STRANGE FREEDOMS SHALL BE SOUGHT
May 23–October 8, 2023
This summer comtemporary artist Ida Ekblad (b. 1980) will present the installation STRANGE FREEDOMS SHALL BE SOUGHT at Kode in Bergen.
Ida Ekblad is one of our most acclaimed contemporary artists, known for her versatile artistic practice characterised by powerful expressions.
STRANGE FREEDOMS SHALL BE SOUGHT consists of six monumental sculptures in cast iron. In her work, Ekblad has been inspired by the traditional cast iron stoves that have a long and rich history in Norway. The exhibition will be on show in Kode’s historical Permanenten building, which was originally built to showcase the best of art, craftsmanship and design. The exhibition spaces were originally heated by this type of stove.
The design of the cast iron sculptures’ visual expression is at the heart of the artist’s methods. Ekblad designs each individual component, which are then put together into unique combinations and cast in collaboration with traditional foundries.
Cast iron stoves have been a necessity of life in Norway. Until the 20th century, they were often decorated with reliefs of fairytale figures or religious symbols drawn by Norwegian artists and designed by architects. Ekblad continues this tradition in her minimalistic and monumental works. If you look closely, intricate reliefs, silhouettes, as well as mysterious phrases, are revealed, drawing the viewer into the artist's genre-breaking universe.
“Since all houses and homes needed a stove, the motifs on these stoves also became important. Some historians claim that the stove reliefs were the first truly democratic visual art format in Norway. [...] I like the idea of an image that is seen by everyone and that at the same time heats up people’s house, home and food.”
—Ida Ekblad, Billedkunst magazine, 2020.
About the artist
Ida Ekblad’s artistry is characterised by a genre-breaking approach that draws inspiration from sub-culture and pop culture, with graffiti, manga and memes, craft traditions, old master paintings and outsider art. Sources of artistic inspiration include Odilon Redon, Paula Modersohn-Becker, Paul Thek, Harriet Backer, Edvard Munch, Florine Stettheimer and Helen Frankenthaler.
Ekblad’s artistic practice is focused around our hypervisual culture, which she attempts to record, understand and reformulate.
Ida Ekblad lives and works in Oslo. Her degrees are from Central St. Martins College of Art in London (2001), Oslo National Academy of the Arts (2007) and the Mountain School of Arts, Los Angeles, USA (2008). Ekblad’s work has been presented at numerous exhibitions around the world over the past fifteen years, including at the Venice Biennale (2011 and 2017), Palais de Tokyo in Paris, Bonniers Konsthall in Stockholm, the National Museum and Kunstnernes hus in Oslo, Museo Rufino Tamayo in Mexico City and Kunsthalle Zurich. Her work has been purchased by a number of key public and private institutions and are included in both national and international collections.
The works at Kode were first presented at the exhibition GIRL FIRES UP STOVE at Kunstnernes hus in 2021.
