Elin Alvemark (1980)
One Female Artist Self Portrait
(tracks of the beauty and shame), 2021
Textil-print och mässing
Förvärvad till Ystads konstmuseums samling 2021
Selfies, skärmdumpar från Tinder, stillbilder från Ronja Rövardotter och ett utdrag ur en text av Gertrude Stein fyller några av sidorna i Elin Alvemarks omfattande One Female Artist Self Portrait (tracks of the beauty and shame). Alvemark menar att hon med verket vill undersöka ”samhället, männen (plural), institutionerna, gudarna, helvetena, konsterna, politiken”. Med avstamp i de begräsningar som kvinnliga konstnärer historiskt haft i framställning av självporträtt där dygdighet premierats utforskas här istället risktagande, kreativa impulser och njutning i förhållande till samtida fenomen. Fotografier och skärmdumpar är tryckta på textil med lösa trådar, inbundna med metallklämmor.
I sitt konstnärskap har Alvemark sedan ett flertal år arbetat med kärlet som utgångspunkt i en rad verk, av vilka en del finns avbildade i One Female Artist Self Portrait (tracks of the beauty and shame). Med kärlet som form vill hon ”diskutera de konstnärliga dilemman som uppstår i anslutning till hantverk i konsten”. Elin Alvemark är utbildad på HDK-Valand och verksam i Göteborg.
ENGLISH VERSION
Elin Alvemark (b. 1980)
One Female Artist Self-portrait (Tracks of the Beauty and Shame), 2021
Printed fabric and brass
Acquired for Ystad Art Museum’s collection in 2021
Selfies, screenshots from Tinder, movie stills from the Swedish movie Ronia, the Robber’s Daughter and an excerpt from an essay by Gertrude Stein fill several pages in Elin Alvemark’s wide-ranging work One Female Artist Self-portrait (Tracks of the Beauty and Shame). Alvemark says that in this piece she wanted to examine “society, men (plural), institutions, gods, hells, the arts, politics.” The point of departure for the work are the limitations that women artists have historically faced in making self-portraits, where virtuousness has been prized above all else. Here instead she explores risk-taking, creative impulses and pleasure in relation to contemporary phenomena. Photographs and screenshots are printed on fabric with loose threads and bound with metal clamps.
For several years now, Alvemark has been working with vessels as the basis for her art in a series of works, some of which are pictured in One Female Artist Self-portrait (Tracks of the Beauty and Shame). She wants to use the form of the vessel to “discuss the artistic dilemma that arises in conjunction with craft in art.” Elin Alvemark was educated at HDK-Valand and now works in Gothenburg.
Text: Julia Björnberg