An Exhibit Unravels the Significance of Wool in Oslo, Norway

Four-legged beings appear to be central to Formafantasma, the Amsterdam-based studio founded by Simone Farresin and Andrea Trimarchi that investigates the forces shaping design today. Last year, during the duo’s artist residency at Manitoga in Garrison, New York, they created, among other pieces, a delicate, amorphous chandelier made from cow bladders. This summer, they’ve shifted focus to the ovine with “Oltre Terra. Why Wool Matters,” in Oslo, Norway, at the Nasjonalmuseet, which recently opened in a new, larger building by Kleihues + Schuwerk. Amid the exhibition’s 8,600 square feet are such agricultural objects as wool shears and shepherds’ staffs joined by six life-size reproductions of different sheep breeds and a 65-foot-long carpet made from discarded wool fiber. The idea is to make visitors aware of the history, ecology, and global dynamics of the extraction and production of wool—and the connection between animals, humans, and the environment.