![](https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/fluffy-tenrec/production/Gallery-Steinsland-Berliner-Linnea-Sjoberg-Portrait-of-the-artist.jpg?w=768&h=1152&q=60&fm=jpg&fit=crop&dm=1709049400&s=3389acf7096948a083b8371f69f81936 768w, https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/fluffy-tenrec/production/Gallery-Steinsland-Berliner-Linnea-Sjoberg-Portrait-of-the-artist.jpg?w=512&h=768&q=60&fm=jpg&fit=crop&dm=1709049400&s=11e3242cba0d9cd7b3db22fe69f86b33 512w, https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/fluffy-tenrec/production/Gallery-Steinsland-Berliner-Linnea-Sjoberg-Portrait-of-the-artist.jpg?w=256&h=384&q=60&fm=jpg&fit=crop&dm=1709049400&s=607136367068d0f275532d02687459cd 256w, https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/fluffy-tenrec/production/Gallery-Steinsland-Berliner-Linnea-Sjoberg-Portrait-of-the-artist.jpg?w=128&h=192&q=60&fm=jpg&fit=crop&dm=1709049400&s=34f652afe80488966dfb8568c4ae7303 128w)
Portrait of Linnéa Sjöberg
Courtesy of the artist and Gallery Steinsland Berliner
Your first major textile work was 'Four Generations of Darkness' (2016), which is this incredible weaving of objects found in the attic of your childhood home in Strömsund, Sweden. How do you think the meaning of an object and its past lives change when it becomes part of a tapestry?
I grew up with the rag rugs my grandmother made from old family clothes, which were like an archive of family history that you could walk on. I was really inspired to work with materials in the same way and explore the nostalgia of childhood. I wanted to use these materials as a metaphor for the family home, where so much has been left unsaid and forgotten stories lie in the shadows.
I started by preparing all the garments—cutting them up and weaving them into the tapestry. During that process I found that really strong feelings arose, like the sharp memories of how it felt to be in my body and insecure about fitting into a pair of jeans. I was also surprised by the attachment I had to some items, which I just couldn’t cut up—I rolled them instead and wove them in as cones.
By cutting up the clothes, I freed them from their functionality and made this new entity. It was all about how memories dissolve and past lives disappear. I was also using that transformation to free myself from the attachment I had for certain objects.
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Linnéa Sjöberg, Four Generations of Darkness, 2016
Courtesy of the artist. Photo by Belenius Gallery
It’s fascinating to think how the power of an object can be stripped away or changed when it becomes part of a tapestry—it no longer exists in the same way.
Your practice has two sides—the making of textiles and the performance works, where you’ve embodied characters like the ambitious businesswoman ('Gtds4810' (2009-2011)) and tattooist Linnéa Ölberg ('Salong Flyttkartong' (2012-2014)). The residual materials of these performances are used in your tapestries. Is this where the two sides of your practice meet? In the performative nature of objects?
I have always needed to have a connection with the material I work with, and that material needed to have a story. The businesswoman and Salong Flyttkartong arose from being so curious about a subject that I actually became the subject. In the case of businesswoman, I was kind of afraid of this woman who was my total opposite. I knew I had to take care of the clothes she wore and the leftovers from her everyday life because now, these are the only things that remain. It's only through these leftovers that I can look back and understand what I went through.
