RAW WAR Solo exhibition at Kunstnerforbundet, Oslo, 2015 Photo: Thomas Tveter / Kunstnerforbundet
Grøfta (the ditch), 2025, wool on linen, 42 x 200 cm Photo: Thomas Tveter / Kunstnerforbundet
Løpende reddhare (Running hare), 1993, wool on linen, 40 x 610 cm Photo: Thomas Tveter / Kunstnerforbundet
Running hare, 1993, wool on linen, 40 x 610 cm Cracks in the ice, 1989, wool on linen, 1400 x 30 cm Photo: Thomas Tveter / Kunstnerforbundet 2025
Soft Fence, 1985, wool on linen, 153 x 260 cm Kunstnerforbundet 2017: Ode til en vaskeklut, hymne til en tiger
Photo: Thomas Tveter / Kunstnerforbundet
Victim, 2015, wool on linen, 280 x 80 cm Photo: Thomas Tveter / Kunstnerforbundet
RAW WAR Exhibition view, Kunstnerforbundet 2015 Photo: Thomas Tveter / Kunstnerforbundet
RAW WAR
An ongoing project since 2003
Anti-War
My profound outrage at the invasion of Iraq 2003 generated an intense need to protest against war. It became the initial source for this series of tapestries. The Syrian civil war, the Israel – Palestine conflict, the crisis in the Ukraine, and current attitudes to nuclear disarmament, are situations and issues that resonate in the later works.
The extreme opposition that exists between the aesthetics of tapestry and the horror of contemporary warfare define these works.
Blood cannot be washed out with blood, 2010. 280 x 250 cm
Blood cannot be washed out with blood, detail
Apocalypse now, detail
Dona Nobis Pacem, 2012. 280 x 250 cm
Raw is War, War is Raw, 2008. 240 x 100 cm
Raw War, 2003. 140 x 140 cm
Raw War, detail
RAWAR, 2003. 240 x 120 cm
Guantanamo, 2009. 73 x 104 cm
Shrouds, 2008-2012. 80 x 120 cm X 7
Shrouds, detail
Poisonous Web, 2015. 280 x 150 cm
WON NOW, 2007. 240 x 100 cm
WON NOW, detail
CLIMATE CHANGE
An ongoing project since 1995
Predictions and prospects
Various works, sketches and work-in-progress
Past – Present – Future
The compelling evidence of global warming, how human activity has significantly altered the natural environment, and other questions regarding the future of the planet are ideas and reflections that inform this group of works.
The works are about perceiving an exquisite and abundant yet vulnerable and precarious planet.
Artificial June, 1995. 49 elements, 10 x 30 cm each
Artificial June, detail
Sky Pockets, 1996. 100 elements, 4 x 16 cm each
Sky Pockets, detail
Greenhouse, 2007. 250 x 250 cm
Turning a Summer Sky, 2011. 20 x 20 cm
YARN 1994
"Jeg stoler"
Sixteen chair pieces with accompanying stories.
Imprints of naked bottoms represented as woven images on the seats of the actual chairs. Each chair, or group of chairs, is presented together with an anecdotal text inspired by the look and character of the chair.
Entrust
Duo
Folding chair
The frog chair
Sailor’s chairs
The secretary
Shelter Hotel
The tram conductor’s lament
THE FABRIC OF CONVERSATION 1994
Miniature scenes: doll's house chairs with miniature tapestries that allude to various aspects of dialogue.
Selection of four from a series of sixteen individual works, 20 x 20 cm, various heights.
Ignored
Monologue
Mumbling
Surprise
FINDS F. UNN 1995 - 2005
Gutter archaeology.
Litter, refuse, wasted objects, picked up from the street and recycled as part of decorative tapestries.
F. UNN, 4 pieces, 20 x 20 cm each
F. UNN, 1997-1998, detail
Detail: Membrane, 1998. 323 x 30 cm
Comb (hair), 2000. 30 x 30 cm
Comb (tortoise), 2000. 30 x 30 cm
Spanish Combs, 30 x 30 cm, detail 5
Spanish Combs, 30 x 30 cm, detail 8
Spanish Combs, 30 x 30 cm, detail 9
Spanish Combs, 30 x 30 cm, detail 11
Detail: Sea of Tranquillity, each element 10 x 10 cm
Sea of Tranquillity, variation V, 2000-2009
Sea of Tranquillity, 2000-2005. Variation I: 1030 elements
LANDSCAPE AND THE NATURE OF TAPESTRY 1977 – 1993
Moving from Leeds, a large industrial town in England, to the midst of nature in Norway, made for changes in life and art. A re-examination and re-evaluation of tapestry as a contemporary art form was inevitable.
The developments of this period are rooted in the understanding and use of the intrinsic plastic qualities of tapestry construction. Unique to the structure of tapestry is the two-sided property of the woven fabric: two sides united by one and the same image. A tapestry is a durable material, that can be folded, twisted, or knotted and still retain the unity and visual logic of the woven image.
The surrounding landscape and the passing of time so perceptible in the changing seasons had a significant impact on my work during this period.
Stone Heads and Black Apples, 1980, 77 x 147 cm
Stone Heads and Black Apples, detail
Unopened Letter, 1981, 200 x 250 cm
Echo, 1982-83, 40 x 2000 cm
Dark Swimmer, 1983-84, 265 x 100 cm
Dark Swimmer, detail
Soft Fence, 1985, 153 x 260 cm
The Thaw (Råk), 1987-89, 280 x 20 X 12 cm
The sea is waving, 1989, 50 x 50 cm X 30
Winter Solstice, 1990, 200 x 250 cm
Running Hare, 1993, 40 x 610 cm
Cracks in the ice, 1989, 1400 x 30 cm
THE NEAR AND THE DEAR 1963 – 1977
In the sixties and most of the seventies I lived in Leeds, England. Coping with a foreign country and culture, raising a family, teaching experimental textiles in a fine art department, and formulating my own artistic practice, was all part of my hectic daily life. Through the immediacy of drawing and the methodical construction of tapestry I structured this initial chaos, and gave it form.
Åkle II, 1964
Mask, 1965. 109 x 93 cm
We are growing old together, 1971. 260 x 240 cm
Tricks with Principles,1972. 160 x 174 cm
Everyone Talks about the Weather…, 1972. 213 x 150 cm
Desert Wandering, 1974. 200 x 250 cm
Circus, 1975. 200 x 250 cm
Circus, colour sketch, 1975
The Bathers,1975. 200 x 200 cm
Aireborough Pool (Mikkel), 1977. 120 x 195 cm.
Recorder (Sunniva),1977. 300 x 30 cm
Gossip, 1977. 200 x 200 cm
ETCHINGS
Etching. 1976. 20,2 x 20,2 cm
Etching. 1976. 20,4 x 20,1 cm
Etching. 1976. 20,2 x 20,3 cm
Etching. Cirkus. 1970s. 25,7 x 22,7 cm
Etching. 1976. 20,2 x 20,2 cm
Etching. 1973. 25,5 x 20,3 cm
Etching. "Knekt/Knight" 1970s. 29,7 x 22,7 cm.