I am a sculptor, and my primary material is textile, which I combine with other materials such as concrete and various primers that stiffen the textile and add volume. My sculptures are hand-knitted in different textile materials—knitted forms where yarn and stitches create a transparency of threads and spaces.
In recent years, I have been working on a series of works I call “In Between Spaces.” In these works, the knitted skeleton is combined with different materials and undergoes transformation through them. The knitted sculpture is dipped in various substances, transforming it from fragile, soft, and predictably textile in appearance into a robust and abstract figure. The materials harden, tighten, and partially close up, adding volume. This process gives stability to the form—shifting it from soft to hard.
I am deeply engaged in this transformation: the change, the metamorphosis, from one state into another. Some holes remain open while others close, altering the sculpture’s form and the shadows it casts. The inner space of the sculpture changes, and the view into and through the piece becomes something new.
All my works are spatial and have an open structure. They consist of holes, voids, and in-betweens. This gives the viewer the possibility to look into and through my sculptures.
Over the past three years, I have begun working on a new series called “New Skin.” In these works, the hard and the soft, the open and the closed, meet. I add crocheted textile forms to the hard sculptures, creating transitions.
I have also recently begun incorporating ready-mades into my art. My work with ready-mades started with pieces I made about my mother. After her death, I found a large number of nylon stockings in her house. These became works about her and her life.
The ready-mades I use are garments, which I combine with other materials such as concrete. Here I explore and challenge elasticity and gravity.
About her working process, the artist says:
- I see knitting as a material that I can work with further. At some point, it stops being just textile, but also structure with texture and transparency, shapes of threads that create signs and spaces. Shadows are cast and move. In a constant dialogue with the work, I take it somewhere else. There are some spaces that one cannot enter. One can only look into them, like a mirror of human existence.
Facts: Inger Odgaard is artistically educated from Kunstskolen Spektrum in Copenhagen in 2020, 2019, and 2017. She has a teacher education with a major in visual art and handiwork from Silkeborg Seminarium in 1995.
About the process
I am a sculptor, and my medium is textile. My sculptures are hand-knitted using various textile materials, knitted forms where the yarn and stitches create a transparency of threads and spaces.
The knitted skeleton is transformed through the addition of different materials and the addition of new layers. The final shape of the sculpture is formed in the interaction between the sculpture and the baths of materials it is dipped in. These baths transform the sculpture from a fragile and predictable-looking knit to a robust and abstract figure. The work is a long dialogue with each sculpture, a long process where I work on the sculpture's form. Each time a new material is added, the sculpture's appearance changes, and it alters the work's form and structure. the transparency of the sculpture changes, some holes in the knit are closed by the material, and others remain open. The transformation that takes place captivates me. The change from one thing to another. From one place to another. When some holes remain open and others are closed, it alters the sculpture's form and the shadow it creates. The space within the sculpture changes, and the view into the sculpture becomes different. All my works are spatial and transparent sculptures, consisting of holes, spaces, and in-betweens that allow the viewer to peer into and through my sculptures.
In recent years, I have been working on a series of works that I call "In Between Spaces". I have recently started working on another series of works called "New Skin" In these new works, the hard and the soft, the open and the closed meet.
I add crocheted textile forms to the hard sculptures and create transitions.