Erik Hällman - Spark
Erik Hällman
SPARK
Carefully placed staples don’t scream for attention
but linger in the afterimage
what was once packaging has been split in two
a cherry-lemon with star shaped cutouts
next to Jason’s folk art disguise
butchered swans in pools of gluey blood
a dance with ballet shoes in a trash can
a scientist’s sudden lapse of mind
an ongoing attempt to collect and pin down
On a backdrop of psychedelic flicker
roll thoughts like technical glitches
a chaotic swirl of black and white
hypnotized by it’s own fractal eyes
each eye it’s own pictorial surface
gazing through a point in the horizon
one particular composition at a time
Mixing many materials, far more than are possible to mention here, the works feature subtle interplays of layers and surfaces. Loose ends, paper rubbed raw, slick silver and fuzzy yarn. Dots of glue that have been peeled off again, traces of earlier images. Organic shapes going somewhere and nowhere at the same time. The suspension mechanism often appears to be part of the work, sometimes resembling a living grip.
Erik’s practice is deeply rooted in a constant collecting of stuff. Off of the street wandering the city, at his work as a technician in an art institution, in second hand shops when traveling. Old is mixed with new, natural materials are mixed with synthetic ones, cheap with luxurious.
The combinations are intricate, at times decorative, often unsettling.
SPARK - Sculpture. Painting. Aquarius.
Readymade. Komfortismus.
Erik Hällman holds an MFA from the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts and has studied theoretical philosophy at Stockholm University. His work has been exhibited at Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen; Den Frie, Copenhagen; Kunsthal Augustiana, Augustenborg, Jennifee-See Alternate, Copenhagen and Konstepidemin, Gothenburg.
Text by Unn Aurell Hansson