Call It Angel Earth

Superhouse is honored to present an immersive solo presentation by Swedish fiber artist Alfhild Külper Call It Angel Earth. The exhibition runs March 24 - April 30, 2023 at Superhouse Vitrine, 75 East Broadway, Second Floor, New York, New York.

An opening reception will be held Friday, March 24 6 - 8 PM.

For Call It Angel Earth, Külper takes over Superhouse Vitrine, transforming both galleries into topographical wool landscapes. Using a combination of traditional tufting techniques and 3D embroidery, Külper creates a domestic world of fuzzy furnishings imbued with personal memories and spirituality.

Külper was born in Sweden, a descendant of Germans who escaped the Nazis. She was raised in the thickly forested countryside. Isolated by distance, language, and culture, Külper’s family was alienated from the Swedish populace. They turned to Anthroposophy, a belief system emphasizing one’s ability to physically reach the spiritual world, in order to make sense of their new reality.The artist states:

“My grandparents escaped the Nazis in a homemade sailboat, arriving on the coast of Sweden with a few wet clothes and a silver spoon. Their hometown was erased from the surface of the earth. And so was our history. We never integrated with Swedes. We were more connected to the sky than to the earth. We saw what the others didn't. Our search for home through our natural surroundings brought us magical places, with glittering eyes and shimmering faces of wonder. We were alone together.”

This background informs the artist’s two large scale installations at Superhouse, which coalesce into an immersive, personal journey. In the front gallery, Dancing Around the Pool of Life takes center stage. The tapestry, employing iridescent blown glass mirrors – a collaboration with Norwegian glass artist Anna-Linda Gabriel – is a reflection on the fragility of life, referencing the recent passing of Külper’s beloved aunt and cousin. In the back gallery, Creation of the Magic Light tapestry and its accompanying three-dimensional tufted stools and rugs, recalls joyful memories of her engineer grandfather, who would tinker for hours in his garage on various home-spun inventions. The environments create cozy spaces (or “soft spots” as the artist calls them) for the artist to reconnect with happy times with cherished family.

“I am excited to present Alfie’s work at Superhouse. The mysticism and spirituality embedded in these works underscores the power of textiles as an artistic and communicative medium.”

About Alfhild Külper
Swedish artist and designer Alfhild Külper aims to create physical representations of the soft spots in our minds. A graduate of the prestigious Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London, she spent ten years as head of design at the avant garde fashion house Viktor & Rolf. Using a mix of traditional tufting techniques with 3D embroidery, Külper crafts landscapes and figures from leftover wool from the textile industries of India, Nepal and the Netherlands that serve as abstract representations of memory and emotion, typically of feelings of joy. The artist has shown at The Cristel Ballroom Gallery (Amsterdam, the Netherlands), De School (Amsterdam, the Netherlands), Lise Braun Galerie (St. Tropez, France), and Transnatural Gallery (Amsterdam, the Netherlands). Her work has been published in Financial Times, The Sunday Times, Wired, and others . Külper lives and works in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.