See Me Make,
Make Me See
Publication
2025
What do we see when watching people make? What words can do justice to haptic and tacit knowledge and skills deployed by schooled and self-taught makers, at home, in the street, or in dedicated making environments? These questions informed “durational observation” workshops and a writing assignment in 2024-2025 at HDK-Valand, KHiO and Aalto university, in a transnational effort to develop a toolbox for looking at, and talking about, making. The essays and descriptions gathered in this publication pay tribute to craft students’ fine-tuned knowledge, and to the precision of their observation.

This project has been generously funded by Norwegian Crafts, Nordisk Kulturfond, Nordisk Kulturkontakt, Göteborgs Slöjdförening, Estrid Ericssons Stiftelse and ArtMonitor. 



Editors
Assistant editors


Design
Illustrations
Photos

Authors
  • Åsa Dybwad Norman & Ben Lignel
  • Sofie Alm Nordsveen (HDK-Valand), 
  • Carla Rotenberg (Aalto), 
  • Iliana Papadimitriou (KHiO)
  • Ben Lignel
  • Fanny Schwarz 
  • Ben Lignel, Abrakadabra, Sebastian Kok 
  • & Vihar Kotecha
  • Sara Clugage, Åsa Dybwad Norman, 
  • Evelina Hedin, Ben Lignel, 
  • Martine Aadne Gulliksen, 
  • Elena Aldrighetti, Sofie Alm Nordsveen, 
  • Esther Dullinger, Juliana Gómez, 
  • Dan Grönlund, Anja Hallek, 
  • Jenny Hamrell, Sara Marie Hødnebø, 
  • Samira Khoshbakht, Karolina Konarska, 
  • Maike Panz, Iliana Papadimitriou, 
  • Hana Rehorčíková, Ann-Maj Risgaard, 
  • Zoë Robertson, Sorrell Van Allen, 
  • Hailey Robinson, Carla Rotenberg, 
  • Anna-Maria Saar, Fanny Schwarz, 
  • Daniel Schiechl, Tove Starfelt, 
  • Shiyao Sun & Seo Young Lee.





Det som gör oss
What makes us
Embroidery and appliqué techniques 
in wool, silk and leather
2025
What makes us is a textile work in several parts created specifically for Norberg's municipal centre. The title is intended to evoke the micro-stories that occur in everyday life but which can be of crucial importance. Someone loses their first milk tooth, someone else builds a hut in the forest. Some meet to dance while others meet in a study circle to learn to weave.The work can be seen as a kind of lexicon of everyday life, in which details from the municipal building can also be discerned. The tulip shape is taken from Maud Fredin Fredholm's original textiles from 1958, the space station ISS refers to Teddy Sempinski's mosaic on the gable where Sputnik sails over the village. Both red-listed and so-called invasive species are depicted in the work, which builds a kind of memory of our common present. Perhaps what is undesirable today will be something we long for in 20 years' time?The works are realised thanks to the work of many hands and the artist would like to thank Norberg Municipality and colleagues Helene Karlsson, Terese Molin, Katarina Elvén and Sandra Lundberg.

Art consultant
  • Photos
  • Katarina Elvén
  • Katarina Elvén





Det som flyter genom världar
That which flows through worlds
Textile, video and archive material
2024
From the exhibition text at Köttinspektionen, written by Alba Folgado:
“A laundry has been evacuated after radioactive object from a Hospital was founded”So read the headlines of the news the day after an unidentified and suspicious object was found among sheets in one of Alingsås’ laundries. The apparently radioactive label that was attached to the object confused the emergency services and caused an unprecedented series of events.Åsa Dybwad Norman takes these surprising news as departure point for her exhibition at Köttinspektionen. She brings together textiles, embroideries and video-works to tell the story of a laundry. A story that mixes real and speculative tales in order to reflect about feminized work, labour struggles and the omnipresence of water in the production and use of textiles.

Curator
  • Photos
  • Alba Folgado & Helena Laukkanen
  • Evelina Hedin





Himlakroppar
Celestial Bodies
Textile
2023
A four by two-meter curtain in wool with appliqués in mixed textile materials that was shown in Norberg, Fagersta and Skinnskatteberg during the summer/autumn of 2023. The work highlights female coded bodies and experiences, which exist and have existed in Norberg and the surrounding area. The project is part of ASK, Arbetsfält för samtida konst, which is run by Konstfrämjandet Västmanland, Region Västmanland and several municipalities in the region.  All photos are from Tingshusparken in Norberg, where the curtain was first displayed.  

Curator
  • Assistant
  • Photos
  • Hilda Ekeroth
  • Helene Karlsson
  • Jenny Berntsson






Mjuka bevis och opålitliga vittnen
Soft evidence and unreliable wittnesses
Embroidery & 
textile patchworks
2022
 From the exhibition text at Galleri 54 in Gothenburg:
“Åsa Dybwad Norman (b.1984) is a textile artist with an interest in social history and how it is written. Previously, she has, among other things, embroidered the coat from “Bockstensmannen” in tissue paper and immersed herself in the work of the medieval mystic Mechthild of Magdeburg through video works, embroidery, and spatial installations. Throughout, she follows the movement of textile materials through time, in search of subversive forces.
At Galleri 54, Åsa Norman exhibits garments and embroideries that relate to the textile as evidence and witness. Microscopic images of fibers from textiles at crime scenes have been enlarged and processed, embroidered. Can textile tell about a crime from a different perspective than the usual one?”

  • Assistant
  • Photos
  • Matilda Kenttä
  • Denis Romanovski