![](https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/fluffy-tenrec/production/LS_CompositePortrait.jpg?w=1280&h=959&q=82&fm=jpg&fit=crop&dm=1714570298&s=59af640433470eb5e0bc07cc53b33b4d 1280w, https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/fluffy-tenrec/production/LS_CompositePortrait.jpg?w=1024&h=767&q=82&fm=jpg&fit=crop&dm=1714570298&s=8378b38dca7cf11c3c353a6d24c65543 1024w, https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/fluffy-tenrec/production/LS_CompositePortrait.jpg?w=768&h=575&q=60&fm=jpg&fit=crop&dm=1714570298&s=988256a4b4fd900d21b8b7ff3dfa8982 768w, https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/fluffy-tenrec/production/LS_CompositePortrait.jpg?w=512&h=383&q=60&fm=jpg&fit=crop&dm=1714570298&s=8175f7fc28eab21695c4a631489a9c5d 512w, https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/fluffy-tenrec/production/LS_CompositePortrait.jpg?w=256&h=191&q=60&fm=jpg&fit=crop&dm=1714570298&s=1ab323872d0258521e7a6bfc6a851ebd 256w, https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/fluffy-tenrec/production/LS_CompositePortrait.jpg?w=128&h=95&q=60&fm=jpg&fit=crop&dm=1714570298&s=148f37decd7580261784865a6a59c218 128w)
Linnéa Sjöberg, GTD4s810, 2009-2011 [left], Linnéa Sjöberg, Salong Flyttkartong, 2012-2014 [right]
Courtesy of the artist
It must have been such a strange experience to embrace a character that was so different to yourself, and then detach yourself from that role.
From my point of view, it was all about class. I come from a working class family in the north of Sweden, so I was never exposed to this type of powerful businesswoman. I never felt I could be that person and it was with a trembling inferiority complex I stepped into this character. From my naive point of view, it was during this performance I realised that because of the way I look, I could pass for a privileged white woman in other people's eyes... It was a learning process.
During the performance, I kept my old belongings in vacuum bags—the remains of the Club Kid Linnéa. It was quite masochistic in a way, being able to see the clothes I had attached my identity to, without allowing myself to touch them or put them on again. But I wanted to explore my attachment to those objects and ask, who am I in these clothes? What happens when I take them off?
The end of the businesswoman was more like a downfall. I had some tattoos back then that I had to hide for one and a half years, and when I did finally show the tattoos again there was a such a burst of energy that there was no turning back. I was also at the point of exhaustion from censoring myself.
![](https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/fluffy-tenrec/production/1_campus_hemsida.jpeg?w=768&h=1023&q=60&fm=jpg&fit=crop&dm=1714570776&s=5e7c2b5a81687dfa3d760cc642483197 768w, https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/fluffy-tenrec/production/1_campus_hemsida.jpeg?w=512&h=682&q=60&fm=jpg&fit=crop&dm=1714570776&s=88faf4fd1c22590b2e264d2c156fc9b0 512w, https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/fluffy-tenrec/production/1_campus_hemsida.jpeg?w=256&h=341&q=60&fm=jpg&fit=crop&dm=1714570776&s=8024d6b19309a9fe7f58738cd7c5d49e 256w, https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/fluffy-tenrec/production/1_campus_hemsida.jpeg?w=128&h=170&q=60&fm=jpg&fit=crop&dm=1714570776&s=bdd5b95d0edbde18b9db9bafa40df374 128w)
Linnéa Sjöberg, documentation from the durational performance GTD4s810, 2009-2011
Courtesy of the artist. Photo by Thomas Klementsson
Was the question of class also important in the making of tattoo studio 'Salong Flyttkartong?'
I think Salong Flyttkartong was more of a rebellious counterpart to the businesswoman—I emerged from one into the other. I had always made scribbles on my body and asked home tattooists to tattoo me, and these were often men because that was the culture around me. Then I thought, why can’t I do this myself? Eventually, people started coming to me directly for tattoos.
At the time, I didn’t have anywhere to live and I was always moving around with these “flyttkartong” (moving boxes). So it was kind of an ironical gesture towards the concrete, masculine tattoo studios. I wanted to be someone that disappears, with a temporary, cardboard studio. The whole idea of Salong Flyttkartong was that it couldn’t be, shouldn’t be approved. It was not supposed to be easily grasped.
But really, I became those two characters to step outside of the art world. As soon as Salong Flyttkartong was recognized by the Stockholm art scene, it died.
