Jag är en konstnär i Norrbotten

by Mats Wikström

Artist Mats Wikström (Sverige, född 1954)

Alternate Title

I am an Artist in Norrbotten

Date2009

MediumDigital video, color, stereo sound

Dimensions4:43 min

ClassificationMoving Images

Credit LinePurchase 2021 (Swedish Acquisitions 2021)

Countries

Sweden

Object NumberMOM/2021/74

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.
Selected exhibition history Nyförvärvsutställningen (den 5 februari 2022 - den 14 augusti 2022) Moderna Museet, Stockholm

Works by the artist