This year, Carl Eldhs Studio museum invites the artist Ingela Ihrman, internationally recognized for her large-scale sculptures and wayward, humorous performances. The exhibition mainly presents new and site-specific artworks that in a number of evocative scenes tell about something that once was, a daydream or the remains of a party?
Apricot-colored down and black-and-white feathers lie unrestrained among Eldh’s sculptures. The cactus Queen of the Night’s overflowing party gown and a ripe fig have been left in the banqueting hall. Here, visitors step into an unclear “afterwards”, traces of something wild and alive, which over time has dried up and become brittle.
Before the exhibition, the artist has approached Carl Eldh’s studio based on architect Ragnar Östberg’s intentions when he designed the building for his friend, a place for work and rest.
– The idea of the studio as a stable and a temple has been included throughout the process. I think it captures exactly what it’s like to work as an artist – a mix between mowing shit or standing in a dusty booth and eating oats day after day and at the same time being in touch with something sacred. A search for meaning, says Ingela Ihrman.
Carl Eldh’s studio was completed in 1919 with widely varying influences from the Roman round temple, Greek columns and an Old Norse guest hall. The tarred facade reflects the simple 18th-century farm next door – one of Stockholm’s oldest stables.
About the artist
Ingela Ihrman (b. 1985 in Kalmar) is based in Malmö but during the winter and spring of 2023 has been a visiting artist at Iaspis Konstnärsnämnden and based in a studio on Maria Skolgata in Stockholm. With a disarming humor and playfulness, Ingela Ihrman’s art has for the past decade responded to a need to think about questions concerning the future of humanity on earth. Through the work of the hand and the presence of time-consuming techniques, new meaning is created from often organic, recycled and everyday materials. Ingela Ihrman represented Sweden in the Nordic Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2019. In 2023, she is also up for the solo exhibition Nocturne at Gasworks in London and will open a retrospective at Malmö Konsthall in September.
The exhibition is curated by Joanna Nordin and Caroline Malmström and is produced with the support of the Swedish Arts Council, the City of Stockholm and Pontus Bonnier.