Kvarnlunden - playable sculptures for public park
7 individual fibre glass sculptures with built in lighting fixtures. Variable dimensions from 1.3 meters- 4.5 meters. Permanent installation. Inaugurated September 2022
Commissioned by: Umeå Municipality Park Department
Background and process: The municipality wanted to have local childrens' input and perspectives in the planning and design of a planned park and recreational area in Umeå. I was hired to create a format for this, and in turn engaged designer Anna Parry. We then worked with 72 5 and 6 year olds in the autumn of 2021. We visited and explored the site with the children in smaller groups and then documented their ideas by first enacting and talking, and then drawing and sculpting. Insights from the material was presented to the Park Dpt and became lead principles in the design of the overall park. Three ideas were also selected to be realised as play sculptures that I then designed. I used the children´s sketches and maquettes as my starting point. The sculptures were produced in fibreglass, some with built in lighting. The sculptures and the parts of the park that had been finished were inaugurated September 2022, with a large group of the children who had participated in attendance.
What is love? (Baby don't hurt me)
Site specific sculpture made from mixed materials including acrylic resin. Installed and displayed summer 2023 at Konsthall Väst på Fjället.
About: The title comes from Haddaway's 90s banger. The song perfectly describes the vulnerability required for connection, and the music video references the Galatea myth (a sculpture that comes alive). My work consisted of both outdoor and indoor elements that were installed to give the impression that they were piercing the wall of the building. The site is a former village school now turned art space in Karlsbäck, Bjurholm / North Sweden. Curator Louise Lindvall.
50-50 Älandsbro, proposal
Proposal for public sculpture, rendered as physical and CAD model. Commissioned by Region of Västernorrland, and displayed at Härnösand Konsthall 2023.
I was commissioned to come up with an idea for public art, for any site of my choosing. Quickly, a stretch of the E4 motorway came to mind. North of Härnösand, there is a long 50 km/h stretch of highway passing through the village of Älandsbro. Not much to see from the motorway, so it's known to outsiders as quite a tedious drive. Despite this impression, Älandsbro is a beautiful place if you just step a couple of hundred meters from the main road.
My proposal is a monumental sculpture that takes its' shape from a classic lollipop '50/50' that is half liquorice half raspberry. The 'candy part' consists of two convex mirrors and moves slowly with the wind. By placing large (3.5 meter in diameter) convex mirrors 12 meters high up in the air, a landmark is created that gives a new picturesque view of the sea and mountains.
My proposal is inspired by the Claude glass, an instrument popular with tourists and landscape painters in the 18th and 19th century. William Gilpin, influential writer of guide books and essays and the main architect of the aesthetic framework of the picturesque, is said to have had one installed in his horse carriage. It was through this convex mirror that he enjoyed the landscapes of the Lake District and the Scottish Highlands. The High Coast of northern Sweden, where Älandsbro is located, has had a similar draw as these places due to its' dramatic landscape. My proposal includes creating a legend around the work, building on mystical aspects of black mirrors (also used for scrying) that one can see one's future in the mirror if one looks closely.
The proposal was funded by regional arts funding and was part of the project Visioner: Offentlig Konst i Västernorrland. The work was presented at Härnösands Konsthall though a public talk and installation of a model.
My warmest thanks to Älandsbro Intresseförening for dialogue and support and to Jacobssons Bygg AB for sponsoring a skylift and helping me with photography. Also a huge thanks to my dear friend Emma Korsar for helping me with the digital model.