An object has no back, only fronts

In Stina Ekman's solo exhibition Doodles and coffee phases On display are "scribbles", drawings from the 1970s to the present day, and "coffes", objects that rats have feasted on and become rat art.

Stina Ekman (b. 1950 in Gothenburg, lives and works in Sollentuna) is a sculptor and works in a variety of materials such as clay, wood, granite and bronze. She is educated at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Stockholm, has worked as a professor at both the Academy of Fine Arts at Umeå University and the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Stockholm and was elected as a member of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in 1990.

Her public works can be seen in several places in Sweden; at the Polish University Quarter in Helsingborg, Central Station in Västerås, Norra Kyrkogården in Örebro, Vinterviken in Stockholm and the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences in Uppsala.

This exhibition is not the result of a linear process. There have been as many ideas about concept and content as there are roots under a tree. The original idea remains, like the hub in the middle.

If the pencil sketch is still lingering in my mind after 2-3 months, then the image has become something in its own right. In its own right – and I no longer have any say in it. Just make sure the work gets done.

Although it is rarely apparent from a drawing, it is not until you understand what it looks like on the other side and all around that you can transform the drawing into an object in its own right.

Am I depicting my own ideas? Is all art some form of depiction? The random is not used much by artists, except for Marcel Duchamp.

An object has no back, only fronts.

When I experience acceptance, I can do nothing more about the object.

I try to make artifacts that don't already exist in some way.

“My objects” are not private, but perhaps personal.

All objects in the halls are displayed at a scale of 1:1. They are neither reduced nor enlarged. They just exist, now.

The “coffee shops” were created this fall. The rats began to enjoy tearing apart the plastic and gnawing at the clay, both the objects under work and unused clay.   

Stina Ekman