Ian Berry Material World Review
Paradise Lost at Textil Museet, Sweden
From Elle Sweden to the Telegraph in the UK, there was a number of articles and reviews or Material World at Textil Museet, the National Textile Museum of Sweden. Borås Tidning printed several articles but we thought we’d share this one from art critic Agnes Brusk Jahn, translated from Swedish.
Fascinating jeans art at Textilmuseet
Ian Berry’s exhibition shows an extraordinary eye for nuances, says BT:s reviewer Agnes Brusk Jahn.
The last couple of years it’s been a lot of talk about recycling, upcycling and circular fashion. The more that’s exposed about the textile industry’s heavily negative impact on the environment, the more initiatives have come to change the industry. Even if some of them are pure greenwashing, most of them are innovative and hopeful. The denim artist Ian Berry on the other hand, ends up in a category of his own.
Ian Berry’s work is art, not fashion. Not because the two can’t go hand in hand – the artist has in the exhibition cooperated with the fashion designer Jonathan Christopher, who has designed incomparable garments in response to selected art works, and Lill O Sjoberg, with the innovation twood (textile-wood) where old denim becomes a hybrid between textile and wood.
Ian Berry collects old jeans fabric and creates artwork of it. At a distance his “tavlor”, if that’s the correct word, may look like denim fabric that the artist has painted in different shades. But if you move closer you realize that every shadow, light shift, motive and silhouette is a piece of fabric of its own in exactly the right shade, that has been attached to another, and another, to create the motive the artist wants. A city train on elevated rail. An almost empty pub. A swimming body, whose shape changes by the movements of the water. He makes skin shine and metal glisten. It is outstanding.
His extraordinary eye for nuances and shadows is complemented, in addition to craftsmanship, by the artistic eye for the motives he chooses. Reflections in a calm pool. A lonely girl in an empty hallway. Cityscapes.
The use of denim is no coincidence. He is interested in the denim garment’s role in history and our lives. How they became a standing feature in each person’s wardrobe after they reached icon status because famous musicians and actors wore them, something he illustrates with an enormous installation outside the exhibition room, where he has depicted famous jeans icons of all times, surrounded by LP records and plants. All in denim.
In addition to the artwork on the walls in the dark exhibition room, flowering vegetation is hanging down from the ceiling and creates a jungle around the visitor, as a felicitous reminder of the natural origin of the jeans: the cotton plant and the indigo plant. In the middle of the jungle is Jonathan Christopher’s most beautiful creation standing, a flowering dress that is climbing up and into Ian Berry’s installation.
With the artworks and the well thought through cooperations, the exhibition becomes both a fascinating art experience in itself and a reminder of endless opportunities when it comes to reuse of the resources we already have. Especially if art, curiosity, power of innovation and crafts can cooperate.
Material World @ Textil Museet, Sweden
The latest Secret Garden together with the collaboration with Jonathan Christopher. photo Jan Berg
Ian Berry Opens Material World at the Swedish Textile Museum - Textil Museet
Ian Berry returned to Sweden, the country he lived for 5 years to open the solo exhibition Material World at Textil Museet in Borås Sweden - the National Museum of Textiles and the Nordic region’s leading museum on the subject. Ian Berry’s specific medium is denim and the famous industrial city also has a textile and denim heritage.
Textil Museet shows some of Berry’s most well-known pieces never seen in Sweden before -large (denim) ‘canvases’, made with layers of recycled jeans, creating photorealistic yet often melancholy scenes out of the indigo fabric.
To celebrate showing a large collection of his works at Textil Museet Ian Berry has collaborated with Dutch fashion designer Jonathan Christopher to create garments inspired by his most notable bodies of work; Behind Closed Doors, Hotel California and the Secret Garden installation, that will debut at the museum.
Jonathan Christopher at Material World with one of his many garments inspired by the show.
The Secret Garden installation touches on subjects such as sustainability and the environment, showing this material made from plants turning back into plants, with hanging wisteria, flowers and vines falling from the institution’s ceiling. Sustainability is also at the core of Ian Berry’s friend Lill O.Sjöberg’s innovation. Making denim wood, Twood, is the Swedish designer’s latest innovation and the pair have come together to make some special pieces to exhibit to compliment Ian Berry’s archive of work - visitors can view a guitar and drum kit, made of only TWOOD!
