Author: helenahildur

Streets of Yokohama

art, recent work, time-out

Safely landed at Narita Airport, the Swedish party head for Yokohama and the Red Brick Warehouse where the EAJAS exhibition will take place. Our hosts – particularly Ms Toshiko Watanabe, Ms Shizuko Ono and Ms Akiko Kondo – have prepared everything, including a welcome reception in the tiny studio of Ms Ono’s father, the late sculptor Nobumuchi Inoue. Emancipated by the cultural openness of the Meiji restauration in the 19th century, Nobumuchi Inoue gathered and merged influences from Japan, Asia and Europe. Later, during the second world war, his heartfelt world citizenship made him a conscientious objector. Today, his studio remains a working space as his daughter honours his legacy by her own career as a painter. History is present, and so is Herstory; we all share, and co-create.

Nourished by this first encounter with our Yokohama friends, I set out next morning to take a look at the city. And this is what I’ve seen.

 

(all photos by HHW.)

Leaving Gnesta for a While

art, recent work

EAJAS – Emerging Art from Japan & Around Scandinavia – was launched in 2010 as an art biennale alternating between Södertälje (Sweden) and Yokohama (Japan). Invited to participate in the 2012 Yokohama exhibition, I leave the Green Lab and Gnesta via Stockholm one dark November morning. First stop is Helsinki, where I meet up with a group of Swedish colleagues. Next, we fly through the night to reach another morning at the shores of the Pacific.

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Green Lab at Art Lab Gnesta II

art, recent work

Today’s piece of work in the Green Lab was primer painting. After one layer of natural resin primer, another layer of white casein paint is added. Next step will be the trying out of a ‘Green Label’ assortment of eco-friendly pigments.
The results from the Green Lab project will be collected, systemized and published at a separate Art Lab Gnesta website.

Green Lab at Art Lab Gnesta I

art, recent work

The Green Lab project at Art Lab Gnesta originated from the urge to scrutinize our own artistic practises during the Green Year 2012. Grounded in experience, this minor initiative turned out to match a general want, and rapidly grew into a larger project aiming at collecting experience about eco-friendly materials in painting and sculpture – partly also developing new techniques and composites – as well as highlighting the issue among art professionals and establishing channels for open exchange of knowledge.
Here’s the tiny first beginning of Green Lab/paint – trying out pigments, primers, binders and solvents.

To be continued…

2012 meet the artist@Åmells Möbler II

art, recent work


Santa Casilda reproduction at Art Lab Gnesta;
risograph print mounted on felt, pigments, monoprint on paper
and pencil drawing on wall; photo by HHW.


2012 Meet the Artist admins at Art Lab Gnesta;
photo by Signe Johannessen

The annual Meet the Artist event is powered by the municipality of Gnesta, with some help of volunteers. The exhibition space at Art Lab Gnesta is the hub where participating artists and artisans can present themselves by one work each, and open studios all over the neighbourhood attract hundreds of visitors over the weekend.
At Åmells Möbler, I share the space with photographers Bengt Björkbom and Pekka Virolainen and therapist artist Lars Berg. People come and go all day; some stay long, some are mainly interested in sofas and dining tables, some are friends and family, some are happy to recognize well-known features, some have precise technical or hermeneutical questions… For the artist, this is also a See the Viewer event, providing feedback on multiple levels.


2012 Meet the Artist event at Åmells Möbler;
photo by Lars Berg (thank you, Lars!)


Santa Casilda reproduction; photo by HHW.

2012 meet the artist @ Åmells Möbler I

art, beauty, DADA, recent work

This is Gnesta Konstrunda 2012, a local ‘Meet the artist’-event. Just like a year ago, I’m invited to exhibit some works at Åmells Möbler – a company showroom for skilfully handcrafted furniture. I mount the recent #I triptych and place it between two cabinets… Right.

#I (work in progress) displayed at Åmells Möbler;
oil on canvas, app. 200 x 200 cms

And next, 14 prints representing the Zurbaran Santa Casilda are hung at the approximate eye-level of a young girl.

 


Santa Casilda reproduction;
risograph print on recycled paper, 42 x 29 cms each

The legend of princess Casilda, discovered when carrying bread to the imprisoned martyrs held by her father, echoes in black and white images against the backdrop of stylish furnishing. Or, from another viewpoint, the prints provide a modest background for the items on display.
Ok, this is it. Now for two days of meeting the public…

images from the Land of Mir II

recent work, teaching, time-out

A piece of paper, some ordinary crayons or pencils. A sustained awareness during hours – days, maybe. The resulting image unveils the nature of a unique world; sometimes calling for the sensibility of a butterfly’s antennae, sometimes chaotic, disproportionate, disturbing. Sometimes orderly, even bordering to the surreal. And sometimes overflowing with the vitality and power of living colour.

All works depicted here were performed by participants in this summer’s creative workshop at Gillberga, Södertälje (Sweden).

From top to bottom: a crayon pencil drawing by AE; two graphite pencil drawings by PS; a wax crayon painting by TK.


images from the Land of Mir I

art, recent work

Watercolour painting by EB 2012

Images from two weeks of creative work, together with a mixed group of intellectually challenged/funky people and so-called normal ones.

– Why do I keep leading these workshops, each summer since 2002?


Colour pencil drawing by AE 2012


Watercolour paintings by LK 2012

Well, pictures like these give me the full answer. But the woman who asked me the question – one of the workshop participants – wanted more; she wanted a statement in plain, clear words. So, here it is:

Dear friends, your works open worlds unknown to me, they are vehicles to travel the inner space.
There are so many ways of being human.