Diana Orving

Närmanden

22 May – 29 August 2021

Varbergs konsthall presents the solo exhibition Närmanden by the artist and fashion designer Diana Orving (b 1985). In varying textile sculptures and large-scale installations, she fills the exhibition space with a choreography of the body, movement and materiality. 

Diana Orving describes her artistic process as an intuitive exploration in which every step is a reaction to the previous one. The process is reminiscent of choreography in dance, where the first combination of steps becomes the start of a whole series of movements. Through improvisation, the materials and sculptures develop into a movement.

For Orving, to dress and drape the body with textiles is to create a kind of moving architecture. Angles and curves are a part of the construction of the pattern, as are the possibilities for movement and the body’s own volume. The works in the exhibition evolve from being part of a movable architecture surrounding the body, to becoming their own unique architectonic entities in space. Hovering in the air, their forms are voluminous. They are imbued with a physical presence, yet they are also transparent, made up of air. They call to mind something organic, an animal skeleton, cocoon, or the seed pod of a plant. 

The wall sculptures contain a mix of fragility and rawness. Thin textiles have been fixed to the walls, resembling a collection of pinned butterflies. Draughts of air and the interplay of light and shadow create new forms and expressions. In many of Orving’s works, there is a sense of almost forbidden intimacy. The soft shapes and folds invite us into a state of contemplation, a private sphere where we can associate freely.