Erika Emerén & Hala Tawil

Period: 2025/08/16 ~ 2025/10/04

Nation: Sweden, Lebanon

Genre: Soft sculpture, Fabric, Digital collage, Illustration

By creating bodies in the borderland between flora and fauna, Erika Emerén aims to depict imaginary spaces that make room for the unknown. She works with a variety of materials: concrete, ceramics, and papier-mâché, but her main focus is textile production. The fabric serves as a canvas, onto which she applies layers of paint to create abstract patterns. These become the foundation for the bodies she sews and shapes by stuffing them with polyester wadding. In her work, Emerén draws inspiration from botany, Nordic folklore, and the mythical beings said to have lived among humans. Folk beliefs open a door to the conditions of life in the past. The supernatural elements – the creatures said to dwell in the forest, in the water, in the darkness, and around the corner – offer a glimpse into life’s indescribable aspects: that which is overwhelming, difficult, and wondrous. These beings could not be controlled, just like life itself and the nature we still inhabit today.

Hala Tawil, born in Lebanon in 1991, is a contemporary visual artist based in Eindhoven, The Netherlands. Her work features vignettes of interior spaces imbued with fragmented female figures. Through her digitally modeled compositions and visual metaphors, she explores the relationship between the self, the body, and material environments, questioning the human sense of belonging in the physical world. Tawil′s work reflects on the emotional distance that defines the human experience: the persistent gap between the self and the world. Her practice reflects on the sense of loneliness inherent to contemporary life, the humiliation of need, and the desire for connection. Alongside her artistic practice, Tawil has worked professionally as a designer and creative for various architecture and design studios in the Netherlands. This interdisciplinary background informs her visual language, deepening her exploration of how the body navigates and relates to its everyday objects and environments.