![](https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/fluffy-tenrec/production/2_2_1_linnea_sjoberg_salong_flyttkartong.jpeg?w=768&h=512&q=60&fm=jpg&fit=crop&dm=1714571203&s=59cb736cef78ba5eadcf857fb875a472 768w, https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/fluffy-tenrec/production/2_2_1_linnea_sjoberg_salong_flyttkartong.jpeg?w=512&h=341&q=60&fm=jpg&fit=crop&dm=1714571203&s=5f76770ff4dc390e40f69306305d6ca2 512w, https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/fluffy-tenrec/production/2_2_1_linnea_sjoberg_salong_flyttkartong.jpeg?w=256&h=170&q=60&fm=jpg&fit=crop&dm=1714571203&s=7864897397a32eaf37b5ae962aa0b9c1 256w, https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/fluffy-tenrec/production/2_2_1_linnea_sjoberg_salong_flyttkartong.jpeg?w=128&h=85&q=60&fm=jpg&fit=crop&dm=1714571203&s=4105bf23c269dbe9f0a36ec1ce0eec0b 128w)
Linnéa Sjöberg, documentation from the durational performance Salong Flyttkartong, 2012-2014. “The Artist is President”, performance night “Bomb”, curated by Roger von Reybekiel and Olav Westphalen at Platform, Stockholm, 2013.
Courtesy of the artist
Do you think you’ll take on such a role again?
I hope so, I miss it every day. But then Salong Flyttkartong was so intense and I never had a pause after the businesswoman. Weaving has almost been a rehabilitation because inside the wooden structure of a loom, nobody can touch me, nobody can see me, nobody can comment.
I’m really interested in the role of the female body in your work—particularly in your performances where you’ve explored the performative tropes of the businesswoman with her glamorous clothes and blonde bob, and then rebelled against the macho tattooist community. For "Boob Job Tattoo" you actually tattooed the lines made by a plastic surgeon for a fake breast enlargement on your body.
“Boob Job Tattoo” was very much the link between the businesswoman and Salong Flyttkartong. I was curious to explore this normative idea of the female body. I went to a doctor in New York for a pre-consultation and was very transparent that I would not have the surgery—it was more about the lines he would draw. I was curious to have that male gaze on my body and have it manifest as this precise, specific line.
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Linnéa Sjöberg, A Boob Job Tattoo, 2013
Courtesy of the artist. Photo by Shawna Ferreira
And of course weaving is so loaded with female associations in art history, we can’t help but consider the role of women in your tapestries.
I did a shorter performance called Bad Viking (2018) at Gunnes Gård outside Stockholm, which is a re-enactment viking village, where I lived as a viking woman and learnt basic, traditional weaving skills. I wished I had stayed there longer.
My main focus has been on my grandmother and her rugs. I work so much with the body; I think that is also why I got into textiles. I’ve never been afraid of textiles because they are materials that we wear on our bodies every day.
You’ve described the motto behind 'Salong Flyttkartong' as “acting before thinking.” You also work very instinctively, often not knowing how a project will end. It strikes me that weaving, by contrast, is such a methodical process that requires careful planning. I wonder how you navigate those two poles?
I work on the limit all the time. In my performances, I was so much on the surface of myself that I couldn’t think about what would happen next. I think I needed weaving to provide that space for contemplation. But the first tapestries I made did not have a plan, they were quite abstract and looked like an explosion of the brain. In the last few years though, I have been changing my practice.
