Metal meets lace in Nora Sederlöf’s sculptural installations, and materials familiar from lingerie, performance costumes, and upholstery or interior textiles are transformed into enchantingly multidimensional formations. In addition to working with different materials, forms, light, and shadow, Sederlöf also sculpts space—inside, between, and around the sculpture itself.
Welded metal structures form the skeleton of the works, upon which cords and elastic bands are stretched to cut through empty space, as if Sederlöf were sculpting air or drawing a three-dimensional sketch. The layered textile components are made up of elastics, lingerie lace, mesh fabric, upholstery fringes, and cords. A powdery, nude-toned palette alludes both to past decades and to the deeper history of femininity. The titles of the works, Lacing and Corset, are direct references to corsets and the ritual, phases, and procedure of putting them on. The strict control of body and behavior intertwines with associations of the excess and decadence of bygone courtly life, while the works echo the elegance, curves, lightness, vitality, and even eroticism characteristic of Rococo.
Sederlöf’s practice is grounded in the aesthetics of excess, where more is more and less is dull. The works abound with details that invite the viewer to trace the pathways shaped by the materials and pause at their intersections. While the overall forms of the sculptures are abstract, they also contain recognizable elements and a sense of narrative, offering viewers the chance to discover new meanings and associations, and to encounter both personal and collective memories.
Nora Sederlöf (b. 1983) is a visual artist based in Helsinki. She earned her MFA in Sculpture from the Academy of Fine Arts in 2023, and her MA in Fashion and Costume Design from Aalto University in 2013. She has worked with textiles her entire adult life—whether in clothing or sculpture—and is particularly skilled in draping techniques, which she often incorporates into her works. Sederlöf’s works have previously been shown at, among others, Kuvan Kevät and the Mänttä Art Festival. Laced is her first museum exhibition.
The exhibition is supported by the Finnish Heritage Agency.
