"Love Protection" part one. 2007

Love Protection is a cultural exchange project between female Swedish and Chinese craftsmen in different arts forms, e.g. silversmith, textile designer, designer. The craftsmen would like to express the theme “LOVE PROTECTION” (the name of the project) by using several creative methods, compare the language of love in China and in Sweden, focus on the “right side” of love as a positive force in a sexualized society.

The first phase of the project Love protection takes place in TCG Nordica. Five Swedish artists: Anneli Linder, Christina Nyström Jansson, Elisabeth Johansson, Linda Thörnblad and Else Månsson meet and work together with five Chinese artists: Dou Yu, Sha Sha, Shi Zhijie, Wang Han and Zhang Yi. The exhibition displays art in various materials, such as silver work, oil paintings, textile weaving print, textile and metal sculptures.

To read more about the background, planning and purpose or to see photos from the exchange in China, keep scrolling down. To go to the page about the second phase of the project click here: Sustainable Love 2008. 1. Background

Background and reason for the exchange?
Love is often described from “the reverse” in media, culture and society by means of exploitation, utilization (both sexually and financially), superficiality, illness and destructiveness. With this in mind, the participants of this exchange project would like to focus on “the right side” of love.
During the fall of 2006, there was an exhibition about HIV/AIDS at the Sino-Scandinavian culture centre TCG Nordica in Kunming, China. “LOVE PROTECTION” is a follow-up of the HIV/AIDS project, in which the artists would like to use creative methods as a preventive measure on the theme of love.
In the project “LOVE PROTECTION”, ten female craftsmen in different ages and from two different cultural backgrounds (China and Sweden) want to express love as play, warmth, depth, pulse, persistent power of life etc.
Both China and Sweden have a long and genuine tradition of craftsmanship. These female craftsmen would like to create an exhibition where love is not degenerated by using e.g. textile design and design – an exhibition about “the good love”.

Why have this exchanges pairs been chosen? Why are they representatives for the group/organization they represent?
Several of these female craftsmen have many years of experience of craftsmanship and design in their home countries, where they are established in the area of e.g. silversmith and textile design. These women also have a common desire to describe a different kind of love contrary to the one which is often shown in media and society – the kind of love that seeks its own, grabs, exploits and which mainly is connected with youth, outward appearance and capacity. 2. Common planning

Initiative, discussions about purpose and contents etc. – who have planned and how?
The planning of the project “LOVE PROTECTION” is mutual, where the Chinese participants are in charge of the program in China (part 1) and the Swedish group is in charge of the program in Sweden (part 2).
One of the participants in the Swedish group, Anneli Linder, is leaving for Kunming in November 2006, to meet with the Chinese group and plan the common work with the exhibitions which will be presented both at TCG Nordica, China and in Sweden (at Örebro konsthall and at Svensk Form on Skeppsholmen, Stockholm).
Since it takes a lot of time to produce craftsmanship, the two groups will start working separately in their home countries. During this time they will keep in touch by using e-mail.
Thereafter, the participants will meet for two weeks in China (spring 2007) and two weeks in Sweden (autumn 2007), when they will continue the creative process, which will result in two exhibitions and some workshops both in China and in Sweden.
When the participants of the project will meet in China, the first days will be used to make a more detailed program with a common schedule, which will come out of the suggestions that the two groups have presented. 3. Purpose of the exchange

