Klara Helin is a Sweden-based textile artist. In her practice she explores the relationship between fashion and sculptural art. ‘For me, the tension lies in exploring what makes certain textiles become charged with fashion qualities and turn into carriers of identity. Through my sculptures, I aim to examine, amplify, and find connections – or frictions – with the textiles we dress in and the textile we dream of wearing.’
‘The series of four sculptures is an attempt to come closer to understand and materialise the immaterial values that make clothes into fashion, and fashion into a coded visual language.’
Current Obsession:
Klara Helin: My master degree project is called ‘Four Fashion Fantasies – A sculptural approach to fashion.’ The series of four sculptures, crafted from steel and fabric, is an attempt to come closer to understand and materialise the immaterial values that make clothes into fashion — and fashion into a coded visual language.
In this series of sculptures, I have selected four garments to work with, aiming to capture and amplify the immaterial story within each piece. ‘Denim Horse’ highlights the casualness and everyday nature of a pair of jeans. ‘Biker’ conveys the toughness and protective qualities of a leather jacket, evoking the feeling of a second skin. The transparent, slitted dress with an inviting leg and clip-on nails in ‘Hello You’ speaks to the temporality of dressing up for just one night. ‘Hold Me’ offers security and warmth — holding onto everything that needs to be held.
Fashion is a context that sources its existence in our culture and society, it is a contemporary context that infiltrates all the different art contexts and that is why it is so interesting to work within textile art. To work with fashion in textile art highlights our desires towards objects and the consumer society we live in.
‘I’ve always been interested in the role that clothes and fashion play in how we present ourselves, how we are seen, or how we want to be seen.’
CO:
KH: As references to my degree work I have looked into the practices of Sylvie Fleury, Hannah Levy and Erwin Wurm.
Sylvie Fleury is an artist playing and having fun with the symbols and systems of fashion. Many of her installations and videos play on the notion of desire and how the consumption society wants us to be enticed by things including fashion. Hannah Levy’s metal work is truly amazing and Erwin Wurm installations of garment sculptures create an interesting tension in the gallery space, which I find super intriguing.
CO:
KH: I’ve always been interested in the role that clothes and fashion play in how we present ourselves, how we are seen, or how we want to be seen. This curiosity, combined with the physical experience of wearing different garments, has shaped my interest in how fashion influences our daily lives. I’m especially drawn to look at the mechanisms within the fashion system that drive trends and create desire for certain styles. In my work I’m highlighting the fast spinning wheels of our consumption society.
Instagram @k_helin_
All photographs by @rebeccaeskilssonphoto
Our annual series SO MINT! is back, shining a spotlight on the rising talents of fresh graduates in fashion, jewellery, and design from around the world.
Are you a recent graduate with remarkable work to share? Submit your portfolio via this link!
Submissions are open until the end of August 2025.
If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us via veronika@current-obsession.com.
