Follow the dirt road down to the bridge; thin frost, chattering waxwings and a waning moon. Water streaming underfoot, inaudible voices floating in the light wind.
All gathering together, in yet another collaboration taking form. More to come soon…
work in progress.
just breathing.
200507, 200430, 200513, 200514; graphite on paper, 38×46 cms each.
So, this is the second one of KonstFunk exhibitions x2. We’re happy to present eighteen woven tapestries by Adrian Nehard – on display at Södertälje City Hall until April 20th. This body of work relates to The Songs of Maldoror (written by the self-appointed comte/count Lautréamont and originally published in 1868); reviving their poetic imagery in contemporary colours and textures, by the use of rags, pearls, paint, and embroidery.
“Songs of Maldoror” tapestries by Adrian Nehard
at Södertälje City Hall, March 2020;
photos by Christofer Martinson
The exhibition is curated – largely by my colleague Eva-Karin Planman – to form an open labyrinth, hovering around a flowform water sculpture by Nigel Wells. On Friday March 13th, Adrian Nehard met practising alchymist and artist Lisa Jeannin in an ad-lib Artist Talk.
Lisa Jeannin with Tarot card in front of tapestries;
photo Christofer Martinson
The audience followed closely, as Adrian and Lisa walked and talked their way along an evolving path of strange and complex representations. For a full hour, we were carried away by Adrian’s set of flying carpets – ending up in a French-Swedish reading of a passage from the Songs of Maldoror.
Lisa Jeannin and Adrian Nehard performing their Artist Talk;
photos by HHW.
Thank you, Lisa, for joining! Thank you, Adrian, for sharing your outstanding work!
Lisa Jeannin, Helena Hildur W, Eva-Karin Planman;
photo by Christofer Martinson
Last week, I and my co-curators Eva-Karin Planman and Sabine Recht set up two exhibitions as a part of the KonstFunk project in Södertälje. In Luna, the municipal culture center, we gathered works by some 30 creators to form a group show – the first one of KonstFunk exhibitions x2…
…presenting a range of techniques and expressions; from textile craft to art remakes, to icons, self portraits and paintings emerging out of colour itself…
What is the meaning of creativity?
An absurd question, of course. Somebody enjoys playing with colour and materials – glossy, sticky, tufted – with no fixed intention about the final result. Another expresses a deeply personal experience; a feeling, an impression, a dream. A third person designs a “thing of beauty” to enhance everyday life… Purposes and situations differ. Disparate needs cannot easily be compared or evaluated towards each other.
The meaning of creativity can also be subject to change. What determines labels such as “therapy”, “craft”, “hobby” or “art”? Who has the mandate to categorize?
To master a language takes training and trying, again and again; art makes no exception. It needs a framework of meaningful understanding to mature into richness.
Broadening one’s technical abilities builds self-reliance and sparks ideas. Copying existing artworks is a common method for improving artistic awareness, skill and insight. Although copying does not boost ego, one’s personality will (most probably) come through in many gracious ways.
Whoever takes their work – or playing – deeply serious, also deserves an equally serious reception. Being creative together, we will all contribute to the enrichment of society…
Also, during this same week, a solo show by artist Adrian Nehard was prepared in the City Hall – featuring eighteen woven, embroidered and (partly) painted tapestries.
More to come…
In 2002, I first met with some of the most ingenious and brave people I know. From that point onwards, the Land of Mir evolved; an imaginary space, where words and pictures, all kinds of creative designs and social interactions, became possible and meaningful. Functional variations were many, but in this setting the only disability would be prejudice and intolerance (which, in fact, very rarely occurred).
As an artist and a human being, I am deeply grateful for the experiences I’ve gathered over the years in the Land of Mir. And from this perspective – shared with others – the KonstFunk project has been launched; an impulse for the local community to fulfill Article 30 of the United Nations’ Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which states (among other things) that
States Parties shall take appropriate measures to enable persons with disabilities to have the opportunity to develop and utilize their creative, artistic and intellectual potential, not only for their own benefit, but also for the enrichment of society.
On Friday, February 7, KonstFunk arranged a half-day programme for employees from places where people with functional variations work, live and study. A lecture by Anneli Aaltonen Krantz (artistic leader at Inuti Foundation) was followed by artist talks with Magnus Östling (Stockholm) and Adrian Nehard (Järna). Next, participants were invited to try the tactile instruments of SymbioLab, to marvel at the felted pieces from Anna Gran‘s studio at Högklint (Mölnbo), and to delight in the wide range of expressions in icons, self portraits and still life paintings made at Klockargården (Järna) with Sabine Recht as artistic leader.
Pictures from the occasion were shared by Södertälje konsthall (municipal art gallery):
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Thank you, Södertälje konsthall, for hosting! Now we’ll see where this takes us… The next steps will be taken in a few weeks.
November – silvermonth – extended into gentle December snowlight. A few weeks spent in the studio; a homecoming. Treading lightly into the image.
