The Eternal Smile
Today Nikoline Liv Andersen’s exhibition THE ETERNAL SMILE opens at Desing Museum Denmark.
In HÅNDVÆRK bookazine no. 14 and here, you can read about Nikoline and her work at the Danish Art Workshops to create the pieces in the exhibition.
‘This May, the audience is invited into a floating, dreamlike landscape of extraordinary works by textile and clothing artist NIKOLINE LIV ANDERSEN, who explores life, modern motherhood and mortality in her images. Visitors to the exhibition will enter an installation where they are enveloped by light, almost floating embroidered and painted textiles. The works of art tell stories about human life from beginning to end – a theme that also forms a throughline in pieces from Designmuseum Danmark’s rich collection that Nikoline Liv Andersen has selected for the exhibition.’
I had just parked my car in front of the Danish Art Workshops on Strandgade in Copenhagen’s Christianshavn district, when the above e-mail from Designmuseum Danmark landed in my inbox.
It is November, and I am meeting Nikoline, who is on a residency in the textile workshop to work on the exhibition.
Nikoline Liv Andersen lives and works in Copenhagen. She is a clothing designer, trained at the Royal Danish Academy.
She has created stage costumes for Björk’s world tour Vulnicura and worked as a couture designer. She is also a visual artist and poet.
Two of the walls are covered by artworks in various sizes, some are finished, some are still in the making.
The exhibition is intended as a passage through life – a story of life from conception, pregnancy, birth and infancy to old age and death, she explains.
Unlike earlier works by Nikoline that were powerful and expressive, in intense colours and often tufted, her expression here is subtle and painterly. Her choice of images and, in particular, her style are familiar, as I make out the figures. In some of the pieces, they lie half-concealed between two layers of silk organza.
Hundreds of metres of silk organza have passed trough her hands over the past two years. Painting the silk is the expressive part of the process, as she mixes the colours, and the colours in turn blend on the silk. Even though she has chosen a given direction, she accepts and appreciates the fact that dyes and silk have a will of their own.
The other part is impressionist in nature and involves her creation of the images. In this case, they are embroidered, in a painstaking, focused and controlled process. First, she draws the image on thin paper, then she sews the paper onto the fabric using backstitches. When she removes the paper, stitches show the figure as an outline that she fills out by hand.
‘Life is in a constant state of change,’ says Nikoline and explains that she illustrates this continuous movement by leaving some images unfinished and showing others with the reverse facing the audience. Several of the pieces will be hung for the audience to walk around them. None of them will be framed; she wants them to preserve their textile character. She blows at a piece of silk, her breath causing it to flutter: ‘I love that,’ she says.
Do you sense any influence from your fashion career, or have you put that behind you?
‘I’m not sure. I don’t make five-year plans, I just overdosed. I also had no idea that Fendi was going to contact me – they reached out three days after my costumes for Björk had gone viral.’
You did two bouts with couture: in 2003, when you interned in the house of Dior under John Galliano, and then with Fendi under Karl Lagerfeld, where you spent five years.
Is that where you learnt what you know today?
‘Maybe I shouldn’t say this, but I actually think that what I brought with me into the fashion houses has a wild quality to it – both in artistic and technical terms.
Without a doubt, the main influence on my professional development is Jette With. She was a teacher at the design school until my final year there – she was passionate, dedicated and uncompromising, and she made sure we knew that without discipline, you can forget about having any role in art and design.
We were cautioned that it was fine to dream, play and explore while we were students, but then, for most of us, playtime would be over.
When I came to Dior, I saw that it doesn’t have to be that way – the job I was dreaming of exists in the houses of couture. However, to express yourself there, you have to have talent, work hard and accept the conditions. In my world, there are no such things as a canteen, paid holiday time or a pension.’
However, couture and its clients are a privileged world, I conclude, as a piece of hand-painted organza is being pulled off the base. Before I leave, Nikoline begins to hang it to see if it has exactly the colour she needs to keep her cyclical sequence intact.
NIKOLINE LIV ANDERSEN:
DET EVIGE SMIL
1.maj— 27. september 2026
I dag åbner udstillingen DET EVIGE SMIL af Nikoline Liv Andersen.
I HÅNDVÆRK bookazine no, 14 og her kan du læse om Nikoline og om hendes arbejde på Statens Værksteder for Kunst med værker til udstillingen
“Til maj kan publikum træde indenfor i et sfærisk landskab med fabelagtige værker skabt af tekstil- og beklædningskunstner NIKOLINE LIV ANDERSEN, som udforsker livet, det moderne moderskab og forgængelighed i sine billeder. I udstillingen bevæger den besøgende sig ind i en installation, hvor lette og næsten svævende tekstiler, broderede og malede, omslutter publikum. Værkerne fortæller historier om menneskeliv fra start til slut – et tema, som også løber som en rød tråd igennem de genstande fra Designmuseum Danmarks righoldige samling, som Nikoline Liv Andersen har udvalgt til udstillingen.”
