National Heritage Week 2022

National Heritage Week , 13-21 August 2022     

'The Circles We Walk' with Annika Berglund

 Olivier Cornet Gallery,  Dublin (Ireland)

The Olivier Cornet Gallery is a repeat participant of National Heritage Week. Check out our 2021 project with Eoin Mac Lochlainn's Harold’s Cross Heritage Apple Trees and our 2020 project with Yanny Petter's wonderful Calla Lily Blue for instance.


In view of the theme for National Heritage Week 2022, "sustainable heritage and biodiversity", we are delighted to highlight a very interesting aspect of one of our artists' practice: that of Annika Berglund and her increasing interest in using locally-bred wool in her work in felt.


Annika Berglund joined the Olivier Cornet Gallery in 2012. Trained as a ceramicist who has always explored various media such as clay, porcelain, glass and bronze, the artist has recently expanded her practice to include a new medium: wool in the hard-skill technique of felt-making.


Her latest solo exhibition at the Olivier Cornet Gallery, Interlocked, showcased her highly-skilled technique(s) of felt-making. One of her works in felt, In Danger, Who? was recently acquired by the National Museum of Ireland for their Covid-related collection.

The Circles We Walk

First presented in her 2021 solo show Interlocked, Annika Berglund's triptych, The Circles we walk, will be included in our group show 'Soft Things in Hard Times', a group exhibition of felt and lace, part of the 'August Craft Month' festival. The exhibition runs from 7 August to 28 August 2022 at Olivier Cornet Gallery. It features work by OCG artist Annika Berglund and invited artists Ramona Farrelly, Fiona Harrington, Fiona Leech and Leiko Uchiyama.

Here is why we decided to highlight Berglund's "The Circles We Walk" in the context of National Heritage Week 2022, Sustainable Heritage and Biodiversity: 

"During the last two years Covid changed many aspects of our lives.

Most of us who could, retreated into the safety of the domestic space.

The world seemed to shrink to fit inside square walls. It consisted of the circles we walked inside these walls and the bubbles we embraced.

My recent solo exhibition was based around these concepts and basic shapes.

“The circles we walk” was made in my kitchen during the second Covid lockdown.

Wool made into felt shrinks up to 100% during the felting process. That means that this piece started out 3 meters by 3 meters. This meant that the laying out of this piece literally took all the space available in the room, making the sense of confinement and constraint tangible and quite poignant.


Annika Berglund, The Circles We Walk, part of National Heritage Week 2022 at Olivier Cornet Gallery, Dublin

The majority of felt made in Ireland uses processed, imported wool, as that is easier to work with and more readily available. During the last year or so, I have been looking at making greater use of local wool from sheep bred in Ireland.


This piece makes use of the fact that some wools, like imported wool from Australian merino sheep, felt and shrink quickly, whereas many types of wool from local Irish breeds need more time and persuasion to come together into a firm felt. 


By combining different wool types like these, the quicker felting wool in the base and top layers pulls together and pushes the slower felting inclusions into spherical protuberances, creating the texture in this piece.


I chose to leave the rough edges of the panels showing to give an idea of the process involved in its making."

Annika Berglund




To see other works in felt by the artist, please visit Interlocked and come and see 'Soft Things in Hard Times' at the Olivier Cornet Gallery from 7 August to 28 August 2022.


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