Björn Springfeldt on the work of Kent Karlsson
By Björn Springfeldt
(trans. Peter Birch)
Speedy Gonzalez 1989
One of Edward Munch’s most acclaimed later works depicts the ageing artist standing between the grandfather clock and the bed. A grandfather clock is also to be found amongst Kent Karlsson’s sculptures but also a canoe and in this case, a dragster. A vehicle constructed to race as quickly as possible in a straight line. Fascinated by the capacity of the immobile sculptural form to provoke the experience of exhilarating speed, I slowly begin to realise that the work is also concerned with my own life’s journey.
Solips 1994
Can the human situation be described in a manner as down-to-earth as in his sculpture Solips? The artist represents the human life not by depicting a shoe, instead he depicts the space inside a shoe. The foot generates a most personal imprint under the body’s full weight and exerts pressure forming the shoe’s leather, enclosing and imprisoning it. Placed as they are, in a circle, they create a focus, in the centre of which the artist – or is it I myself? – stands; the candles give light, spread warmth and mark the passage of time. This is loneliness and togetherness reminded of the diversity and impermanence of existence. The artist invokes the form of the circle to represent our planet as well as the atom, with the individual drifting in between, captured in her own orbit, in her own questions.
By Björn Springfeldt
(trans. Peter Birch)
Speedy Gonzalez 1989
One of Edward Munch’s most acclaimed later works depicts the ageing artist standing between the grandfather clock and the bed. A grandfather clock is also to be found amongst Kent Karlsson’s sculptures but also a canoe and in this case, a dragster. A vehicle constructed to race as quickly as possible in a straight line. Fascinated by the capacity of the immobile sculptural form to provoke the experience of exhilarating speed, I slowly begin to realise that the work is also concerned with my own life’s journey.
Solips 1994
Can the human situation be described in a manner as down-to-earth as in his sculpture Solips? The artist represents the human life not by depicting a shoe, instead he depicts the space inside a shoe. The foot generates a most personal imprint under the body’s full weight and exerts pressure forming the shoe’s leather, enclosing and imprisoning it. Placed as they are, in a circle, they create a focus, in the centre of which the artist – or is it I myself? – stands; the candles give light, spread warmth and mark the passage of time. This is loneliness and togetherness reminded of the diversity and impermanence of existence. The artist invokes the form of the circle to represent our planet as well as the atom, with the individual drifting in between, captured in her own orbit, in her own questions.
title: Young Moon
medium: perforated steel
size: 535 x 60 x 40 cm.
year: 1989
medium: perforated steel
size: 535 x 60 x 40 cm.
year: 1989
title: Solips
medium: concrete, candles
size: diameter 600 cm.
year: 1994
medium: concrete, candles
size: diameter 600 cm.
year: 1994
title: Speedy Gonzalez
medium: bicycle wheels, iron
size: 690 x 90 x 40 cm.
year: 1989
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medium: bicycle wheels, iron
size: 690 x 90 x 40 cm.
year: 1989