spectator. Emelie sees her ryas as disrupting versions of traditional rya and contemporary tapestries, and she uses untraditionally long and hanging threads that give the works a three-dimensionality. The images are retrieved from the anonymous digital search engines interspersed with private photos from her phone, followed by quick sketching and then hand-weaving.

Long threads are an important part of the aesthetic. Something that matches her drive: to make pixels that look like crying in yarn. The materials are traditional such as linen and different qualities of wool. As a weaving artist, she wants to give a picture of how time and attention are directed towards different concepts and states in the making of the works.

Emelie Röndahl holds an MFA in Crafts (2012) from HDK-Valand University of Gothenburg (Sweden) and she recently defended her doctoral thesis, Crying Rya: a practitioner’s narrative through handweaving (2022), at the same institution. Röndahl has exhibited several times in both Sweden and internationally, most recently the Istanbul Design Biennale 2018, Young Swedish Form 2019, Lodz Tapestry Triennal 2019 2020 and Rian Design Museum 2020. Current exhibitions are installed at Kungsbacka Konsthall and Trollhättans Konsthall. Röndahl has also participated in many artist residencies, including Iaspis in Stockholm 2013-2014 and Textile Arts Center in New York 2014-2015, and Iaspis’ guest studio Nova Iskra in Belgrade 2018. For her stay at Narva Art Residency she would like to introduce and share her knowledge and experience of weaving rya in an hands-on way.