9. Synergi

ARTIST: Eva Marklund (2008)
TECHNIQUE: Xxx

Synergy is akin to a creature, since there is a bit of mystery to it. The work might tickle the viewer´s imagination into seeing different things from different angles. Test yourself: what do you see at a distance? What do you see as you approach? The face hidden in the work can only be perceived at a distance, complete with shadows and everything else that makes it come alive.

When we meet a person the face is what we see first. Faces are alive. The eyes are the mirror of the soul, we say. In the case of Synergy the gaze is turned down which makes the work even more exciting. Why can’t we meet the eye of the art work? Is the person depicted ashamed? And if so, why? Perhaps it is the onlooker’s steady gaze that makes it shyly turn its gaze down.

The artist of the work is named Eva Marklund, born in 1971 in Söderhamn. She is a Swedish sculptor as well as installation and video artist. Marklund was trained at the College of Arts, Craft and Design in Stockholm as well as the Royal College of Fine Arts. In 1988 she was awarded Maria Bonnier Dahlin´s scholarship.

She works as an artist in Stockholm but has done several public works in other places in Sweden. Two of these are: Boat in Söderhamn, och Dead Angles at the Wanås sculpture park. She is also represented at the Museum of Modern Art in Stockholm, the Eskilstuna Art Museum, and the Gothenburg County Museum.

As an artist Marklund works with great commissions of public adornment. She also does many exhibits of photography, mobile works and installations.

Marklund works with several different techniques and forms of expression. Her art focuses on raising the level of awareness and also the viewer´s ability to imagine pictures. In a way, art is all about visualizing inner pictures. Lines or pierced holes in sheet iron, steel wires that at first look like random lines or holes are all insignificant details until they suddenly assume the shape of a hand, a kiss or a face. In this way it is the experience itself, the perception, that becomes a part of the work of art with focus on seeing.

In the end Marklund makes us think of how we look at other people. Absolutely like a face at a distance. But what happens if we move a bit closer?