Anna Ihle: Therapeutic Coverage

La Box is pleased to present a solo show Therapeutic Coverage by Norwegian artist Anna Ihle. The artist explores norms and narratives that shape how people in Scandinavia organise their lives, particularly through work ideals, wellness routines, and parenthood—often in the form of sculpture and conversation. Therapeutic Coverage takes as a departure point a conceptual exploration of wellness culture, therapeutic practices and traditional treatments for wooden surfaces. The project has developed over a longer time span through a collaboration between Ihle and Latvian curator Maija Rudovska, who both, affected by Covid-19, were conversing about con-spirituality and artistic practice, which gradually shaped the project.

“Con-spirituality” refers to a blend of political disillusionment, New Age spirituality, and magical thinking. These belief systems revolve around hidden truths and secret knowledge, creating fertile ground for charlatans, self-healing coaches, and social-media wellness gurus.

 By constructing an environment that echoes objects found in therapy rooms, Ihle explores the artistic process as a potential site for treatment. Traditional surface-treatment techniques from Northern Europe intersect with a therapeutic realm, where hidden relational structures can surface. Ihle asks whether artistic work can offer a space for spiritual healing while still risking the misleading conclusions associated with conspiracy thinking. The installation evokes a therapist’s practice where structures and elements are subtly altered, suggesting a process of deconstruction and reinterpretation shaped by the patient’s own agencyThe exhibition is created in collaboration with Buskerud Kunstsenter (Norway) and Studija Space (Latvia). It is supported by La Box, Office for Contemporary Art Norway (OCA), Arts Council Norway.

Curator: Maija Rudovska.

Biographies
Anna Ihle (Norway) holds an MA degree from Konstfack (Stockholm, Sweden, 2014) and attended Jan Van Eyck Academie (Maastricht, The Netherlands, 2018–2019) and textile design studies at the National Institute of Design (Ahmedabad, India, 2010). Exhibitions include Tied Up at Fotogalleriet (Norway), To Break Up With Forms at Nitja (Norway), I Call It Art at The National Museum (Norway); Fruiting Bodies, Subterranean Minds at Art Lab Gnesta (Sweden); What We Share. A Model for Cohousing in the Nordic Countries Pavilion, 17th International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia (Italy); and Precarious: On the Aesthetics and Ethics of New Labour at The Museum of Work (Sweden) and, in collaboration with Addoley Dzegede, The Real Show at CAC Brétigny (France).

Maija Rudovska (Latvia) is an independent curator, art critic, educator, and writer. She holds an MA in art history from the Art Academy of Latvia, Riga (2009) and has completed postgraduate studies in curating from Curatorlab at the Konstfack University College of Arts, Crafts and Design, Stockholm (2010). Over the past fifteen years, Rudovska has curated projects in collaboration with various arts organizations across Europe and overseas, such as: MO Museum (Lithuania), the Manifesta Biennial (for the 13th edition in Marseille), PARSE NOLA (United States), the Fondation Ricard (France), Komplot and the Bozar Centre for Fine Arts (Belgium), Futura (Czech Republic), the Moderna Museet (Sweden), the Kim? Contemporary Art Centre (Latvia), Rupert and the Contemporary Art Centre Vilnius (Lithuania), the KUMU Art Museum (Estonia), the Living Art Museum (Iceland), HIAP (Finland), and others. Currently she is running an art space, “Studija,” in Kuldīga and is a PhD student at the Estonian Academy of Arts.