Bolsjer #1

Growing up in Denmark, artist Gugger Petter fondly remembers going to the pharmacy to get bolsjer, a Danish hard candy dating back to the twelfth century. She explores these memories and her fascination with the colors and forms of bolsjer in her woven newspaper and hemp tapestries. In Bolsjer #1, the stripes and vibrant pinks, blue, and yellows of the candy appear almost abstract, transformed into a visual sensation that evokes the olfactory and other sensorial effects of its sweet taste. This is heightened by the rough texture of woven newspaper, a material that is important to Petter because it dates her tapestry to a particular moment in time. Here, global events from her adulthood form a personal moment from childhood, layering memory upon memory like a palimpsest.