skulpterat språk/sculptured language presents seven artists all rooted in sculpture. However, they all express that in order to understand their practice we have to leave knowledge behind and trust in our senses. This show consists of a number of positions in contemporary sculpture that have formed the gallery program into what it is today.

I have carried the memory, sense, and in some cases, unresolved thoughts around a number of the artworks on display in this show. Some for many years, since first seeing them, and some just recently discovered. They all posses their own making and history, but they are also put forward as starting points for a discussion on how to navigate our surroundings and common ground. Sculpture is a personal love story dating back to 1995, and also a long-time friend in trying to understand the world. 

Rolf Nowotny’s piece Coal, 2012 was love at first sight and still pops up in my head every other day. The work has been displayed before at the gallery in the group show Around Every Corner* in 2012. An ash tray and a photograph of Rolf and his brother the day before Rolf by accident burnt down the family home. The power and remembrance of history in a small object. 

Johanna Gustafsson Fürst can charge our everyday with a sculptural touch in a way that makes your mind turn 360 degrees. Her piece Things that make us, 2013 is made as much with ease as with a critique of our common spaces in the city and whom they are for. Objects collected and collided that make us sharpen our senses.

Andreas Mangione’s new series of objects comes from the hands of the artist. A process where his surroundings get condensed into sculptural forms. Here as a perfectly tuned choir filling the room with an ancient and futuristic chant. It is a remix of thoughts, materials, words and observations. 

Hanna Stahle’s work Gloves from 1998 is an extension of the body. They signify a barrier between the carrier and his/her surroundings. It’s a motif Stahle has returned to a number of times in her practice as the glove is also a tool in her process of creating artworks. Here, they rest between function and aesthetics. The mirroring surface forces us to take into account our own presence and reading of them as sculptures. 

Magnus Thierfelder Tzotzis has been with the gallery since its start 15 years ago, and he still surprises in every sense. The title and expression of his work embodies his art practice and the way he positions his artworks in our world. (hear, listen, weigh), 2017 is like a silent, sensitive listener who brings his words to us in a thoughtful whisper.

Jimmie Durham’s work Canvas on PVC, 1996 was first shown at Tornberg Gallery in Lund when it was made on site with material from the gallerist’s wardrobe. Durham is an artist with a long, multilayered practice that makes it highly relevant today and for the new generation of artists of tomorrow. He also has a strong connection to the Mexican art scene, as does the gallery. 

Last month at Mtrl Art Fair in Mexico City, we premiered Rodolfo Díaz Cervantes’s new photographic series. A series that comes across as language. Hands held in varied positions are filled with eggs as symbols, but also very much as material. Eggs have been central in the artist’s production the last years. It is a material that carries a multitude of meanings and at times, and in various situations, comes in abundance. But it also triggers an old question; What came first? The sculpture or the artist?

All artists’ positions express ideas on our times. Sometimes more directly, as in Durham’s title Canvas on PVC, but it’s not as easy as to say that what you see is what you get. What he proposes is alternative monuments and symbols. Stahle’s Gloves show an uncertain future in great need of tools and aids to navigate it. Díaz Cervantes proposes the need for a new language. Nowotny is telling us to be aware of our everyday and to seize the moment; tomorrow might be too late. Mangione and Gustafsson Fürst both look at the cityscape and its construction when creating their work. And with Thierfelder Tzotzis’ (hear, listen, weigh) we witness a moment, a decisive situation when standing in the midst of our complex contemporary times that will impact our possible future.

Ola Gustafsson
Jädraås and Stockholm, Winter 2020

*The title is borrowed from Martin Boyce’s piece Around Every Corner, a series of brass ventilation grills placed around the gallery room.