MERRY MELANCHOLY
ESKILSTUNA ART MUSEUM
2013, Eskilstunda, Sweden
NORDIC ART STATION TRIENNIAL
The installation Melancholy is a series of small sculptures in terracotta clay, placed out on the floor of one single room at the Nordic Art Triennial at Eskilstuna Konstmuseum.
The installation consist of one hundred clay-bodies.
Each clay-body is different and all show a posture of being immersed in their own deep melancholic state.
The installation does not illustrate mental illnesses, it however refers to a poetic pleasure in the midst of darkness and gloom. It is a combination of reminiscence and regrets. Melancholy is an aesthetic experience; a deep and attractive pool on the border of light and darkness, into which our inner desires drive us to sink into.
In Proxies, the carved shoes marked a key moment in the development Gudjon´s art, evoking human presence while in fact the body remains absent. Instead of representing the human form, Guðjón suggests it by showing the things we use and shifting the context to expose their importance in our world and the expectations we unconsciously bring to objects in our everyday surroundings.
Lars-Eric Wahlberg, Curator photographs: Katrín Elvarsdóttir
