10. Tetris

ARTIST: Jacob Dahlgren (2017)
TECHNIQUE: Painted steel

As you can see Tetris is a colourful creation that sticks out among the art on the mount. It is a landmark of color and form. Tetris reminds us of an early computer and TV game from the 80s. The aim of the game was to pile up different colourful figures on top of each other.

Jacob Dahlgren was born in Stockholm in 1970 and is one his generation’s foremost artists. He was trained at the Royal College of Fine Arts and at the School of Graphic Design in Stockholm. His artistry is colourful and powerful – something that we can clearly see here on the mount. Often his work is a combination of stripes, squares and graphic patterns. He is even called “The striped artist”, since a great part of his art aims at finding and creating stripes. He even looks upon himself as a living exhibit, as his most comprehensive work of art is his ongoing project of wearing a striped t-shirt every day for the rest of his life.

Dahlgren works with many different materials. Often he uses mass-produced objects such as yoghurt cartons, coffee mugs of plastic, dart boards etc. Dahlgren is internationally known since he has had exhibits in England, the US and Canada. In 2007 he represented Sweden at the Nordic pavilion of the Venice biennial. Nowadays he is, for instance, represented at the Gothenburg Art Museum.

Dahlgren has also created another Tetris art work placed at the court house in Jönköping.

Tetris is constructed of steel which has then been painted. Now that you have seen Tetris it will be next to impossible not to see traces of it in everyday life. Since he does not draw a clear line between everyday objects and art material he succeeds in finding patterns around him. He removes objects from their context using them to create abstract works. We can find patterns and constructions everywhere around us, for example in architecture and the public space surrounding us. Often these are related to modernistic plans for the future with democracy and equality as their highest goal.

In his installations Dahlgren removes the function from everyday objects and rather emphasizes aesthetic aspects. Or, in other words: he changes them into art. He reshapes already existing ideas and concepts into something entirely new for our time. Dahlgren´s gaze at contemporary society turns his art into something really indispensable.