UNDER THE VAST SKY | BRITTA MARAKATT-LABBA
The exhibition title Under the Vast Sky conjures a key image in the prodigious oeuvre of Britta Marakatt-Labba: groups of humans huddled on a narrow isthmus of land suspended under the stellar dome, their children sleeping in the Arctic night with nothing much but boundless space separating them from the stars. The image offers access to a powerful and eloquent strand of Marakatt-Labba’s art: an ability to embrace both comfort and exposedness, solidity and vulnerability. Visions of solitude or vulnerability are paired with reoccurring and compelling notions of consolation and protection provided by the human collective.
Publication Information
Britta Marakatt-Labba: More Embroidered Stories | Eanet Sággon Muitalusat
2021
Published by Ikon Gallery and KONCENTRAT
Authors: Linnea Axelsson, Jan-Erik Lundström and Jonathan Watkins
119 pages
Britta Marakatt-Labba (b 1951) is a North Sámi artist, living and working in Badje-Sohppar/Övre Soppero in Swedish Sápmi. Marakatt-Labba studied at the HDK Academy of Design and Crafts in Gothenburg, Sweden, but grounds her art equally in the duodji practices of Sámi crafts and art, learned through her upbringing. With embroidery as her principal medium, Marakatt-Labba works with textile art, collage, sculpture, and installations. In addition, she has also engaged in ecumenical clothing design, scenography, and book illustration. Britta Marakatt-Labba was a member of the influential and legendary Máze Joavku/Sámi Artist Group during its existence in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Marakatt-Labba exhibits internationally with recent projects in USA, Finland, Norway, and Nepal. Her art is collected by national and regional museums, such as Nasjonalmuseet, Oslo; Moderna Museet, Stockholm, the North Norwegian Art Museum, as well as many additional public institutions and private collectors.