ART-TRIBUTE:Weaving and other Practices… Ann Cathrin November Høibo

We continue our Tribute with Ann Cathrin November Høibo. In terms of process, she follows a simple pattern of warp-and-weft. Long, vertical strands (the warp)provide a working base through which she loops and knots the weft, or various muted and luminescent yarns, ropes, and cords. With this austere method, Høibo manages to make lush, complex and occasionally wild tapestries, guarded while brimming with textures and colors, like a garden that has been precisely designed to allow for overgrowth.

By Efi Michalarou

Weaving is central to Ann Cathrin November Høibo’s (1979- ) work. It is the main medium that she works in, but also a spatial metaphor used to create tenuous links between the disparate objects in her installations. Weaving is the anchor, the framework, around and through which the narrative in her work threads. Ann Cathrin November Høibo’s tapestries are part of a lineage of Norwegian textile art that stretches back through her mentor, Else Marie Jakobsen, in turn a pupil of Hannah Ryggen, to Frida Hansen, who established the Workshop For National Tapestry Weaving in 1892. All three were radical in their way, claiming a place for textiles as a legitimate artistic media to express social, political and personal concerns. Working with and against these traditions, Høibo’s weavings are typically finished at a moment before they are complete. Working in an improvised way, often ignoring any regular sequence of warp and weft, she leaves threads trailing or casually bundled up. Muted earthy colors are set off by splurges of intense hues, and natural threads are counterpoised by shiny nylons and other oil-derived, highly durable looking polyesters. The interjection of other materials – like the small black spring loaded cord stoppers or clothing rails – allude to these works being part of the much wider world of the textile industry and clothes. Ann Cathrin November Høibo, is a graduate of Städelschule (MA), The National College of the Arts Oslo (MA) and the National Academy of Art and Handcraft (BA).