© Mats Wikström/Bildupphovsrätt 2026
Växandets vånda
Artist
Mats Wikström
(Sverige, född 1954)
Alternate Title
- The Agony of Growing
Date2017
MediumWood
DimensionsYttermått: 300 × 200 × 200 cm
Classification
Countries
Credit LineInköp 2021 (Svenska förvärv 2021)
Object NumberMOM/2021/73
CollectionsSvenska förvärv 2021
The artwork is not on display
About the artworkIn the sculpture The Agony of Growing, Mats Wikström combines parts of a birch tree that were gathered and de-barked by the late wood carver Erik Norberg from Storuman. The burl in the middle resembles a brain, a branch a severed hand. To grow and change through crises and insights is painful, but there is also another side to this agony, the capacity to move on. The video I am an Artist in Norrbotten shows Wikström sitting in his kitchen with a cup of coffee. In the soundtrack, we hear him sing a melancholy song that progresses into fumbling hope. It is about the self-inflicted effort of working as an artist outside the major cities and still relating to the art world. Feelings of exclusion and shortcomings are evoked.
Signatures, inscriptions and marks
Osignerad
Selected exhibition history
Nyförvärvsutställningen (den 5 februari 2022 - den 14 augusti 2022)
Moderna Museet, Stockholm