PARTICIPATING IN THE TRAVELING EXHIBITION EXPEDITION KONST, LULEÅ KONSTHALL
As the artist who most recently participated in a polar expedition with Oden, I’m included in Expedition Konst, an exhibition with artists who participated in research expeditions to the Arctic and Antarctic. I´m exhibiting alongside Bigert & Bergström, Josef Bull, Dascha Esselius, Svenerik Jakobsson, Bo Landin, Lars Lerin, Efva Lilja, Hanna Ljungh, Johan Petterson and Sigrid Sandström. The exhibition is made in collaboration with the Polar Research Secretariat. Expedition Konst runs between September 2 – November 5, 2023.
“Islands in reality”, a group exhibition with TEGEN2 at gallery Verkligheten in Umeå, runs between August 25 and September 16, 2023. The exhibition directs its focus towards both actual and symbolic islands. In the exhibition I will show work from the expedition, on the icebreaker Oden to the Arctic Ocean – drawings of underwater ridges, depicted as islands. I’m also showing work created alongside Jonas Falck – studies of extinct aquatic creatures from the island Fårö. I’m exhibiting alongside Nils Claesson, Dror Feiler, Antonie Grahamsdaughter and Gunilla Sköld Feiler.
THE FINDING I SOLHEM – ART COMMISSION IN SÖDERTÄLJE
Public commisson at Solhem förskola (kindergarten) in Glasberga/Södertälje. Collaboration with Annika Petersson.
If you listen carefully, you can hear tales of the trolls who used to live in the Glasberga area, and of how they are still buried in the mountain. About a hundred years ago, findings that strengthened the theory began to be uncovered around the area. You see, when the sun hits the troll, it turns to stone. But no need to be afraid, symbols will help keep the troll in place (like runes for protection and strength, the hamsa, and next to the fist is a rungalder – magical staves – a combination of runes that works as a spell). The excavation site was completed in December 2022 and in February 2023 and exhibition about the site opened at Södertälje konsthall – Fynden i Solhem.
”FYNDEN I SOLHEM” – DUO-EXHIBITION ABOUT “S” AND TROLLS
If you listen carefully, you can hear tales of the trolls who used to live in the Glasberga area, and of how they are still buried in the mountain …
The exhibition ”Fynden i Solhem” – The Findings in Solhem – begins with an excavation site in Södertälje, where strange fossil have been exposed. During 2022 Annika Petersson and I realized this excavation site, through a public art project at the new primary school Solhem, in Glasberga.
The exhibition features an installation of the environment where the previously unknown S takes center stage. S is believed to have been an amateur paleontologist, who lived with the family who owned the Glasberga Manor House. The findings of troll-fossil have been ascribed to S, and the inner part of the exhibition has been built into the attic of the manor house, where it is believed S lived.
Centrally placed outside the manor house in the exhibition, is an excavation site. It exposes two large “bowls” close together, which tie in with the Nordic myths about these kinds of formations being the imprint of giants or trolls, who sat down to rest whilst the mountain was still soft. The exhibition runs between Feb 3 – March 11, 2023.
BOARDING THE ICEBREAKER ODEN FOR A 6-WEEK EXPEDITION
My next adventure: a research expedition, for real! On May 8, 2023 I board the icebreaker Oden in Longyearbyen/Svalbard together with 40 researchers. Since man began traveling to the polar regions, artists have been part of expeditions. The Swedish Polar Research Secretariat has continued this tradition and since 1988 artists have been offered a place on research expeditions. Now I get to participate in the next polar adventure and I hope that Jonas Falck will join us. Interview at the Swedish Polar Research Secretariat website. (Photo: Ida Rödén and Polarforskningssekretariatet)
Time and again we venture into patches of darkness, encouraged by curiosity and openness. Sometimes the unexpected unfold and a new world is revealed. For me, the unraveling event was the discovery of a curious stone by lake Kultsjön. The stone later uncovered of the hitherto unknown Jonas Falck, a self-taught scientist from Västernorrland.
In Jonas Falcks vetenskapliga iakttagelser, I’ve collected thoughts and experiences that arose in the company of Jonas Falck, active during the late 18th century. Guided by detailed drawings of mutated animals at Kultsjön, extinct water creatures from Fårö, and peculiar mushrooms discovered around Norra Kvarken, a world of possibilities is made visible. But truth is elusive. Sometimes imagination and hope take over and any answer to the question of who Jonas Falck was is anything but fully formulated.
Jonas Falck’s studies of mutated animals at Kultsjön and extinct water creatures on Fårö will be exhibited at the Hagströmer Library in Stockholm, 10 October – 18 November 2022.
The Hagströmer Medico-Historical Library is a treasure, here are more than 100 000 rare and important books, the majority printed before 1860. Many of the works in the Hagströmer Library collections had an epoch-making significance in the history of medicine and science. In the exhibition my scientist Jonas Falck gets to converse with Linnaeus, his disciples, as well as other exciting characters, including those who took an interest in monsters.
I am one of 13 artists participating in the Triennial at Västernorrlands museum in Härnösand. Opens on May 21st at 1.30 PM. The exhibition runs until September 4th. I have installed some of Jonas Falck’s studies of winged animals – insects and birds. The theme of the Triennial is wind.
Public commission at a kindergarten in Skellefteå. A permanent wall piece with painted and drawn mutated animals on aluminum, mounted on trees and a rock drawn on the wall. These are some of the discoveries of Jonas Falck – a scientist who is said to have lived during the late 18th century around the lake Kultsjön. According to Falck, animals began to mutate after a meteorite impact. The cuckoo, the weasel, the ladybug, the butterfly, and the badger have found their places.
“(DET FÖRSVUNNA FINNS ÖVERALLT (LETAREN ÄR SEDAN LÄNGE VILSE)”
Maybe it’s about paying attention to that which is around us, as well as inside of us. About being captivated by the little things – looking for life in mushrooms, bones, and stones. The seeker is central. He or she walks in the forest and along rocky water edges, in some cases completely alone, but often in the company of a black dog or a fictional fellow traveler. Is it possible to imagine another way of seeing? Are there any other eyes that suddenly reveal completely new worlds, or ears that hear something else? In the seeker’s consciousness, we begin to grasp what could have been in a world that is incomprehensible, sometimes even undiscovered. The exhibition runs between October 16-31, 2021
A sculpture by Caldeborg in front of stone drawings by Rödén, at Ahlbergshallen, Östersund (SE).