![](https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/fluffy-tenrec/production/SmGallery-Steinsland-Berliner-Linnea-Sjoberg-Wevaving.-Photo-Alexandra-de-Cossette.jpg?w=1920&h=2400&q=82&fm=jpg&fit=crop&dm=1714572051&s=9007306cb63b56ab7fb147006789e36e 1920w, https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/fluffy-tenrec/production/SmGallery-Steinsland-Berliner-Linnea-Sjoberg-Wevaving.-Photo-Alexandra-de-Cossette.jpg?w=1536&h=1920&q=82&fm=jpg&fit=crop&dm=1714572051&s=901636b282b3f90912346ddfbfbeb023 1536w, https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/fluffy-tenrec/production/SmGallery-Steinsland-Berliner-Linnea-Sjoberg-Wevaving.-Photo-Alexandra-de-Cossette.jpg?w=1280&h=1600&q=82&fm=jpg&fit=crop&dm=1714572051&s=5e757554224fd477e5ca4e5b39f2c212 1280w, https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/fluffy-tenrec/production/SmGallery-Steinsland-Berliner-Linnea-Sjoberg-Wevaving.-Photo-Alexandra-de-Cossette.jpg?w=1024&h=1280&q=82&fm=jpg&fit=crop&dm=1714572051&s=6077c9653dce80d13eb68f4e571e8916 1024w, https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/fluffy-tenrec/production/SmGallery-Steinsland-Berliner-Linnea-Sjoberg-Wevaving.-Photo-Alexandra-de-Cossette.jpg?w=768&h=960&q=60&fm=jpg&fit=crop&dm=1714572051&s=e7cd0c65464ab649bc55fa7a974b4db7 768w, https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/fluffy-tenrec/production/SmGallery-Steinsland-Berliner-Linnea-Sjoberg-Wevaving.-Photo-Alexandra-de-Cossette.jpg?w=512&h=640&q=60&fm=jpg&fit=crop&dm=1714572051&s=b05e8db33f884d63567d845030f22888 512w, https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/fluffy-tenrec/production/SmGallery-Steinsland-Berliner-Linnea-Sjoberg-Wevaving.-Photo-Alexandra-de-Cossette.jpg?w=256&h=320&q=60&fm=jpg&fit=crop&dm=1714572051&s=bccfe4f1754bf8ba90332d1dd584d2d9 256w, https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/fluffy-tenrec/production/SmGallery-Steinsland-Berliner-Linnea-Sjoberg-Wevaving.-Photo-Alexandra-de-Cossette.jpg?w=128&h=160&q=60&fm=jpg&fit=crop&dm=1714572051&s=f9d4515293955eeea8b7cb15adc80f39 128w)
Linnéa Sjöberg, Pattern of Thoughts EEET, 2019
Courtesy of the artist and Gallery Steinsland Berliner. Photo by Alexandra de Cossette
How has your relationship with weaving changed since you began working with the loom over ten years ago?
In those early tapestries, the stories are within the materials. At some point though, I decided to explore what would happen if I let the stories emerge. I think that’s the movement in my work—from meaning being in the tapestries, to stories taking place on the tapestries.
And what about the works coming to CHART this summer?
At the moment, I’m very much focused on the inner body and where identity really lies. In my private life, I’ve been going through IVF, which has been a really introspective time. For the last two years, my identity has been all about my uterus and you feel so exposed by that. I never thought I would be that person who placed her whole identity on her uterus, but I’ve been surprised how hard all the expectations of being a woman have been on me.
One recent tapestry is a portrait of my first failed embryo transfer—it’s based on a photograph that the clinic shows you as evidence of the embryo they are implanting, like proof of life. It’s strange how powerful an image can be and now I have a whole bunch of these images. For me, the loom has been a way of processing that experience. I think it will be a part of my art for some years to come. My practice has always been autobiographical and I can’t hide behind other subjects.
"I have always needed to have a connection with the material I work with, and that material needed to have a story."
