ARTIST´S STATEMENTS TRANSLATION

ANNA LING

TO THE PAINTINGS of Zostera marina (Eelgrass) I have found inspiration from photographs taken outside the island of Tjörn, taken from a perspective above the sea surface towards the bottom of the sea. The transparent layers of the ink wash painting catch the feeling of looking down through the shallow water to the sea bottom were the eelgrass grow. My interest in eelgrass started while contemplating about why there was less fish in the sea outside Tjörn where I used to fish growing up. ONE OF THE reasons turned out to be that a large part of the eelgrass beds, often referred to as the nursery of the sea, had disappeared since the 1980’s because of eutrophication and exploitation. Since a few years the County Administrative Board and researchers are recreating the eelgrass beds, which is a very arduous work since it needs to be replanted by hand by divers, one sprout after another. I have my roots in Tjörn and feel influenced by the family´s previous work and industries from the sea. Several of my pieces are created from an outset from a place, a site, that often is connected to the state of the sea and the living conditions for the organisms which live there. Anna Ling 2022

JOEL DANIELSSON

WAVE FORMATIONS APPEAR from a similar process in sand, snow, ice and water, where a movable mass of lower density moves over a surface of higher density. This occurs everywhere and all the time in an equilibrium between forces and matter. Every wave pattern is a fingerprint of its unique prerequisites, such as place, time and weather. Fossiled wave formations is today used by geologists at the Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences (EAPS) Department at MIT to understand changes to and abnormalities in the climate. In cities and other man-made locations this process has ceased. Hard surfaces withstand wave formation and particles twirl away as dust, instead of shaping mounds and valleys. FLORA SUPERSUM (supersum of the Latin’s avoid dying, continue living). When life in nature has begun to recede and the summer’s splendor of colour turned brown, I have always closed the door to the garden and thought that everything is over and done with, that it is over. But that was not the case; it was in full swing, the seed dispersal. Which seeds should come into the soil, which should succeed in germinating and be allowed to reappear next spring? Late in the autumn, when it has rained for weeks on end and as the hours of sunshine have become fewer and fewer, a silent struggle takes place in the flowerbed - the struggle for survival. The toned-down colours scheme of autumn exudes a woody mood and a calm. The plants were the same as in the summer but had now assumed a new, often a little more unpretentious form than when they were in full bloom. THE DELICATE STEMS of the Martagon lily with its colourful flowers previously looking down at the earth had now solidified and raised its brown seed-filled capsules up to the sky. The pearl hyacinth had changed from a soft, hilly cone in blue to a stiff stem with 20 - 30 protruding infructescence in light beige. The process begins already in May, when first of all of them the snowdrops first go into seed. Then it goes on during the summer and culminates in the autumn.

We live most of our lives on flat surfaces, freed from or deprived of structures and variations. The flat surfaces where the unevenness is carefully obliterated and straightened out is a prerequisite for the velocity and efficiency of our civilization. Hindrances are removed and lines straightened. The piece Wave Ripples in Plaster is an interpretation of wave formations in the shape of a floor made of plaster. The visitor can experience the tactile piece through the soles of the feet by gently walking on it.

Joel Danielsson 2022

LENA GRANEFELT

In rain and debris, in wind and minus degrees, they stand there and rattle, until they completely wither. From bud to flower to seed to bud again, a beautiful cycle and an eternal will to life.

Lena Granefelt 2022 BEAR - BRING FORTH is an installation where some parts are constant while other elements will change over the exhibition period. In the balance between intention and the ability to listen a responsibility is set in motion. We are, at the same time vehicle, driver and passenger and it is undoubtedly difficult to get things right. While working on the installation I have been thinking about the terms surrounding our creativity, about work and care, hard and soft values, things that are toxic and things that are sweet. The endeavour for something better: a higher standard of living, a great freedom, or perhaps to perform a precise and refined craft? Or on the other hand to – with no intention or effort at all – stumble into a field of wild strawberries. WHAT MAKES US grow? What gives us strength and nourishment? We emerge, go through time and withdraw. Concepts and references change over generations, but some experiences bring us together, like the berries that Swedish children string upon a straw one after another on a summer’s day. I think about the children, those who once worked in the iron works (did they find some berries around the edge of the building?) and even about the school children that visits the exhibitions in Verket today. Are any of them familiar with great responsibility or heavy, dangerous work? OUR ANCESTORS ARE to some extent strangers to us, but even more unknown are the future beings who will look back on us. How will they understand our terms of living, our efforts and concerns? How will they interpret the traces of what was once shaped by our physical labour – carried out with precision yet limitations? What will grow in the slag pits of the future?

