Hokkaido + Swedish Art '23, Hokusho University, Sapporo, Japan
Anata / I Know You
Bones Skins Ties
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The strong affinity between Sweden and Japan may be rooted in how we relate to our natural surroundings, the landscape. I Know You – we know our woods, rocks, mountains and streams. My work Bones Skins Ties deals with the relationship between the human and non-human bodies, using materials found in my Nordic landscapes. We are tied to the land we live on, the water we depend on. The bones in our bodies are tied to the rocks and tree trunks around us, the skin of a tree resembles our skin.
Some of the materials were gathered during a residency in Kjerringoy, Norway; from beaches, woods and mountains, and some from my home; my garden, woods, and farming fields. |
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with support from:
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Artistic research of the site for a new hospital in Växjö
Konstnärligt undersökande av platsen för Nytt Akutsjukhus Växjö
During a few months in 2023, me and co-artist Ingela AC Johansson are investigating the moving of a hospital to a new site. In this early stage of the process, before anything is actually built, there is an opening for artistic processes, methods and sensibilities. In a series of presentations, talks, happenings and an exhibition, the site for the building is being examined, stretched and listened to.
The project is for Region Kronoberg, with ArtPlatform and curated by Sara Rossling.
The project is for Region Kronoberg, with ArtPlatform and curated by Sara Rossling.
Rooms for healing and archeological traces of care / Läkande Rum och arkeologiska spår av omsorg
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For the first presentation in April, I invited professor in archeology Liv Nilsson Stutz, researcher at LNU, to help me talk about a planned separate building in the area - the room where relatives say goodbye to those who decease at the hospital. Her topics include archeothanatology and ritual theory to understand how hunter gatherer communities in northern Europe have handled death. Her talk stressed the importance of ritual to be able to move on, for those left behind.
For the talk, I had marked the remains of a ritual house from the Bronze age, located in the near area, in scale 1:1. This house would have been the equivalent of the planned building. 
Foto: Sara Rossling
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A second part of the presentation took place in the forest grove adjacent to the Room for goodbye.
A 90 meter grass braid led us into a clearing guarded by old oak trees, where we talked more about the long perspectives of time and of other species. How we might take care of our future generations of all species by taking care of place. And how to be in a relationship of mutual care with our co-species and surroundings, here manifested in a small offering of hazelnuts for the dormouse living in this place. 
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(Jag önskar mig) En sten med ett hål i, 2022
Galleri 1, Uppsala
Mountain and clay mountain
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A stone with a hole in it
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Skins
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The Elements
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Chimney
Nevelsfjorden, 2022
Nevelsfjorden, 2022
Lighting up a tree Photo: Ane Øverås
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Digging for clay in Nevelsfjorden, Kjerringøy, Norway
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Clay chains and heart strings, 2022
Site-specific work for the Thames, during a residency at the Royal College of Art, London, in spring 2022.
The river became my map of the big city, for orientation both geographically and emotionally. I chose some sites along the river and made an earthenware vessel for each of them. I spent many days mudlarking along the foreshores of the river, where layers of time mix freely; then bringing them into the present with new additions in glass and clay.
The river became my map of the big city, for orientation both geographically and emotionally. I chose some sites along the river and made an earthenware vessel for each of them. I spent many days mudlarking along the foreshores of the river, where layers of time mix freely; then bringing them into the present with new additions in glass and clay.
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OBLIGATORIUM, Öppna Dörrar 2022, Konstfrämjandet Uppland
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OBLIGATORIUM, 2022 For the exhibition Öppna Dörrar (Open Doors), Gamla Hospitalet, Ulleråker, Uppsala Arr: Konstfrämjandet Uppland Textile, stoneware, sinew thread, paint. The three trees stand on a tiny hill outside the old mental asylum, Ulleråker. Loosely inspired by an image of an old strait jacket, I strapped the trees together, reinforcing the tension between them. A reference to the history of the Asylum and the institutions for mental care, with their elements of force and compulsion. If you zoom out a bit, it is a generic image of exercise of power, applicable to the behaviour of the swedish goverment regarding mining in Gállok, or to issues around artistic freedom and freedom of speech. By treating the trees as subjects, it also refers to the idea of the Rights of Nature. What right do we (our economic culture) have to impose huge changes upon other creatures, such as climate change or a sixth mass extinction? |
OBLIGATORIUM, Performance sep 2022, Ulleråker Old Asylum
CIRCUIT (KRETS), 2021
CIRCUIT/KRETS, 2021
Sitespecific work for
Ur Mörkret,
Konst Tar Plats,
the old Lancashire-smithy in Karlholmsbruk
Blown glass, water from the pond, braided grass, cast silicon, found iron objects, textile.
MEND I-III
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MEND I
MEND III (Pietá)
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River-and-I. Installation view from Stipendiater 2020, Uppsala art museum
Water Talks. Installation at Konstfack, 2019
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Water Talks.
Installation view from Stipendiater 2020, Uppsala art museum
Water Talks: Spring water. Installation view from Sadelmakarlängan, 2020
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What was hidden, 2018
Installation using raw clay and household objects.
. . . Clay as archive; 40.000 years old handprints on the cave wall look exactly as my own. Time is always present. There is a promise and a threat. 
Raw clay, household objects, glycerol,
time, motion, paradox, dust . . . Silence. 
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Raw clay, household objects, space
. . . Quiet. 
Raw clay, household objects, glycerol
. . . Temporality. Memory is always distorted. All shall be covered in dust. 
Raw clay, household objects, pressure
. . . Traces of body and motion. Events stuck in matter. Actions caught in time and space |
Besvärjelser, 2018
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Materialized, 2018
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Some of your places, 2017
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© Elin Sundström 2021