Sculpting Strength: Turid Gyllenhammar’s Journey Beyond Breast Cancer

During Breast Cancer Awareness Month we spotlight a story of resilience. Norwegian artist Turid Gyllenhammar has transformed her experience of breast cancer into art that speaks of survival and hope.

At 37, while raising small children, Turid was diagnosed with breast cancer. She recalls: “I thought I could just take a telephone call and say, I want to have a new breast. When I realised that wasn’t possible, I created this project instead.”

That project became an exhibition in Norway, where she gathered 50 women and worked with a professional photographer to take black-and-white portraits after surgery. “Some women showed their faces, some their torsos,” she explains. Alongside the photographs, she embroidered their life stories. The exhibition travelled widely, brought visibility to women’s post-surgery experiences and changed Norwegian policy on reconstructive surgery.

Years later, Turid began working in Pietrasanta, Italy, where artists have carved marble for centuries. There she developed Nuova Vita (“New Life”), a series of child-sized marble dresses in vivid stones—white Carrara, cobalt-blue granite, green jade, golden-veined Portoro. These dresses, without bodies inside, represent protection and the future.“People tell me they look proud,” she says.

Each dress is named for someone dear: her daughters, close friends, and women she has lost to cancer. “Some dresses carry more emotion; I feel more deeply involved when I make them.”

Reflecting on starting sculpture later in life, she adds: “When you are 50, it’s not too late. That’s very important to tell people.”

Listen to Turid's podcast episode here materiallyspeaking.com/episodes/turid-gyllenhammar

See more of Turid's work at turidgyllenhammar.com