Växandets vånda

by Mats Wikström

Artist Mats Wikström (Sverige, född 1954)

Alternate Title

The Agony of Growing

Date2017

MediumWood

DimensionsYttermått: 300 × 200 × 200 cm

ClassificationSculptures

Credit LinePurchase 2021 (Swedish Acquisitions 2021)

Countries

Sweden

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

Works by the artist