Day 3: soon, playful surprises in unexpected places – left from yesterday – would yield for an extreme makeover. A cohesive team worked hard for two hours, mounting large canvases and little drawings… while fruits & flowers were put on display in the storefront. Thank you Birgitta, Susanne och Christina! And thank you, Karin, for superb documentation (to be seen elsewhere)!
May 11th: a day of breathing, of extended attention. Nearness; distancing; returning… The beginning of a longer rhythm? A visitor’s intervention intuitively connecting manifestations of motherhood and childhood; frailty, and a hidden treasure. In the evening, a sharing circle opens up to playful, gentle joy. The sky is clearing. A rainbow.
May 10th: from white walls in an empty space… to a meandering dialogue in words and making. Thank you for the installation, Walter! Thank you for creating cosmos from chaos in darkness, Lena! Thank you for your time and courage and collaboration, Mats and Mats! Thank you for the world opening down the rabbithole, Thea! Thank you – each one not mentioned by name – for your perspectives, your interest, your warm professionality! This is what I hoped for, in more than ample measure.
To my joyful surprise, I recently got the opportunity to attend a Winter Symposium with the Nordic Summer University. It took place in Latvian countryside, close to a natural reserve (and out of reach for the internet).
The venue, of course, is an extremely powerful tool in the set-up of such a gathering; framing the whole process, contributing to how knowledge is produced, shared and interpreted.
The overall theme for the NSU Study Circle 7 is The experiential in artistic practice: methods, knowledges and reflective processes. Over three days of Easter, a lovely bunch of artistic researchers, academics and practitioners presented their research and shared practices – as well as hot sauna and icy swims.
Learning about feminist strategies by printmaking, about regenerative farming in Latvia as a base for textile art, and the importance and implications of Wanderlust… Learning from Finnish and Latvian dancers, British artists, a theatre director from Tampere and a Polish philosopher… This has been a unique and inspiring experience in so many ways – not least thanks to Ulla, our exceptional chef! I hope to meet again…
…as I hope for peace, for human awareness towards all earthly beings, and the rebirthing forces of spring.
…and I’m free. Birds are still singing, sun is warm. Clouds passing. Future’s come. And, here’s the text (in Swedish, with English abstract):
Thinking Practises; the Artwork Reconstituted as Essay
160627; graphite pencil on paper, 28 x 21 cms
Registration day at the Royal Institute of Art (Stockholm)
And then… and then, one late summer day I found myself once more a student at the Royal Institute of Art. On September 1st, the new semester began – immersed in sunshine and jazz music – with a speech by new director Marta Kuzma. Then official photographing on the lawn. And for me, a space in the graphic department. I bring the object from Mr Benetton, and install myself.
Now, that’s already two full months since, and my main project is slowly evolving. It’s connected to my studies at the Södertörn University; I could say I’m attempting at bringing art to the academic world, as well as academia to the art world. Or: that I’m exploring what can be lined up in written sentences, and what can be reflected on a surface only.
From the studio: a set of wood panels being prepared.
And from the writing desk (for Swedish readers): a reflection, finished in June, about painting with the help of facilitated communication, in relation to texts by Mechtild of Magdeburg, Friedrich Nietzsche and Ludwig Wittgenstein.
Om språk, tanke och det kroppsliga livets möjliga riktning mot frihet.
Today and tomorrow, you can still see the Karl Schultz-Köln memorial exhibition at Art Lab Gnesta. The exhibition will close with an event connecting Karl’s own research theme to contemporary art and research. Die Bildfläche als Erkenntnisfeld (roughly: the Image as a Field of Experience) was the title Karl chose for his collected essays, edited in 1998. To connect and comment on this, I will stage a Lab Talk with artist Jan Rydén, whose project Thinking Through Painting is ongoing since 2009.
http://janryden.wordpress.com/portfolio/2013-2/
The huge differences between these artists are obvious; so, the question is rather, if there exist any common parameters?
What does the image offer as a field of experience?
For my own part, I’m really looking forward to this… Jan – you are most welcome to Art Lab Gnesta!
And everybody else – you are, too!
Karl Schultz-Köln: Winter (oil on canvas); photo HHW.
Helena Hildur W, installation with painting and prints at Konstnärshuset;
photo by Gert Germeraad
For my own participation in this exhibition, I brought painting #IV (still unfinished) as the central piece of an installation also comprising prints from Art Lab Gnesta’s risograph and a few items from the studio, along with an artist book with text and photographs from the project.
The book is available, in limited edition (30 copies in total); to order, please leave a note in the commentary field below.
Full text – in Swedish, although with an English abstract – can also be found here:
Om varseblivning av kvalitet i gestaltande processer: del 1, en individuell process.
The exhibition at Konstnärshuset is finished. For you who missed it, or couldn’t come – here’s to give you an idea of the rest of the exhibited works, along with links to full text papers (in Swedish):
Lena Oja: The management of a Cervical Spine/
Ridkonstens samtal: en vägbeskrivning (2012)
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Auli Laitinen: In My Nature/I min natur (2012)
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Madeleine Aleman:
A Meal in Swedenborg’s Summer House/
En måltid i Swedenborgs lusthus (2012)
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Antonie Frank: [WHITEWASH] (2012)
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And a few more projects which come as artistic statements, with the verbal part yet unpublished:
Agnieszka Knap: What Could it Be?/Vad skulle det kunna vara?
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Ivar Sviestins: The Human Face/Människans ansikte
(note that the left picture is an extreme zoom-in, focusing the eye of a portrayed person – who is, in his turn, watching the photographer)
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Roland Ljungberg: The Place/Platsen – artist book (2013)
PhD Roland Ljungberg is – together with Emma Göransson – the developer and leader of the course Artistic Research Processes. His dissertation (“En resa från det ordlösa”) is a personal mapping of the artist’s professional skills and knowledge.
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All photos by HHW.
Helena Hildur W. 