#1 Social Club Members Newsletter

Dear Social Club members!

We hope you enjoyed a peaceful holiday and had a great start to the new year. With the new year, we are excited to bring you once again a series of Social Club newsletters, zooming in on content and information you shouldn't miss!

In the Loop

Interview with Norwegian textile and music artist Pearla Pigao

‘Since she was a child, Pearla Pigao has been composing music, but it was a digital accident during her first year as an art student in textile that led her into a creative path that surpasses one dimension. Through a reflective conversation with Pearla on her transdisciplinary practice—where multitude layers of textiles, sounds, and bodies intertwine into a loop of coherency—it becomes evident that her installations are abstract yet tactile; challenging yet playful; technically complex yet created for all. In Pearla’s small studio in Grünerløkka, belonging to the eastern part of Oslo, digitally woven textile samples are collected in piles, while completed works of art are either framed, hung on the wall, or wrapped up. During our conversation, a contemplative persona is vivified through Pearla’s eagerness to reflect upon her own investigative processes towards creation,’ writes Justine Nguyen in the new article for Current Obsession.

Read the full interview here (S'ouvre dans une nouvelle fenêtre).

Stockholm Craft Week Live Special: Managing Tensions and Talking Textile

Undisciplined. Crafting Conversations Podcast

The final episode of Undisciplined. Crafting Conversations for 2023 is online now, and there is a lot to unpack! Recorded live during the annual Stockholm Craft Week, held last October in Stockholm, artists and curators Marcos Kueh, Pearla Pigao, Sara Elggren, and Marcia Harvey Isaksson sit down to discuss this year's theme: textiles as a placeholder.

Listen to the fourth episode on Spotify (S'ouvre dans une nouvelle fenêtre) or directly on the Undisciplined website (S'ouvre dans une nouvelle fenêtre).

#8 The Placeholder Issue

Release of all four chapters of the latest edition of Current Obsession Magazine

With this issue, Current Obsession delves into new ways of publishing as well as the concept of a placeholder — a container that encapsulates a void, things unknown and yet to be defined — to tackle some of the most complex attributes of jewellery.

Place-holding significance, jewellery and adornment are examined as metaphoric containers for hidden or ‘encoded’ information, the specific meanings of which have been lost — due to colonialism, displacement of people, suppression of knowledge and spiritual practices. The magazine looks at different ways in which this knowledge could be unlocked, rediscovered and empowered.

A total of four chapters constitute the Placeholder Issue:
Chapter 1. Body as an Intermediary Object
Chapter 2. Critical Multiplicity
Chapter 3. ‘Do you mind if I braid while we talk?’
Chapter 4. Becoming-With

You can read in detail about the Placeholder Issue here (S'ouvre dans une nouvelle fenêtre).

Subscribing members with sufficient subscription time and plan can look forward to the end of January 2024 when we dispatch the complete magazine to your doorstep!

Are you an online subscriber without eligibility for the printed matter but interested in peeking into a specific chapter? You can purchase your preferred selection of chapters via our webshop (S'ouvre dans une nouvelle fenêtre) or upgrade your subscription to OBSESSED! (S'ouvre dans une nouvelle fenêtre)

As always, we would love to hear from you in case you have any membership related questions at veronika@current-obsession.com (S'ouvre dans une nouvelle fenêtre)!