Interview with Elin Reboli Melberg
Open Studios Stavanger (OSS) took place on 26-27 September, when artists in Stavanger and Sandnes opened their studios to the public. In connection with the event, we have spoken with a selection of artists about their practice.
One of them is Elin Reboli Melberg. She makes weavings and large textile sculptures, some of them with inherited yarn. During OSS, her studio at ELEFANT in Erfjordgata 8 in Stavanger was open to visitors.
Visit Melberg's Atelie profile
Elin Reboli Melberg was born in Stavanger in 1976 and lives and works in Stavanger and Oslo. She studied at Kunstskolen i Rogaland, Winchester School of Art and the Royal College of Art in London.
She has had solo exhibitions at venues including Galleri Brandstrup in Oslo, BGE Contemporary Art Projects in Stavanger, Format Oslo, Haugesund Billedgalleri and Kunsthall Stavanger. Her work has been acquired by the National Museum in Oslo, Stavanger Art Museum, Kistefos and Equinor's art collection, among others.
She holds a ten-year working grant from the Norwegian Government Grants for Artists (Statens kunstnerstipend), and is a member of Norske Billedkunstnere, Norske Kunsthåndverkere, Norske Tekstilkunstnere and NBK-R.
What inspired you to become an artist?
I would venture to say that it is possibly, and most likely, an innate need. It is a strong longing. I wake up every morning longing for the works and the processes. I need them and they need me, that’s how it is. If I don’t get to work on them, I get stressed and restless and I’m no fun to be around. The works are with me through life’s ups and downs, with all their resistance, care and comfort.
Are there any artists or movements that have influenced or inspired you?
I would like to highlight three historical artists: Synnøve Anker Aurdal, Magdalena Abakanowicz and Frida Hansen. Aurdal was actually the reason I dared to start weaving. After I saw a large exhibition of her work at the Astrup Fearnley Museum in Oslo, I was inspired. She experimented in the loom, did things her own way, and worked in a way that was personal, political and at times humorous. She combined materials. That was when I understood that I can do things my way, that I can be freer in the loom and not stick rigidly to rules. Just do it, and ask for forgiveness later, as a fellow artist told me a while ago. I understood that I could break free from the traditional expectations, the mathematics and the systems that my grandparents in particular related to; the technically perfect, which they were unbeatable at.
The Polish artist Magdalena Abakanowicz was simply amazing. It is incredibly inspiring to experience her monumental textile weavings, most recently at Henie Onstad Kunstsenter. The size, the power, the smell of the materials make me both inspired and humble. She was so impressively brave, in all her roughness, power and vulnerability at the same time. These are all elements I constantly strive for in the process of making my own works. I value the imperfect.
Frida Hansen, who was from my hometown, Stavanger, must also be mentioned. She was a hard-working pioneer, both as an artist and in weaving technique. She patented the technique “transparency”, which is used in weaving by several younger generations today. Hansen’s garden and flowers are really elements I can carry over into my own life and practice, and her weavings are so tactile and lovely, endlessly beautiful.
What themes or ideas do you explore in your art?
I am inspired by the generations of women before me, who worked and fought with art and textile art, for acceptance and for being taken seriously. It is a fight we are never quite finished fighting. I am also inspired by heritage and traditions, through both materials and techniques. I have great respect for the history before me, and want to combine it with doing things my own way, in my own time. I am inspired by artworks that almost physically knock me to the ground with their presence. And works that are tender, tactile and insistent at the same time.
Artists who have persevered and keep persevering are an endless inspiration. People who work intensely for causes they believe in. The present. Politics. Public debate. Freedom of expression. Democracy. The threat to democracy. Everyday life around me. Personal loss, longing and grief. Vulnerability and strength at the same time. The times we live in.
How does the process around an artwork or new project typically begin?
I work in different ways with the weavings and the large textile sculptures. What they have in common is that I never have a concrete, detailed sketch that I follow slavishly. But I always have a mental sketch. I may have a very simple sketch for a weaving, a few simple lines on the cardboard behind the warp, but I value the freedom in the process, so I never tie myself down. I stay open in the process and work intuitively with both color combinations and composition, almost as with a painting. In the monumental sculptures, I move along with the materials throughout the process, and just let it grow and grow while I work on it for months. But I always have a fairly clear conceptual idea when I start on a work, which should be seen in relation to my practice as a whole. The conceptual content is very important. The work should convey what I am immersed in thematically in that particular period.
Are you working on any upcoming projects you can share?
I am working on several projects in parallel right now. I am finishing a series of weavings to be shown in a small solo exhibition at Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery in West Palm Beach, FL, in October and November. I am also working on a couple of public and private commissions. A very large project that I have already been working on for a while, and will continue with until the beginning of 2028, is a large exhibition at K.U.K in Trondheim, in connection with the Hannah Ryggen Triennale. This exhibition will be an important presentation of my practice, with monumental sculptural textile works that take me several years to complete, combined with many new large weavings.