Jeg havde netop parkeret bilen foran Statens Værksteder for Kunst i Strandgade på Christianshavn, da ovenstående trillede ind på mail fra Designmuseum Danmark.
– Det er november, og jeg skal på besøg hos Nikoline, som har ophold i tekstilværkstedets atelier for at arbejde på udstillingen.
Nikoline Liv Andersen bor og arbejder i København, hun er beklædningsdesigner fra Det Kongelige Akademi.
Hun har skabt scenetøj til Björks verdensturné ‘Vulnicura’ og arbejdet som couture-designer. Hun er billedkunstner og digter.
To af væggene er dækket af større og mindre værker – nogle er færdige, andre er undervejs.
– Udstillingen skal være en vandring gennem livet – en fortælling om livet fra undfangelse, graviditet, fødsel, og det lille barn – sluttende med alderdom og død, forklarer hun.
I modsætning til værker, jeg tidligere har set fra Nikolines hånd, som har været kraftfulde og ekspressive, i stærke farver, flere af dem tuftede, er udtrykket her subtilt, malerisk. Motivvalget og navnlig stregen genkender jeg, efterhånden som jeg får øje på figurerne, som på en del af værkerne ligger skjult mellem to lag silkeorganza.
Mange hundrede meter silkeorganza har de seneste to år været gennem hendes hænder. Bemalingen af silken er den ekspressive del af værkproduktionen – her blander hun farver, og farverne blander sig selv. Selvom hun ved, i hvilken retning hun vil, accepterer og glædes hun over farvernes og silkens egen vilje.
Den anden del, den impressionistiske, er arbejdet med motiverne, som til denne udstilling er broderet på stoffet – langsommeligt, koncentreret og kontrolleret. Først tegnes motivet på tyndt papir, så sys papiret fast på stoffet med stikkesting. Herefter kan papiret fjernes, og stikkestingene står tilbage som omrids af en figur, som nu kan fyldes ud i hånden.
“Livet er i evig forandring”, siger Nikoline og forklarer, at den bevægelse illustrerer hun ved at lade nogle motiver fremstå ufærdige, andre skal vises frem med vrangsiden ud mod publikum – flere af værkerne skal udstilles, så man kan gå rundt om dem. Ingen skal rammes ind; de skal bevare deres tekstile særkende. Hun puster til et stykke silke, som flagrer: “Jeg elsker det”, siger hun.
Kan du mærke dit afsæt i modekarrieren, eller har du lagt den bag dig?
“Det ved jeg ikke. Jeg lægger ikke femårsplaner, men jeg fik bare en overdosis. Jeg vidste heller ikke, at de ville kontakte mig fra Fendi – det gjorde de tre dage efter, mine kostumer til Björk var gået viralt.”
Du har beskæftiget dig med couture ad to omgange, da du i 2003 var i praktik i huset Dior under John Galliano og hos Fendi under Karl Lagerfeld, hvor du var i fem år.
Er det i de huse, du har lært dig, hvad du kan i dag?
“Det er farligt at sige, men jeg synes faktisk, at det, jeg kom ind i husene med, havde en vild kvalitet – både kunstnerisk og teknisk.
Den, som har haft størst indflydelse på min faglige udvikling, er uden tvivl Jette With. Hun var lærer på Designskolen frem til året før, jeg tog afgang – hun var passioneret, dedikeret og kompromisløs og lod os forstå, at uden disciplin kan man glemme alt om at gøre sig gældende inden for kunst og design.
Vi blev advaret om, at vi godt kunne drømme, lege og udfolde os, så længe vi var under uddannelse, men derefter ville legen for de fleste være slut.
Da jeg kom til Dior, kunne jeg se, at sådan behøver det ikke være – det arbejde, jeg drømte om, findes i couture-husene.– Men at udfolde sig der kræver foruden talent, også at man arbejder hårdt, og at man accepterer præmissen – i min verden er der hverken frokostordning, feriepenge eller pension.”
Til gengæld tilhører couture-kunderne et privilegeret mindretal, sætter jeg som punktum, mens et stykke håndmalet organza bliver trukket af underlaget. Inden jeg går, er Nikoline i gang med at hænge det op for at undersøge, om det netop er den farve, hun mangler, for at hele hendes cykliske forløb bliver intakt.
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