Eva Larsson

20.02.2004 - 27.03.2004
Eva Larsson (b. 1953) gathers her works under the exhibition title Wallflowers, the English expression for the Swedish equivalent ”panelhönor” (“panel hens”). Larsson works with motifs and materials that are inspired by design and decoration, for example patterns borrowed from wallpaper and furniture that were typical during her childhood. She transfers the “wall flowers” of this period onto boxes and metal sheets that hang on the wall and yet reach out into the room. These works are at a crossroads between graphic print and sculpture, between art object and design product. Her works stay close to the wall panels, but strive to remove themselves from them; they are sensitive in their choice of motifs but tough in their materiality.

Larsson plays with this opposition between depth and surface, between shape and facade. She is interested in the sculptural aspect of the box’s square shape, but she is just as interested in its surface, which she covers or changes with a two-dimensional pattern.

She uses the visual strength in the repetition of the pattern and rhythm. The patterns may seem old-fashioned and banal, but they are far from randomly chosen. Patterns are often connected with the feminine, be they floral wallpaper or cloth. Larsson’s use of pattern is a reflection over the personal and feminine, but at the same time her work with shape and surface is a formalist game of dimensions.


Return to list