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Visual Artists’ News Sheet | September – October 2024
Career Development
In Transit MICHAEL HILL INTERVIEWS ELLA BERTILSSON ABOUT THE PRESSURES OF MAINTAINING AN ART PRACTICE.
Ella Bertilsson, ‘LIFE POND’, installation view, Ballina Arts Centre, January 2024; photograph by Michael Gannon, courtesy the artist and Ballina Arts Centre.
MH: I have been amazed at your unstoppable energy and creativity during your recent run of work. Seeing you develop three solo exhibitions between December 2023 and March 2024 felt like a series of portals into your dreamworld had simultaneously opened across Ireland. How did you manage to work on these projects all at once? EB: I knew that it was going to be challenging to manage working on these three shows. Since they overlapped, I had to make new and different work for each exhibition. For months, I put my life on hold and adapted to a 12 to 14-hour working day, focusing mainly on editing video work and planning installations. There was only a matter of days between the installation of each show, and my life became a logistical web, bouncing between Leitrim, Mayo, Dublin, Wicklow, and Kilkenny. The car became increasingly filled with toothbrushes, old banana peels, empty yoghurt pots, dirty cutlery, and clothes. MH: How did you keep your spirits up during this time? EB: It was important to do things I truly enjoy when tired, like writing, drawing and painting, so I could be playful and take a more intuitive approach, then it would feel like a reward even though it was still work. I also took many short walks during the day, which gave me bursts of energy and a sense of relief. It’s hard to keep your spirits up all the time though, and when the show in The LAB was de-installed, I felt pretty down and tired. I think working so concentratedly on something for an extended period really means that you exist in a parallel universe. Until the moment the work becomes public, that world exists within yourself. The openings are like bringing that inner world to its funeral and burying it, so I guess there is always a bit of grief afterwards that needs to be resolved. MH: On top of all of this, you’ve moved studios several times during the past year. I visited you while you
Ella Bertilsson, ‘Endlessnessnessness’, installation view, The LAB Gallery, February 2024; photograph by Louis Haugh, courtesy of the artist and The LAB Gallery.
were on residency in IMMA as part of the Museum of Everyone programme; you’ve come to the end of your tenure at Rua Red, and have since moved into TBG+S. Does this kind of uprootedness impact the work you make, either conceptually or materially? EB: Yes, a bit of both. I constructed a storage space to use as a backdrop for filming, live performances, and later as a site-specific sculptural installation for The Dock. The idea came from a feeling of being in transit at that time, and a desire to expand on and reconnect new work with a previously made storage space installation, which was part of my 2015 NCAD MFA show. Building the new storage space was a conceptual and practical decision, as it allowed me to fill it with items from home and the studio. The artworks for my exhibition in Ballina Arts Centre were all made to fit in the boot of the car, which meant I could move and keep working in multiple locations. Thematically, the metaphor of rivers ran through all my recent work. I looked at the river as a sort of moving energy, a perpetual flow between the places where the exhibitions were located. As a child, I lived next to the Ume River in Sweden, so rivers feel very present in my mind and have come to represent time, life and movement. There is also symbolism surrounding the salmon that embodies my ideas about cyclicality, migration, homecoming, and sensitivity. Materially, I am drawn to second-hand items with a sense of personal history, stories and emotional attachment. I like materials that might not seem precious but hold a lot of meaning, and when put together, have the ability to contribute to a larger, perhaps fragmented, narrative. MH: Were some of these ideas about storage, precarity, and impermanence formed through your experience of moving from peripheral northern Sweden to Dublin, and getting to grips with a different culture? EB: Yes, these ideas do feed from being a renter, moving country, and also from my upbringing. There
was always a sense of impermanence in my life from a young age. My brother and I moved between our parents so we either packed or unpacked bags every fortnight. My mum, especially, moved around a lot, so cardboard boxes were very much part of the furniture. I have been renting a storage space in Sweden ever since I came to Ireland (which is nuts!). The stuff from my old flat is like a time capsule from that period of my life. When back in Sweden, I spend a lot of time organising and looking through childhood things. That space represents home for me, so I am holding onto it. Sometimes, I think my fascination for collecting objects comes from trying to reconcile the connections between my old and new lives. MH: Did it take you long to integrate into the visual art community here in Ireland? EB: I worked in restaurants for twenty years, so, until quite recently, I felt more part of that world. I am lucky that the people I first became friends with here were artists working in film, photography and fashion. Through them, I got encouragement and help to apply to NCAD in 2005. I completed a BA in Fine Art Print, went travelling, studied Literature and Creative Writing in Sweden, then came back to Ireland and started an MFA at NCAD. Working in a long-term studio in Rua Red, receiving my first Arts Council bursary, and making a solo exhibition at The Complex, all helped to stabilise my practice. During my Project Studio year, I am really looking forward to integrating into the community of artists at TBG+S. Ella Bertilsson is a Swedish visual artist based in Dublin. She is recipient of the TBG+S Project Studio (2024-25). ellabertilsson.net
Michael Hill is Programme Curator at TBG+S. templebargallery.com