Elisabeth Astrup Haarr studied textiles at the National College of Art and Industrial Design in Oslo and graduated in 1967. She had her first solo exhibition at Oslo Kunstforening in 1973. She is one of the most influential textile artists in Norway, working with a wide range of approaches to textiles, including woven tapestries, embroidery, textile sculpture, mixed media and installations.
E. Haarr’s early practice in the 1960’s was characterised by experiments around geometry and abstraction. She admired the Bauhaus school and its artists such as Gunta Stölzl (1897–1983) and Anni Albers (1899–1994), and found inspiration in the Norwegian abstract åkle tradition and pop art, playing with forms and ornaments in a modern way.
In the 1970s she took actively part in the political struggles of the Kvinnefronten [the Women’s Front], the anti-war movement and other political initiatives. At the same time, she developed her explicit political approach. E. Haarr uses textiles to both highlight political agendas and render politics material. Her art in the 1970s dealt with class struggle and environmental issues as well as gender oppression.

One of her iconic tapestries is Frustrasjonsteppe [Frustration tapestry, 1981], about the feeling of a housewife being imprisoned in domestic work. It was made while she was working from home as a mother. Since she was not able to go to her studio, she used the materials at hand in her kitchen and wove them into the tapestry: plastic bags, diaper bags, household string and nylon. Capital letters express her frustration with domestic work and feelings of isolation. The face of a woman screams “HOUSE, FOOD, CHILDREN, CLEAN, ALONE, ALONE”. The work manifests a central concern in E. Haarr’s practice: the close relationship between historical textile practices and women’s everyday lives.

In 2021, she was featured in the solo exhibition Festspillutstillingen at Bergen Kunsthall. This revealed the scope of E. Haarr’s multi-faceted textile practice and made evident her transition from weaving to other techniques after the 1980s, when she started to experiment with a new range of different textile expressions such as embroidery, textile sculpture, mixed media and installation.

Regardless of this shift, her works continue to engage with political matters, drawing attention to and expressing solidarity with politically and materially vulnerable bodies outside her own geographical location. For instance, I magnoliatreet [In the magnolia tree, 2017] is an installation of a white dress covered in a blood red colour, displayed suspended from the ceiling. It was made in reaction to the rapes, murders and hangings of young, marginalised women in Indian society.

The series Flyktningetepper [Refugee blankets, 2020] was made in response to the refugee crisis. These rugs connect the weaving tradition of Norwegian women, who made rugs [båtrye] for the fishermen’s boats to provide care in the rough conditions at sea, with the recent refugee crisis. E. Haarr blends wool and silk with the symbolically laden silver fabric that reflects heat, as well as duvet covers, newspaper and umbrella fabrics. Flyktningetepper embodies the profound attentiveness to care, ethics and solidarity that permeate E. Haarr’s feminist practice.

E. Harr is represented in many museums in Norway, including the National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design (Oslo); Nordenfjeldske Kunstindustrimuseum (Trondheim); Sørlandets Kunstmuseum (Kristiandsand); and Kunstmuseet i Sogn og Fjordane (Førde).