The Denim Drum kit made with Twood at Material World, Textil Museet
Ian Berry Needs You!
Ian Berry is asking, who is your favourite Denim Legend?
Ian Berry with the Denim Legends temporary installation at Material World, Textil Museet
It could be from the cowboy actors, 50’s rebels, the punks of the 70’s to the influencers of today. Who inspired your denim looks or who do you feel had the biggest impact on denim? Over the last year he has been asking this question, and using his wealth of knowledge from working with the material over the last 15 years has already created dozens of portraits from Brooke Shields to Bardot, Marley to Moss, McQueen to the material girl living in her material world -Madonna. As he creates one of his largest works he wants the audience to help shape it. It may even mean some of the portraits already made will get rejected so the piece will form the greatest influences from Pop Culture, making the Denim Legends.
These portraits are exhibited in an area where visitors can submit their choices and the portraits will grow over the exhibition - you can play a part in shaping it!
Curator Malena Karlsson interviewing Ian Berry at the opening of Material world at Textil Museet
“Ian Berry’s work is interesting and important on so many levels. There’s the ‘wow’ factor of the craft, the thematics, and the way in which his art shows how the textile material forms yet another dimension in art”
Malena Karlsson, Curator at the Textile Museum of Sweden.
Ian Berry appeared on the ‘30 Under 30’ list of the most influential artists in the world, has exhibited his work in both the USA and Europe, and is considered to be one of the 50 most influential people connected to the Jeans Industry. The Textile Museum of Sweden is happy to announce that the work of the artist known for his work with only denim jeans, Ian Berry will be exhibited at the Textile Museum of Sweden til May 1 2021.
visitors viewing Paradis Lost at Textil Museet Material world by Ian Berry
You can see more on this dedicated micro-site of Material World including the collaborations with Jonathan Christopher, Twood, Tonello, Cone Denim and the amazing giant Denim jacket made with Henry Wong and AGI Denim.
Ian Berry | MATERIAL WORLD | Textil Museet Sweden
Paradise Lost
TEXTIL MUSEET
23 - October 2021 - 1 May 2022
Skaraborgsvägen 3, 506 30 Borås, Sweden
In October Ian Berry will return to Sweden, the country he lived for 5 years to open the solo exhibition Material World at Textil Museet in Borås Sweden - the National Museum of Textiles and the Nordic region’s leading museum on the subject. Ian Berry’s specific medium is denim and the famous industrial city also has a textile and denim heritage.
Works from Behind Closed Doors all made in denim, that Jonathan Christopher will use as inspiration.
Textil Museet will show some of Berry’s most well-known pieces never seen in Sweden before -large (denim) ‘canvases’, made with layers of recycled jeans, creating photorealistic yet often melancholy scenes out of the indigo fabric.
To celebrate showing a large collection of his works at Textil Museet Ian Berry has collaborated with Dutch fashion designer Jonathan Christopher to create garments inspired by his most notable bodies of work; Behind Closed Doors, Hotel California and the Secret Garden installation, that will debut at the museum.
The Secret Garden installation touches on subjects such as sustainability and the environment, showing this material made from plants turning back into plants, with hanging wisteria, flowers and vines falling from the institution’s ceiling. Sustainability is also at the core of Ian Berry’s friend Lill O.Sjöberg’s innovation. Making denim wood, Twood, is the Swedish designer’s latest innovation and the pair have come together to make some special pieces to exhibit to compliment Ian Berry’s archive of work.
Ian Berry’s Secret Garden at Museum Rijswijk in The Netherlands. Ian Berry works with Tonello in Italy and Cone Denim to create the hanging Trellis.
Ian Berry Needs You!
Ian Berry is asking, who is your favourite Denim Legend?
Steve McQueen, Brooke Shields and Clint Eastwood are Denim Legends. Who joins them?
