Isabel Berglund with her artwork Fluid Island of Pearls, 2025
Photo by Dorte Krogh
In Focus
Isabel Berglund
Fluid Island of Pearls
“Fluid Island of Pearls has been created specifically for ILLUM’s grand atrium. The title refers to the department store as a floating island of pearls. This monumental, hand-knitted textile installation cascades from the ceiling, extending gracefully across multiple floors. The textured mass appears to drip downward toward viewers, forming voluminous shapes molded by the fabric’s own weight. It creates the illusion of a floating fabric, with large strings of pearls emerging organically from the textile, as though they have grown from the material and transformed into rounded, polished forms. Fluid shapes dissolve into new forms and surfaces, embodying a continuous transformation from one state to another.”
(Isabel Berglund, February 2025)
Isabel Berglund working on Fluid Island of Pearls at The Danish Art Workshops in Copenhagen
Photos by Dorte Krogh
Isabel Berglund uses different types of yarn to both embrace and challenge familiar forms and objects. Working with sculpture and installation, she explores the space between the recognizable and the abstract, transforming elements such as furniture and organic shapes through knitted yarn. Her energetic knitting, often marked by loose ends and fluid structures, reshapes everyday objects and blurs their original function and meaning.
Berglund’s works focus on the relationship between material, color, and space, emphasizing the tactile qualities of yarn and the aesthetic potential of craft. Through simple color palettes, transparency, and layered surfaces, she draws attention to subtle details and sensory experiences. Her creative process is guided by the materials themselves, allowing form to emerge organically.
Installation view of Fluid Island of Pearls, 2025 in ILLUM
Materials: yarn, aluminium, styrofoam
1450 x 1200 x 1550 cm
Photo by Dorte Krogh
Isabel Berglund at her art residency in Rome
Berglund is currently undertaking an artist residency at The Danish Academy in Rome, where she will remain until the end of June. During her stay, she is working on the development of a new series of large textile works, which will be presented by SPECTA at CHART Art Fair this August in Copenhagen. The new art works will also be part of her upcoming solo exhibition at SPECTA in 2027.
“I am very grateful to have been awarded this stay, which forms the framework for the development of a new series of large textile works. Here, I am delving into my personal history, where Catholicism has particularly shaped my mother’s side of the family, while my grandmother plays a central role on my father’s side.
My grandmother grew up with her Italian grandparents in Amaliegade, where the family originally came from Rome, and later attended the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen. She unfortunately became mentally ill and was therefore a distant figure in my childhood, but I have always been fascinated by her and her world. She signed her birthday cards “Die Aller Schöneste Helena”, which she also believed her canary sang. She lived in a romantic reality that also inspired her work.”
(Isabel Berglund, May 2026)
Some of the new works that will be shown at CHART Art Fair 2026
