Photo of an open Moleskine notebook with a carbon rubbing of a concrete kitchen island, the surface is fractured like dried mud. The rubbing is made by artist & arch. Troels Steenholdt Heiredal, in a bungalow in Sacred Valley, Peru. May 1st, 2024 — after morning meditation, before bobbi-pages @ integration
20240501
counter top
kitchen island; integration home; huayllabamba; sacred valley; peru
concrete w/ a coating + a crack

TEXTURES

2012-Ongoing // Wherever I am

We come into contact with our environments every day, though we often shield ourselves from it, with clothes, shoes, gloves, and lately masks. I’ve always been extremely sensitive to the textures around me. Later, I learned that this was likely an early sign of my Autism that I didn’t understand, sensitive to how clothing felt or tags or what sitting on a bench felt like, or lying in the grass, walking barefoot. And without it being obvious to me at the time, this was what let me, in 2012, take a small Moleskine notebook to the wall of my then live/work studio in Copenhagen and rub the paper with a wide carbon pencil, to copy, to see, to understand the texture of the wall around me. I labeled the backside of the paper: WALL / MY ROOM / AMAGER STRANDVEJ 122 / PEELING PLASTER.

This would be the first of endless textures that I have since rubbed in all of the distinct places and spaces I have found myself, from important architectural spaces, such as Luis Barragán’s studio wall, to the mundane, a Dokin’ Donuts tray in Berlin, to the personal, a family chair armrest. Continuously collecting the memory of touch, of the spaces I move through.

The collection is currently as of June 2026, working on book 47. Books 5 & 7 have gone missing, and rather than replacing them, I like to think of them as having a life on their own. I remember that book 7 only had about 4 textures when it disappeared in a fog of mopet smoke in the Copenhagen NorthWest. And Book 17 I gifted away, and I don’t know what has happened to it since.

AXO drawing that shows how the textures can be displayed. The books are opened on a table, next to them is a digital screen where you can flip through all texture books, and a box with tools to make your own texture, and tactile textures to be felt. — AXO drawing that shows how the textures can be displayed in an exhibition. All texture books are under protective glass and opened. Each day, the staff can flip the pages to show new textures. On the right side of the table is a digital screen that contains digital photographs of all textures from all books, allowing the viewer to explore all the books. Across from the screen is a wooden box containing pencils and blank paper, so the audience can create their own textures. The box also contains a raised line drawing for feeling some of the textures.

A plan that shows how the textures can be displayed. The books are opened on a table, next to them is a digital screen where you can flip through all texture books, and a box with tools to make your own texture, and tactile textures to be felt. — Plan of the table.

A diagram of the digital screen, where audiences can digitally flip through photos of the textures from all the books. Next to the image, a text explains: the situation, the date, what it’s of, where it’s from, and the material.

A diagram that explains what the wooden box contains: pencils, blank paper, and raised line drawings of some textures, along with a space to collect textures made by the audience.

Carbon rubbed texture on paper, in Moleskine notebooks. Two images side by side, first image shows the rubbing of the wall in my then studio in Copenhagen the other has unidentified rubbing on the right side and the information about wall texture — Wall
My Room
Amager Strandvej 122
Peeling Plaster

16 images in a grid, showing 16 different carbon rubbings of the textures of floors from around the world — Collections of floors from distinct notebooks

Open Moleskin notebook, showing a rubbing of the floor of Haitian artist Celeaur, done in Downtown Port-au-Prince in March of 2015 — Floor [Showing Celeaur]
2. Floor Studio of Celeur; One Street Over From Grand rue PaP; Haïti
Concrete

Three photos of open moleskine notebooks, one photo has a carbon rubbing, one is a backside page with information written, and one photo has both. The rubbings are of a door and a chair, done in April 2019 in Washington DC — 20190428
Door
Brother & Sister [Entrance]; Adams Morgan; 1770 Euclid St NW Washington DC; USA
Copper
20190428
Chair; Side Ribbons To Hold Fabric
Off The Record; The Hay-Adams; 16th NW; Washington DC; USA
Brass Ribbons + Veleur Fabric; Red

Two photos. First: a cover of a Moleskine notebook with the number 25. Second is an open notebook showing a carbon rubbing of Luis Barragan’s Studio wall made by Artist and Architect Troels Steenholdt Heiredal in Mexico City on August 4th, 2016 — 20160804
Wall
Luis Barragán Studio: DF” Mex

Tryptic, digital photos of a Moleskine notebook. First: black cover with the number 15. Second: a carbon rubbing. Third: backside of paper with data about the rubbing: Handrail / Scarpa’s Oliveti Shop; Venice / Wood. — Handrail
Scarpa’s Oliveti Shop; Venice
Wood

A close-up photo of the backside of a page with a carbon rubbing on it. The rubbing has made an imprint on the page. Text on the back describes the rubbing, date, item, place, and material. This rubbing is from Sunnyside, Queens.

Photo of open moleskin notebook showing a carbon rubbing of a Donkin Donuts tray made by Troels steenholdt Heiredal in Berlin — Tray
Donkin’ Donuts; Berlin
Plastic

Photo of three overlapping Moleskine notebooks showing three different carbon rubbings of manhole covers, all rubbings made by Artist and Architect Troels Steenholdt Heirtedal. — Manhole Covers

Photograph of an open Moleskine notebook with a carbon rubbing of a chain-linked fence on Kent Avenue in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York City, made by Artist and Architect Troels Steenholdt Heiredal — Fence
Kent Av; Williamsburg NYC; USA
Metal

Two photos of a Moleskine notebook. First: black cover with a number 7 on it. Second: a carbon rubbing of a backrest at BAR in Copenhagen, Denmark, made by Artist and Architect Troels Steenholdt Heiredal — Backrest
Bar; CPH
Woodbars Covered With A Thick Blanket

Photo of open moleskin notebook with a carbon rubbing of the sidewalk at Elm and Main Street in Winsted Connecticut, bricks are engraved, centered in this rubbing is a heart. The rubbing is made by Troels Steenholdt Heiredal — Sidewalk
Elm & Main St; Winsted CT; USA
Bricks [Engraved]

Photograph of the black Moleskine textures notebooks. On the first book, the edge of the number 1 is visible and the last book has 46 on the cover. — Photograph of the textures notebooks, from 1-46.

A poem about the texture project, pondering on our relationship to the textures we constantly are surrounded by.