To Be and To Become: essay + talk ⁽²⁰²²⁾

To Be and To Become: Identity in art, craft and design
— in and out of the Seven Districts
MADE POSSIBLE BY THE TEXTILE MUSEUM OF SWEDEN, SENSUS BORÅS, HEMSLÖJDSKONSULENTERNA VGR
TEXTILE MUSEUM OF SWEDEN
4 MAY 2022

My great-grandfather, Lennart Pettersson, was an artisan known as ‘the last basket maker from Risa’, a small community in the village of Hedared.

My ambition has been to explore the basket and understand its cultural and historical relevance, social influence, and contemporary significance. The project has led me to discover the universal language of craft: a language that, for me, encompasses design, cultural heritage, identity, and belonging. Tonight, I am sitting here with Sara Degerfält and Linnea MF Larsson, who will shortly introduce themselves. We aim to explore identity in relation to art, design and craft processes.

As the son of a Swedish mother and a Tunisian father, I naturally have an extensive view of the world, anchored in the belief that inclusivity and representation matter, especially when re-telling history. My own background, with one foot in two different cultures, is something I have always perceived as a great asset—to understand more than one cultural context inherently. At the same time, it has often led to felt friction, experiencing a kind of cultural in-betweenness—growing up as queer, as a Swede having the name Fadhel, having Swedish as my first language, yet unable to speak Arabic.

To find that place of belonging in my own identity, I have always searched for outlets to help decipher the common denominators within my different cultures. Use this sense of ‘in-betweenship’ to communicate beyond language or culture barriers. This process has led me to the vast field of textiles and weaving, particularly, as a way to speak through making.

To let my making be an extension of myself.

In the anthology series Fässingen (1996), Bengt K.Å Johansson, former local governor, writes:

‘In Veden, there was never any rich soil, nothing has been given. The people had to work for their bread and stay inventive to make ends meet.
Perhaps it’s this that has developed the peoples’ mentality: suspicious of arrogance but all the more industrious and diligent with a strong history of perseverance.’

In 1901, my great-grandfather Lennart was born into an impoverished family of basket makers in Hedared. The Petterson family was part of the rich cottage industry in Sjuhärad during the first half of the 20th century. It was by necessity Lennart was introduced to his craft. Handicraft was used as a tool to get by and to be able to put food on the table. The boundary between work and life itself did not exist. Making baskets was not a choice; it was a duty. The need for diligence was ever-present. Over time, this approach to making became part of Lennart’s person and artisanal identity. His craftsmanship was shaped by these values—by necessity and duty.

As a recent textile design graduate, I have a close connection to traditional crafts through my specialisation in hand weaving. Due to the course’s focus on design, my classmates and I were (broadly) taught how to situate this practice in an industrial context. One was often challenged to devise approaches to contemporary industrial conundrums and regularly invited by tutors to question those standardised making processes that are often deemed unsustainable due to environmental reasons.

Tonight, we are at the Textile Museum of Sweden, a historically significant place that carries the industrial evolution that Sjuhärad has undergone during the last century. The permanent exhibition Textile Kraft exemplifies this and showcases the journey from production processes being rooted in the local to now being global. It also shows how industrialism developed the drive to create—from necessity to industrial freedom of choice.

Born in the early 1990s, I am a digital native. I was brought up with easy access to information and easy opportunities to connect with others via online spaces.
From a design perspective, contemplating the shared realities that others of my cultural background are conditioned to navigate while challenged to devise approaches to unsustainable industrial practices, translates into an effort to investigate making processes that interlink environmental issues with social or political inclusion—reflecting one’s own relationality with the outside world.

My thoughts and lived experiences connected to my work parallel the realities of others and their methods of responding to similar questions.

Identity can belong to people but also to things and objects.

What values and concepts are present in a making process?

How are our identities reflected in what we create?

LINK TO FULL TALK HERE (IN SWEDISH)
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About

Projects: The last basket makers from Risa: crafting a plural kinship along tradition (2025) In Thoughts, Together (2022-23) Research (2022) Exhibition (2023) Essay + Talk (2023) To Be and To Become (2021-22) Research (2021) Essay + Talk (2022) curriculum vitae e-mail Instagram

Projects:

The last basket makers from Risa:
crafting a plural kinship along tradition ⁽²⁰²⁵⁾

In Thoughts, Together ^(2022-23)
Research (2022)
Exhibition (2023)
Essay + Talk (2023)

To Be and To Become ^(2021-22)
Research (2021)
Essay + Talk (2022)

curriculum vitae
e-mail
Instagram