Through sculptural studies of body and form, Lærke Valum challenges materials, craftsmanship and the classic silhouette in different scales and media.

In the hands of Lærke Valum, the body is extended, expanded and protected by the form and for her, the space surrounding the body becomes a place of experimental exploration.

Culturally, the body is the ‘sign’ which our surrounding world reads us through. Lærke Valum considers clothing being an extension of this sign and fashion an embodied practice. Gender, ethnicity and class are thus directly decipherable, making us vulnerable and fragile in the meeting with ourselves and others. In her design she comments and challenges traditional fashion’s relation with ideals of the body, translated in an abstract manner.

Lærke Valum’s practice is composed of two different, yet merging, experimental angles: A clothing line and an artistic practice, consisting of sculpture and reliefs. Drawing on her design background in relation to techniques, methods and expressions, her sculptural works allows her to contextualize the body artistically.

Lærke Valum pushes the unambiguous relationship between fashion and the body and limits of fashion’s placement in the art field, and with her practice she approaches a renewed discussion on this.

– Text by Henriette Noermark