Liva Isakson Lundin
Wetterling Gallery is proud to present Liva Isakson Lundin’s first solo exhibition in our Gothenburg space: Beståndsdelarna / The components, eponymous with the new series of works.
The three large-scale sculptures on display - described as modular bodies by the artist - attest to Isakson Lundin’s newest research. Core aspects of her visual vocabulary and artistic interests remain central - the usage of industrial materials with various attachments; the temporary shapes that are site-specific; the joints and ends that never fully meet; the importance of each technical component of the work.
Simultaneously, Isakson Lundin introduces new elements, while surveying notions of connection and distance. Visually, these striking stainless-steel works - in which threaded metal rods are employed for the first time - are built using a grid-like structure that forces the lines to become straighter. As such, an enhanced physical presence, a certain heaviness and roughness, is purposely put forward; while an evolution from earlier pieces characterised by organic shapes, is noticeable.
The choice of metal rods for binding-purposes replaces softer, previously employed materials such as ropes, gelatine, or silicone. Binding through metal rods opens endless possibilities for each work to keep developing, or potentially become connected to another; they are individual, modular parts of a larger assemblage. An interesting temporality of the shapes is thus introduced - possible through the repetitive qualities of the works, and a thoroughly deliberate decision taken by the artist and reflected in both their construction and installation.
In the artist’s own words: I work with repetition as a movement that can dissolve the form, make it uncertain. The shape can be changed and continued. I am looking for something momentarily, fleeting, impermanent, though I work with very heavy and durable materials. I want to be in the precise moment when stability could break, fall, expand, disintegrate.
While Isakson Lundin is primarily known as a sculptor, her paintings and drawings are an equally important part of her practice. Movement between these different mediums allows for further explorations around notions of stability, temporality, meeting points. Notably, this latest group of sculptures is closely linked to the artist’s previous series, Takt/Tact. Each sculpture from the Beståndsdelarna series arises from a series of decisions, small movements, and connections, which, step by step, inform and allow for the final shapes to emerge.
The process of creation is essential for their understanding. Guided by the overall goal of achieving the correct balance, both conceptually and aesthetically, the artist employs different-sized mock-ups that allow an initial control of the shapes by hand. Each stage of development, as the mock-ups become larger, forces new decisions that have an impact on each subsequent stage. Ongoing negotiations between the artist’s ability and the stainless steel’s properties are also central: this strong, industrial material is bent, shaped, pushed to its limits, while the artist remains mindful of the material’s innate assets. The Beståndsdelarna group is also reliant on its surroundings, as the threaded metal rod components are designed to pierce and attach themselves to walls. As such, the environment becomes part of the work, and the stability of each given wall is extended through the sculpture it relates to.
The resulting works are site-specific constructions of restrained tension, that push and pull, from and against the room.
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OPENING: Saturday, 25 February, 12-4pm
The artist will be present.
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Liva Isakson Lundin (b. 1990) holds an MFA from the Royal Institute of Art in Stockholm. Her work has been exhibited frequently in Sweden - notably at Moderna Museum, Stockholm; Bonniers Konsthall, Stockholm; the Aguéli Museum, Sala; The Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts, Stockholm; Ahlbergshallen, Östersund. She created several public commissions, including a permanent installation for the city theatre in Gothenburg, and a sculptural commission for the main square in Eslöv. In 2022, Liva Isakson Lundin and Adéle Essle Zeiss’s Standing Waves was inagurated as the memorial sculpture for Tim “Avicii” Bergling in Humlegården, Stockholm. In 2021, Isakson Lundin completed a residency at The New York Artist Residency and Studios Foundation (NARS). She is represented in Moderna Museum's permanent collection, and in many notable private collections. She lives and works in New York, NY, USA.
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