Back in 2017, a happy collaboration with Julia Adzuki resulted in a Resonance Jam in the old Watertower of Gnesta; a historical venue offering unique acoustic and spatial qualities. Soon, the concept developed into a broader platform as Patrick Dallard of SymbioLab and Karin Lindström Kolterud joined in. Artist group Ljudtornet (“Soundtower”) formed in 2017/2018, and opened the Watertower to a Sound/Art festival in late August: ANTENN 2018. On a limited budget, the festival managed to present a broad range of sound artists and musicians – all of which declared their wish to return for a next time. One of them, Tomas Björkdal, eventually became a permanent member of the Ljudtornet group and played along with the rest of us…
Ljudtornet at play in the Watertower;
photo HHW.
And so, ANTENN 2019 was conceived… Thanks to the Swedish Performing Arts Agency and the Swedish Arts Grants Committee – in addition to the municipality of Gnesta – we could work on a considerably larger budget, and thus managed to invite residency artists throughout the summer.
Serious business in ANTENN 2019 administrative board;
photo credit Anka Draugelates
Come September, ANTENN 2019 finally staged two days of live performances and installations by 40+ artists from Sweden and abroad; once more filling the Watertower with resounding waves of light and sound. For anyone who couldn’t be present, the whole programme was live streamed over web radio (and listened to even as far away as Singapore).
My contribution was largely behind the scene. As a painter, I sometimes think of my craft as the faculty of listening with the eyes… here, I had a beautiful opportunity to sit quiet and enjoy the heartbeat of the Watertower, as rendered by so many fervent and sensible performers. Just listen:
Another invitation; another collaboration. At Kulturcentrum Järna, Rudolf Steiner’s mystery dramas will be performed during a five-day event, and a correspondent exhibition engages a number of people from the local arts and crafts scene. Nigel Wells (Virbela Flowforms), Eva-Karin Planman, Sigrid Winkler and I go for co-creating an installation. We choose a space – much like a bridge – where a staircase and two galleries connect with the upper entrance of the large auditorium. The place is central, narrow, open. Nigel makes measurements and sketches. All four of us bring in different components to the process: concepts, such as revelation, playfulness, light, body, image; references – the lamps hanging aloft under the ceiling, the dramatic theme; suggested materials like textiles, water, sand… I could see triangular crystal prisms in the large window facing due west. Mud, says Sigrid, there has to be mud. So, we prepare mudwater from the modelling clay in the workshop of Virbela. We cut and dip fifty metres of nonwoven fabric, and find a drying place in my studio.
Nigel cuts wooden pieces for the frame, Eva-Karin paints them. We calculate and drill holes for the wires. Then comes the mounting; twenty-four prisms hanging in the window, the frame put together and installed. And finally, attaching the veils.
There it is. A breathing body, a light-and-shadow labyrinth, a crossroads; the Meeting.
This past week, I put the brushes aside for some days to go places and see people…
First heading West to the city of Gothenburg and HDK Academy of Design and Crafts, where I was invited to introduce the DasArts feedback method to a group of students and teachers at the Jewellery Art Programme. I already knew contemporary jewellery as a dynamic field, and the works of these students were no exception. Dealing with a diversity of topics (such as biomorphology, symmetry, space/surface transformations and trauma healing), they thoroughly proved the potential of thinking through materiality.
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Encouraging inscriptions at HDK:
“Art and Learning/Give Boons and Glory”; (to) “THINK”
During the course of two days, five student projects were presented for feedback; added time for tutorials and evaluation resulted in an intense time schedule, to say the least. Nevertheless, everybody managed to give focused, warm attention throughout the whole workshop – an admirable accomplishment, especially at the end of a semester with exhibitions and examinations drawing close.
Every time I practice this feedback method, I discover new features; in this group, the evaluation talk highlighted themes like stepping out of anonymity, cultivating a practice over time, and shared experience as a common ground for individual development and change. I’m truly grateful to teachers Klara Brynge and Märta Mattsson for the invitation, and to the whole group for our shared experience.
And then I returned home, only to jump forth into another event…
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For the time being, I’m re-framing my engagement in the Storytelling by Art context; and I was lucky enough to be invited to the annual conference of the European Outsider Art Association (this year held in Sweden). The programme – under the theme of E/Quality – turned out to provide a wealth of inspiration, experience and networking potential. Local hosts were the marvelous people of Inuti; a foundation, which provides space for “artistically talented individuals with intellectual disabilities and individuals within the autismspectrum”. Inuti is currently running three supported studios in central Stockholm, along with an adjacent art gallery; and building an art collection as well.
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Snapshots from the EOA conference, day 1;
Inuti Lilla Essingen studio (above)
and performance by Anders Wettler (below)
Inuti spoiled us by introducing us to their exceptional studios featuring live art manifestations while in Stockholm – but one conference day was spent in the small town of Sala (approximately 130 kms northwest of Stockholm). Here, we visited Little Istanbul – the ongoing life achievement of self-taught artist Jan-Erik Svennberg – before continuing to the Ivan Aguéli Museum.
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Visiting Jan-Erik Svennberg’s Little Istanbul
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Now digesting the nourishing, artful, challenging experiences of my excursions; thinking and re-thinking as we walk.
Helena Hildur W. 