Exhibition Munich 6th – 10th of July 2022
The exhibition “Extended Family” is curated by Gothenburg University, Metal Art at campus Steneby. The invited artists have been engaged in the faculty during recent years. We consider all exhibiting artists to be a part of our extended family.
Curator Tobias and Leia Birgersson
Tobias Birgersson
Artist statement:
”Art and craft start with tradition and material. They can be mined by the contemporary maker to answer why, what, how and for whom.
Material and craft used to be so important to me and to my identity. Now I tend to see the material and level of craft mastery as different colours in my box of crayons. It is both completely unimportant and so important at the same time.”
Name of art work:
Toolness of Things
Thoughts about the art work:
When I can recognize a hint of a symbolic purpose in my objects, where no specific practical use can be discerned, this is when they become loaded with a personality and begin to live. The performative function is then enhanced by the context I choose to place them in e. g. gently wrapped in an old suitcase or placed on an altarlike pedestal. By being liberated from the practical function, an object attains a new kind of value and exudes the force of a tool in the fourth dimension.
The process:
How makers deal with process is up to them, as long as they do it. If all of the experimentation goes on in the realm of ideas, it is very probable that when the concept finally enters the material world it will be seriously flawed.
How to deal with the pure joy of making? Is it ever possible or okay that this might be enough for the maker, and the viewer is left to fill the object with content and context? Or would this just end up being a case of pareidolia, the mind perceiving a pattern where it doesn’t exist?
Material and craft used to be so important to me and to my identity. Now I tend to see the material and level of craft mastery as different colors in my box of crayons. It is both completely unimportant and so important at the same time.
Art, and probably especially craft, have a narcissistic core but loving what you do can be a powerful driving force. On the other hand, if you lack the ability to take a step back and reflect on what you have done, then you are in trouble.
Participating Artists
Klara Eriksson (Sweden), Urmas Lüüs (Estonia), Nils Hint (Estonia), Professor Richard Smith (USA), Professor Heiner Zimmermann (Germany), Tobias Birgersson (Sweden), Lina Söderberg (Sweden), Karl Hallberg (Sweden), Jokum Lind Jensen(Danmark), Emille de Blanche (Sweden), Marcelo Ferreira Gustavsson (Sweden), Siri Tolander (Sweden), Janne Hilmersson (Sweden), Tomas Nordström (Sweden), Annika Oskarsson (Sweden), Sabine Straub (Germany), David Snoo Wilson (England), Rebekah Frank (USA), Andrew Hayes (USA), Benjamin Kjellman-Chapin (Norway), Junko Mori (England), Professor Anders Ljungberg (Sweden), David Clarke (England), Ulrika Aneer (Sweden), Pearce Healy (USA), Carolina Claesson (Sweden), Sebastian Schildt (Sweden), Tobias Alm (Sweden) Professor Jorge Manilla Navarrete (Mexico), Christine Habermann von Hoch (Czech Republic), Karolina Hägg (Sweden)