It could be from the cowboy actors, 50’s rebels, the punks of the 70’s to the influencers of today. Who inspired your denim looks or who do you feel had the biggest impact on denim? Over the last year he has been asking this question, and using his wealth of knowledge from working with the material over the last 15 years has already created dozens of portraits from Brooke Shields to Bardot, Marley to Moss, McQueen to the material girl living in her material world -Madonna. As he creates one of his largest works he wants the audience to help shape it. It may even mean some of the portraits already made will get rejected so the piece will form the greatest influences from Pop Culture, making the Denim Legends.
These portraits will be exhibited in an area where visitors can submit their choices and the portraits will grow over the exhibition!
From Textil Museet Svensk 🇸🇪
“Ian Berry’s work is interesting and important on so many levels. There’s the ‘wow’ factor of the craft, the thematics, and the way in which his art shows how the textile material forms yet another dimension in art”,
Malena Karlsson, Curator at the Textile Museum of Sweden, says.
Ian Berry appeared on the ‘30 Under 30’ list of the most influential artists in the world, has exhibited his work in both the USA and Europe, and is considered to be one of the 50 most influential people connected to the Jeans Industry. The Textile Museum of Sweden is happy to announce that the work of the artist known for his work with only denim jeans, Ian Berry will be exhibited at the Textile Museum of Sweden this autumn!
It’s not a photograph, it's jeans!
At first sight, it is easy to mistake Berry’s work for blue- or indigo-tinted photographs, but a closer look reveals that they are made up of layer upon layer of denim in different shades. The contrasts between the different shades of blue visible in a pile of old jeans were the genesis of Berry’s unique art form. Soon, he began to explore the possibilities offered by the material and create photorealistic artworks. Berry only uses upcycled denim in his works. No colouring agents or bleach are used – only scissors, glue, and second-hand jeans.
When working with denim he began to understand the significance of his own and others’ relationship with the material, which is one that we are all very familiar with. Ian is of the opinion that the fact that that denim is highly recognisable opens doors to understanding and identification. His works reflect on contemporary events and phenomena but also refer back to the cultural history of jeans.
Ian Berry in his Living room art installation all made of denim jeans at Museum Rijswijk, The Netherlands
‘30 Under 30’ most influential artists in the world
Ian quickly became one of the most talked-about young artists, Art Business News listed him as one of the most influential artists in the world by including him in their ‘30 Under 30’ list in 2013 and In 2019, he was recognised by the denim magazine Rivet as one of the 50 most influential people in the denim industry.
Berry was born and raised in Huddersfield, England, which like Borås has a long-standing textile tradition. Ten years ago Ian moved to Sweden and exhibited his art at galleries in Skåne and Motala. Since then his art has been exhibited all over the world, most recently at Museum Rijswijk in the Netherlands and in Genoa, the Italian city that leant its name to this favourite garment, jeans. The Textile Museum of Sweden is the first Swedish museum to exhibit a large, in-depth exhibition of Ian Berry’s works.
Jonathan Christopher
The Twood Guitar
About Jonathan Christopher
Jonathan Christopher (Hofwegen) Celestial Risher is a menswear designer who is graduated from the Willem de Kooning Academy in 2009. After which he did his MA at Artez in Arnhem.
Next to his own brand, Jonathan Christopher, he has worked for brands such as Karl Lagerfeld and was chosen by Marc Jacobs to be one of the five finalists for Designer for Tomorrow by Peek en Cloppenburg.
In 2014 he won the very first Global Denim Awards and in 2015 he won the Woolmark European Finals.
He now works on a new brand St.Ape, basing the idea around using deadstock fabrics from high end designers, to make his collections of limited editions, like he has throughout his career. Reusing old materials makes him a perfect and authentic collaborator for Ian Berry.
jonathan@jonathanchristopher.nl
https://www.jonathanchristopher.nl/index.php/about
About Twood
This material research project by Swede Lil O.Sjöberg and her collaborators, explores the possibilities to extend the lifecycle of denim fiber with a new innovative recycling technique, creating a new material TWOOD [textile-wood]
The aim in this ongoing part of the project, is to identify and develop the industrial processes. The goal is to produce material prototypes and evaluate the material specifications in order to target usability for the next step. With the material she has been able to make items that range from tables to a beautiful denim Twood guitar.
News
News from the studio of Ian Berry
