Pearla Pigao - Soft Circuits
Opening Thursday November 13th
PEARLA PIGAO
Soft Circuits
13.11 - 20.12.25
ISCA Gallery is proud to present Soft Circuits, a solo exhibition by Pearla Pigao. In Soft Circuits, Pearla Pigao continues her cross-disciplinary exploration of the relationship between sound, material and the sensing body. Drawing from a unique background in both music and textile art, Pigao merges digital weaving, sonic structures, and performative interaction to create works that invite the audience to engage not only as observers, but as co-composers and participants.
The exhibition features a series of interactive sound textiles and sculptural installations, alongside a collection of silent wall pieces that transform the ephemeral nature of sound into visual and tactile form. Through a meticulous process of translation, musical compositions are rendered as binary image files and reinterpreted into handwoven textiles using a digital loom. Here, sound becomes something physical – something one can touch, walk around, and experience through spatial proximity.
Pigao's practice is deeply rooted in the structural parallels between weaving and musical composition. Both rely on systems of repetition, variation, and pattern – and both, at their core, are based on binary choices: over/under, on/off, 0/1. These logics become bridges between disciplines, allowing sound to be visualized and materialized, while textiles take on sonic potential.
Building on earlier projects – most notably her solo exhibition at Kunsterneshus last year titled Weaving Voices – Pigao expands her approach to embodied listening and participatory sound art. In Weaving Voices, the human voice was the starting point, both as sound material for the woven structures and as part of an evolving composition shaped by the presence and movement of the audience. Visitors activated sculptural instruments through touch and interaction with water and textile surfaces, shaping harmonies based on proximity and chance. The work invited participants into an intimate sonic space where the voice became both deeply personal and profoundly social, capable of creating connections across bodies, spaces and time.
This focus on bodily presence and collaborative creation is further refined in Soft Circuits, where metallic threads woven into the textiles function as sensors. These soft circuits are inspired by the theremin – one of the few instruments played without touch. Visitors enter the electromagnetic field of the works and trigger tones through their movement, generating compositions that evolve in real time. The more people present, the more layered and complex the soundscape becomes. The artwork listens back – and the audience becomes both listener and composer.
In contrast, the silent woven pieces offer a slower, contemplative mode of listening – through the eyes and hands. These visual scores act as echoes of sonic events, allowing the audience to trace rhythm, frequency and interference across the woven surface.
Soft Circuits is a continuation of Pigao’s ongoing exploration into how sound can be held, shared and materialized. The works inhabit a space between the technological and the sensorial, between the digital and the handmade – inviting us to reflect on how we move through sound, and how sound moves through us.
Pearla Pigao is an Oslo-based artist, musician and craftsman working with interactive sound installations that contain textiles, sculpture and performance. Drawing on her background in both music and textile art, her work explores the relationship between sound and material, drawing on the commonalities between weaving and musical composition to create digitally hand-woven textiles that create visual, tactile experiences of sound structures.
Pigao received her BFA and MFA from Oslo National Academy of the Arts in 2015 and 2017 respectively. She has had several exhibitions nationally and internationally, which include the National Museum in Norway, Kiasma, Helsinki Contemporary, Kunstnernes Hus, Hannah Ryggen Triennale, Kunsthall Trondheim, Kunstnerforbundet, Soft Gallery, Atelier Nord, Norwegian Presence in Milan, Kunsthall Charlottenborg, Design Museum Denmark and Den Frie in Copenhagen. Pigao's work has been purchased by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the Consulate General in New York, The National Museum, Helsinki Art Museum, KORO's collection, Nordenfjeldske Art Industry Museum, Sogn og Fjordane Art Museum, Vest Lofoten High School, Sørlandet Art Museum, Norsk Hydro, Equinor Art Programme and the Finnish National Gallery for Contemporary Art Kiasma.