Artist
![](https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/fluffy-tenrec/production/Linnea.jpg?w=1920&h=3413&q=82&fm=jpg&fit=crop&dm=1714643282&s=dc85a41a07059ac7de8110c63dc0d862 1920w, https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/fluffy-tenrec/production/Linnea.jpg?w=1536&h=2730&q=82&fm=jpg&fit=crop&dm=1714643282&s=41ae084fb2cc3d4d0b34507580d3b710 1536w, https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/fluffy-tenrec/production/Linnea.jpg?w=1280&h=2275&q=82&fm=jpg&fit=crop&dm=1714643282&s=57bdf1a31bc40c0ce2b10c83bde92ff2 1280w, https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/fluffy-tenrec/production/Linnea.jpg?w=1024&h=1820&q=82&fm=jpg&fit=crop&dm=1714643282&s=72c8a58cb3b85d8b170aaa592884fd7d 1024w, https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/fluffy-tenrec/production/Linnea.jpg?w=768&h=1365&q=60&fm=jpg&fit=crop&dm=1714643282&s=a57f516fc965713c96c05e170b64b10a 768w, https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/fluffy-tenrec/production/Linnea.jpg?w=512&h=910&q=60&fm=jpg&fit=crop&dm=1714643282&s=3e6f76be6f182e00d76da62ac13d966c 512w, https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/fluffy-tenrec/production/Linnea.jpg?w=256&h=455&q=60&fm=jpg&fit=crop&dm=1714643282&s=fdcc491d23fbb812d39d8b13f988c8c6 256w, https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/fluffy-tenrec/production/Linnea.jpg?w=128&h=227&q=60&fm=jpg&fit=crop&dm=1714643282&s=b0ed2961ad2f477749b7e7e07fd5ab49 128w)
Linnéa Sjöberg’s projects can be described as performative research, embodying the subject of her interest to the point where no distinction can be made between her work and her persona. The remnants of her actions are documented through text, printed matter, sculpture and textile works. Sjöberg’s current practice is focused on weaving and textile work, informed by her own family history and personal life.
Linnéa Sjöberg (b. 1983) lives and works between Stockholm, Sweden and Berlin, Germany. Sjöberg holds an MA from the Royal Institute of Art in Stockholm and her work is represented in important institutional collections including: Moderna Museet Stockholm and Magasin III, among others.
Photo by Thomas Klementsson
![](https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/fluffy-tenrec/production/SM_6D50387E-3904-45C4-BAC6-ABD341A2B86C-m.jpg?w=1024&h=1280&q=82&fm=jpg&fit=crop&dm=1714573749&s=21c80c90dabcc90cb1b63515756ed489 1024w, https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/fluffy-tenrec/production/SM_6D50387E-3904-45C4-BAC6-ABD341A2B86C-m.jpg?w=768&h=960&q=60&fm=jpg&fit=crop&dm=1714573749&s=61f88f3a849c0fde2fd06a4387c85aa1 768w, https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/fluffy-tenrec/production/SM_6D50387E-3904-45C4-BAC6-ABD341A2B86C-m.jpg?w=512&h=640&q=60&fm=jpg&fit=crop&dm=1714573749&s=392d5e4617f8a80f0ec32dc75178d22c 512w, https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/fluffy-tenrec/production/SM_6D50387E-3904-45C4-BAC6-ABD341A2B86C-m.jpg?w=256&h=320&q=60&fm=jpg&fit=crop&dm=1714573749&s=3eed26a28c6fe157d786aada6c9960e4 256w, https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/fluffy-tenrec/production/SM_6D50387E-3904-45C4-BAC6-ABD341A2B86C-m.jpg?w=128&h=160&q=60&fm=jpg&fit=crop&dm=1714573749&s=a34abb825b638be61cd4eb785cb758ea 128w)
Alice Godwin is a British writer, researcher and journalist based in Copenhagen, whose focus is sharing stories about the vibrant Scandinavian contemporary art world with an international audience. She graduated from the University of Oxford and Courtauld Institute of Art with degrees in History of Art, and worked for Gagosian as an in-house writer in London before moving to Denmark in 2022. She is a regular contributor to the Gagosian Quarterly magazine and wrote an essay for the exhibition catalogue Damien Hirst: Fact Paintings and Fact Sculptures (2022). Writing for publications including Artforum, The Brooklyn Rail, e-flux, Frieze and Wallpaper, she has also penned essays for galleries such as Bo Bjerggaard and Susanne Ottesen in her celebration of the Nordic art scene.
Photo by Davy Denke