SIGNE EMDAL

MEDIUM SERIES

~time line~

A World Hug 2007

A perfect soft Merino wool scarf that feels like wearing a hug, permanently.

Lingerie 2014

A flexible material construction that performs as if it had the strength of a solid woven material.

Esoteric 2016

A woven solid material that has a flexible and delicate light structure as if it was lace.

Touch 2018

A poetic sensitive memory material that destroys with just the slightest touch or breath.

Loop 2020

A delicate but solid sequence of ongoing loops that destroys when pulling one end.

Ecdysis 2024

 A resilient expansive Warp-space of Cosmic Interstellar connectivity.

Weaving New Memories 2027

A return to your deep sea of knowing and your deep earth of fire, the body.

Signe Emdal

~ Biography written by Ramona Barry and Beck Jobson

~ Published november 2025 in the hardcopy book: TEXTILE x ART

‘Once the textile compositions of Danish artist Signe Emdal enter your peripheral vision, it’s easy to reimagine the world through a powder-pink diffusion filter. Her works, with their dreamy otherworldly quality, are an invitation to embrace softness and sensitivity – gentle rebellions against the hardness of modern life created by an artist who says, ‘My body of work is my heart’.

Her wool sculptures, with their blurred edges and palette of vibrant polychromatic hues, evoke the sweetest symbols of nature. These works dissolve into ambiguous pastel hazes that take full advantage of the teased Icelandic fibres from which they are made. At first glance, the title My Little Icelandic Pony (2018) might seem to reference rainbow-hued uber-camp pop-culture icons, but this is definitively not the case. Emdal’s work instead references a humble, more grounded mythology in its materiality and aesthetics. The work invites human connection through touch. These pelt-like works have an almost magical lifelike quality – disturbed by the merest hint of air, they vibrate and appear to breathe as viewers walk past. 

There is a direct through line between Emdal’s ongoing watercolour works on paper and the fluid colour shifts she delivers in her textile works. She sees these practices as intertwined, approaching yarn as she does paint – harmoniously blending fur-like fibres together in a full spectrum infusion of colour that hums with vibrant energy. More formal woven sections undulate with gentle stripes of colour, while ropes of thread serve as anchors, grounding the pieces. Despite this, their visual lightness suggests they could float away, untethered, at any moment, creating an interplay of both weight and weightlessness. It would be a mistake to interpret Emdal’s lightness as a lack of technical prowess – the materials may be soft, but the techniques are robust. Her works embody profound complexity, drawing on a twenty-year foundation in textile design.

At the heart of her practice is her signature ‘Loop’ – a unique medium that combines the manual artistry of ancient Egyptian loop pile methods with a contemporary interpretation of electronic tufting. This innovation reflects not only her deep knowledge of textile traditions but also her mastery of modern technology, honed through experience with intricate digital Jacquard systems and a master’s degree in textile design from Kolding Design School in Denmark. Her extensive investment in haptic skill development and technical know-how tethers a practice that is now equally informed by esotericism and flow-state making. ‘I approach fibres and yarns today in an art way; earlier on, I thought a lot about function and durability. Today, my relationship with materials in general is sensory, poetic.’ Even her digitally woven works, with their fluid fringes, ruffled hems, prismatic gradations and fractal patterning, retain this sensory ambience and shimmering lightness.

Central to Emdal’s work is a personal philosophy that reflects her profound respect for the emotional and spiritual dimensions of making. She describes her process as a ‘direct manifestation of the present moment’. This may seem counterintuitive, as the process of preparing a loom for weaving entails mathematical planning and a significant investment in time and logic. Emdal’s approach, however, is to use a kind of fuzzy logic to create her artworks. The binary, mathematical framing of weaving provides a certain support for the uncertain input from her intuitive flow-state making. This combination produces a structurally sound and technically grounded process, without losing the inherently ephemeral qualities of her works, which create spaces for reflection and connection for her and her audience. 

Much of Emdal’s practice unfolds in site-specific settings, crafting and photographing her works within the landscapes that inspire them. Reflecting on this dynamic process, Emdal describes her practice as ‘like writing an ongoing life poem’. Since the pandemic, she has been awarded key residencies in Spain, Italy, Canada and, significantly, Iceland – a country renowned for its almost mystical beauty, rich textile heritage and distinctive wool production. This residency in Blönduós profoundly influenced Emdal’s more recent pieces; using these distinctive wool fibres, she integrates the environment’s essence into her work in a pure and authentic way. 