Johanna Hästö 2022

ERICA GIACOMAZZI

MY ARTISTIC PRACTICE is based on the anthropological and topographical investigations of the landscape, how Nature affects the urban context in terms of possibilities of movement through it, people’s habits, communities behave, collective memory, and historical and cultural heritage. I offer by my artistic works (mainly video-sound installations) different opportunities to experience context-sensitive scenarios. I aim to envision cultural and art production based on social and interdisciplinary engagement, as functional and empowering as possible through self-questioning, environmental consciousness, and local/global interactions.Working recently with experimental documentary films exhibited in art and non art contexts, I’m shaping my art more and more as a tangible adaptable resource for the community. LUPUS IN FABULA is a documentary about women dog-sled mushers in Granö, Västerbotten. It was conceptualized to be a raw experimental documentary in Sweden’s environment. Its storyboard depicted a foreign eye’s point of view in an unknown scenario. The camera lens would have reported the ‘routine-as-ritual’ without compromising the video with irrelevant fictional actions or material. The work’s true value will depend upon the viewer’s discovery of the ‘unknown’ presented in the video. Erica Giacomazzi 2022

JOHANNA HÄSTÖ

BEAR - BRING FORTH

Fallow of time of time ahead Carry a fallow further ahead Further ahead over berries and valleys to bring berries along

OLLE NORÅS

Translation: Stuart Mayes

IN A SLOW pace I make large, detailed paintings in gouache technique using a thin brush. They grow during a long meditation and arduous work. It takes weeks or months to complete one piece. I enjoy the time-consuming methods, to fully dedicate myself to the work. It is the small details, the dots and lines are central to the paintings, that form the whole.

In the work I transform myself into the withering log of wood, bustling with life, that I often fantasize about. A solid mass of change, thousands of organisms. To ascend in earth and fog. MY WORK COVERS both the soil and the ascension. The physical and the sacral ascension. And this is one and the same. The landscapes within us are deep and eternally cyclic multitudinous as the forests once were. These inner lands can also be as clear cut, or as straight-lined planted monocultures which some forests have become. THESE LANDSCAPES ARE not reflections of each other. They are actually one and the same landscape. The motifs drift between forest landscapes and inner visions. Since much of my artistic practice revolves around forests and the sacred, I need to be present in these places. I roam the lands both on my own and in the company of knowledgeable biologists and conservationists. I seek people and places, search the literature.

Olle Norås 2022

EMOTIONAL EXPERIENCES

THE FOUR SEASONS are among the most popular pieces in the classical music repertoire all over the world and yet the personality of the great composer and musician Antonio Vivaldi and his music are surrounded by a halo of mystery. There are still many unanswered questions about his life, and it is fascinating that his music has been rediscovered after two centuries of silence, despite the great success Vivaldi enjoyed during his lifetime. However, the most compelling aspect is that his notes still speak to us so many years after they were written, which is why we have undertaken this journey of discovery. IMMERSIVE TECHNOLOGY OFFERS the opportunity to a unique and original experience and dive into Vivaldi’s musical universe. In this installation, the images come to life by engaging with the suggestive power of Vivaldi’s music, enveloping the visitor in a vibrant symphony of lights, shapes and colours. With technology, we intended to encourage total immersion in the world of the artist, thus bringing it closer even to people who are not very familiar with museums and concerts.

VIVALDI, AT THE height of his career, travelled around Europe with his music and we are happy to continue this journey and inspire people with his notes. As regards our participation in ’Avesta Art 2022’, we are very excited to be part of it and are curious to see how our installation will be received by the Swedish public.

Emotional Experiences/ Lucia Gaudenzi 2022