Ann Cathrin November Høibo 'The Truest Sentence'

Individual suns forming a constellation, have very little to do with each other. Separated by
enormous distances they have neither a gravitational relation nor any semblance apart from
being basically isolated and stranded in the galaxy. The lines we draw between them are
merely dashed, imaginary, loose connections forming a very far-fetched merger based on an
optical translation. At the same time, constellations are most arbitrary and fragile. If you change
the perspective at about the speed of light, they disintegrate very quickly. Yet, the stars’ inert
isolation is a condition for them to appear as images and as eternal bodies from down here in
the first place. And this fragility and coincidence is their beauty. Ursa Major is thus not a twodimensional
illusion but a true, perfect metaphor for the relative attachment, position and size of
the suns.

In network analysis, the effect of loose relationships among humans is discussed under the
proverbial term "The Strength of Weak Ties". The sociologist Mark Granovetter in his essay of
1973 describes relationships beyond strong bonds of family or friendship. Loose, "weak ties,"
the thesis argues, act as social bridges. The inter-context exchange of resources and
information they enable is not only profitable, but is also more likely to trigger life changing
events. The essay is one of the most cited sociological texts ever and source for self-help books
and marketing guides. It originated at a time when people wondered if perhaps all people are
connected by only a few degrees, when looseness was considered not just as a deficit of
relationships, but as constitutive for heterogeneous societies as coalitions of strangers.

Delicate tulle, raw coconut fibres anchored by quartz stones, wool, wood, jelly shoes, dried
flowers dropped into plastic. The individual elements in the exhibition show a loose connection
of organic and inorganic matter, levity and weightiness, imported goods and manual labour. The
weavings and objects share an appeal of pointed materiality yet appear as a gathering of
strangers — loose strands detached from origins, bodies or touch, stranded in an inert
constellation. The installation shows weaving as a spatial practice of creating open and loose
bonds, shaping metaphors for ways of connectedness.

(Baptist Ohrtmann)