These formative travel experiences allow Emdal to respond to and reflect the spirit of each location within her creations. This trajectory keeps her agile, literally and conceptually, as she adjusts her methodology and equipment to suit a nomadic lifestyle. ‘Creating my sculptures, I work on a rug/tapestry loom that is vertical. I have two looms, one larger Finnish loom from the 1970s and one small, portable travel loom that I designed myself. The travel loom is a hybrid of many looms from original people around world history … especially the Navajo loom and the ancient Egyptian looms.’ 

Emdal is always looking to the future. Each new journey brings with it untold creative wealth she can mine for her work. Her forward momentum is reflected in her ambitious plans: expanding her practice to include rugs, analog photography, glass artworks crafted in collaboration with skilled artisans, and major exhibitions. This relentless creativity is not just a method but a commitment to living in a constantly heightened hypersensitive state ‘The way I practically do this,’ she explains, ‘is by BEING and LIVING my own wish as much as I can. The greatest inspiration is the one that is lived in action, and not just spoken or written in words. Wise action is the greatest gift you can give to the world.’

SIGNE EMDAL

~ Weaving New Memories

Visual artist and master artisan: Signe Emdal (b. 1979, DK), approaches her unique Mediums as an intuitive act of embodying sensory memories, as well as her passion for architectual-like processes, dialogue, indigenous cultures and their textiles, daylight, structures, landscapes, art & cultural history, community building, ancient carpet and rug traditions, feminism, innovative social models and Cosmos.

Emdal lives & works in many locations world wide, with family anchors in Denmark. She had numerous solo and group exhibitions, such as the National Gallery of Denmark (2015), Skagen Art Museum (2019), Arden Asbæk Gallery (2022), PAD London (2022), Homo Faber Biennale (2022), Galerie Maria Wettergren in Paris (2023), Tefaf Maastricht (2023); Next up is Saatchi Gallery in London (2026) and Signe´s solo at the Aalto Museum: Maison Louis Carré in France (2027).

Emdal´s sculptures are represented in public museum collections, such as Malmø Art Museum in Sweden and the collection of the Danish Art Foundation. In 2023, she was awarded the Martha & Paul Rene Gauguin Art prize, and in 2025, the Ole Haslund Art foundation prize.

Signe likes to work in energy dialogue with spaces in beautiful natural light filled locations world wide, letting the spirit of the landscape, historic architecture or objects, take part in her sculptural proces to create site-specific works. A sustainable direct method that keeps the proces personal and intimate.

What is energy dialogue? :

Signe´s site-specific artworks are built inside of the loom window without a planned grid or a sketch, but instead, fixed on a number of mathematical systems, while immersed in the energy of the location, her subject and the collective stream of the present moment. Energy dialogue is “communication through the senses, rather than through spoken or written language”, and a deep connection with the Inner Ear, how you manage yourself and your body in a space. Its trusting in, and weaving the unknown. In this sense, she works improvisational on the loom, without sketches.

~The loom window is where I store memories

Her sculptures and tapestries are fragments of ancient structures, combined by hand in a futuristic fluid process to create medium series. This part of her practice with building physical foundational Mediums for her artworks, is inspired by the Interstellar Medium (ISM) and rooted in the artist's technical 20 years of experience in tracking, archiving and building structural expressions for a future world, with woolfibers as the key material.

Movement, timelines and changes of scenery have a deep impact on her site-specific artworks, that aim to offer experiences of empowerment, flexibility and care towards a higher attention for the sensory body of all life.

~Ecdysis Medium:

In 2024, a new Medium Series came alive in Iceland. Ecdysis is a series that speaks of expansion and how much or how little you allow yourself to expand your life, your consiousness, your world.

Ecdysis is a sculptural Medium. Wool, Glass, Landscapes.

From Signe´s personal desire to expand, a new layer seemed to re-emerge into her already exsisting foundation, as it happend with every new Medium Series throughout the past 20 years.

The new layer within Ecdysis is now growing as we speak, high-lighting a tribute inside each artwork, to a significant creative persona, myth or cosmic event. Shelmerdine and Sweetest Taboo are two artwork exsamples of this add on. Shelmerdine is a tribute to the character Shelmerdine, in Virgina Woolf´s novel : ”ORLANDO” from 1992, and Sweetest Taboo is a tribute to the song: ”The Sweetest Taboo” from 1985, by singer SADE.

~My body of work is my heart ~ I work 4 the world

In 2027, Signe is celebrating her 20th anniversary of building unique original Mediums, structures and artworks for the world, by launching a new Project Medium called: Weaving New Memories

Stay tuuned!

SIGNE EMDAL´S CV ~ PRESS HERE