The purpose of the “LOVE PROTECTION” exchange project is that the participants would try to find a common creative language that would describe how it will be possible to “protect love”.
When women from two different cultural backgrounds meet, different experiences, conceptions and images about love will emerge in an exciting way, where the big variation of ages also will contribute to a variety of expressions in different stages of life. The common desire of the female craftsmen is to describe a different kind of love than the one which we are often exposed to in society, culture and media. "Love Protection" Exhibition
Opening: 20:00, 11 Aug 2007
Promoter: Anneli Linder, Anna Mellergård
Sponsor: TCG Nordica gallery
Organizers: Luo Fei,Liu Jun,Liu Lifen
Artists:
China: Do You, Wang Han, Sha Sha, Shi Zhijie, Chen Lingjie
Sweden: Anneli Linder, Christina Nyström Jansson, Elisabeth Johansson, Linda Thörnblad, Else Månsson
Add: TCG Nordica No.101 Xi Ba Lu, Loft, Kunming, Yunnan, China
Tel: +86-00871-4114692 Exhibition photos

WE / oil on canvas 24*30cm / 2007 / Chen Lingjie
One flower, one world, one grassstraw, one mood; .all humans belong to one part of this ordinary world. We respect life, love nature, listen to the wind, the rain and the frogs. To use our hearts is the instinct of human beeings, and only in that way we can feel this fantastic world, only in that way everything is in harmony. WE. It is just a life style, but actually it is a summary, it is a dialogue, past, present and future. It is everything...

Wedding Jewellery / silver & enamel / 2005 / Christina Nyström Jansson.

Love Dust / silver and acrylic / Christina Nyström Jansson
Love is without form, Love is impossible to analyse.
Technique: Driving the silverplate with a hammer (old technique). Thereafter the surface is grinded by a seastone and properly polishedy.Christina wants a bright (shining) surface to reflect everyone who regards it.

Earth / installation / Elisabeth Johansson Danielsson
We borrow the soil from our children.

Gesture of happiness / weaved cotton / Shi Zhijie
In love we can get free, but meanwhile we will hurt, cry or be lonely. When we love and are loved, we experience both sides.

Does love need to be protected? / paintings / Else Månsson

“Yes!” / 2007 / Linda Thornblad
“Entrance. Do you dare?” / 2007 / Linda Thornblad

(from left to right) Anneli Linder, Dou Yu and Sha Sha’s works

The light pillar / Anneli Linder
"The humble love is a terrible power. There is not anything like it." / Fjodor Dostojevskij

"Look! this is a family: Mom, Dad and Baby" / paintings / Dou Yu, (the right 3 pieces)
A family's love is the most pure, direct and warm.

”Honesty” / print / Sha Sha
Honesty is the basis of love and the sense of love. I am creating a series of works called ”Chinese attitude" with which I want to give an impression of Chinese attitude in our daily life. For this exhibition, I want to express a Chinese female attitude of love. I choose clothes that my family used a long time ago and printed them on rise paper. Although we do not wear these clothes anymore they are a record of our love procedure. Let the clothes talk to you!

The lamp / installation / Anneli Linder
Love is not happy with injustice, but enjoy the truth.

“Freedom” / linen / Elisabeth Johansson Danielsson
The ceiling cloth is an old textile in Sweden, which was used as a decoration during great celebrations and weddings. This newly made one, is in linen. Elisabeth, a weaver and a farmer, got her inspiration from these seagulls, a day in springtime when ploughing.

”Journey of seeking love” / installation, mixed materials,180cm*70cm / Wang Han
Seeking love is a journey on which we might face dangers but on which the dream of true love makes us push through. We have to go, otherwise, we will miss the scenery on the road. But anyway we have no choice - we need love to live our lives.

Homo Rosa
1. weaved quilt / Elisabeth Johansson Danielsson
"In Sweden there is a strong weaving tradition.This quilt is made of re-used cottonsheet. For the old fabrics they used a narrow loom, and put two parts together. They signed it with their initials,and year, or a family mark. The tufts were usually made of colourful pieces of cloths, laces, bands and strings. ... The Swedish group have chosen to work in only black - grey - white colour and some red. The Swedes thought of the rose as a worldwide symbol of love." / Elisabeth
2. sowed quilt / Anneli Linder
"This quilt is made in a faster tecnique, (molar tecnique). It is made of wool and linen (traditional Swedish materials)." / Anneli