In the Emergency Room 2019
80 x 100 cms
tapestry in linen
Anna Olsson
My tapestries are a direct protest against those who want to deport the children and young people. But it is also an act of tenderness and love, I want to give the children and youths a place in the public space and I want to show them that they are important, so important that their portraits become a tapestry.
To Me You Are Valuable 2019
30 x 30 cms
tapestry in linen
Demonstration Guards 2018
80 x 80 cms
tapestry in linen
Before the Disaster: Toothbrushes 2015
100 x 100 cms
tapestry in linen
Swedish tapestry artist Anna Olsson studied Textile Arts and Crafts and is also a psychologist. Since 2016 she has been working with children and young people who have moved to Sweden and now her powerful work relates to refugees and vulnerability.
Where are you from and where do you live now and work?
I was born and raised in Gothenburg. Sweden. I’ve been renting a studio for 20 years and is about a 15-minute bike ride from home.
I’ve worked part time as a psychologist for over ten years. At the beginning I worked mainly with young people who were convicted of crimes and were either in custody or in a youth prison. Since 2016 I have been working at a specialist reception for children and young people who have moved to Sweden. The children have experienced terrible experiences and suffer from post-traumatic stress syndrome.
Why did you specialise in tapestry weaving?
When I learned to weave, it was like falling in love. I was completely absorbed and fascinated. I’ve always created images in my head that I want to create. Weaving is slow and quite physical. It forces me to sharpen and really choose the most urgent images from those I think about. I think one of my best qualities, as an artist is my desire for work. This, together with weaving’s slow and meditative course, gives me a much-needed calm. Then, of course, I also like the woven surface. It is soft, lively and serious at the same time. Everyone who looks at a tapestry understands that there is a hard work behind, a work that is shared equally between the mind and the hand (and even back pain).
Why do you choose refugees as your more recent subject matter?
In a way, I do not choose my theme, it is the images in my head that catch my attention. But whether I like it or not, it is what concerns me most that ends up in the loom. The tapestries about refugees are mainly about two things. A therapeutic work for myself but above all a political act. As a psychologist, I know that seriously traumatised children must feel safe in order to heal. But instead, they are denied asylum and forced back to flee again and their wounds in their soul becomes deeper and deeper. It is painful to see, but it also makes me angry. I think one of our finest and most important qualities as a human being is our ability to collaborate. Perhaps best illustrated in the Declaration of Human Rights. As I see it, we need to be helped to find better solutions for people in need than to put them in awful camps, build walls or deport them back to what they fled away from. My tapestries therefore also become a direct protest against those who want to deport the children and young people. But it is also an act of tenderness and love, I want to give the children and youths a place in the public space and I want to show them that they are important, so important that their portraits become a tapestry. I want to say with the tapestries I see you, I have listened to your story and I carry your testimony as long as it is needed.